Vinyl top

Discuss anything after that final masking comes off.



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PostPosted: Tue Oct 20, 2020 10:12 pm
I have a 1987 Oldsmobile Delta 88 that has the original vinyl top. It's in good shape except it's dry as a bone. I've tried a lot of conditioners but it dries out by the time you get from one side of the roof to the other. Then someone recommended a product called Bumper Magic and it worked real good as long as you kept it dry. If you washed the car or it got rained on the Bumper Magic would end up all over the windows. Then I saw a video someone used Turtle Wax Trim Restorer so I got some and tried it. It works better but looks awful glossy plus it tends to accumulate dust very badly. Any ideas of what I can treat and preserve this vinyl top with?
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PostPosted: Wed Oct 21, 2020 8:51 am
Steve, so welcome to the forum. Okay, so vinyl is just PVC plastic. There is no "bone dry" attribute you can attach to it. It is a very simple plastic not unlike the modern vinyl wraps we see on cars now. Yours is now 33 years old which is about 28 year past it's original service life. There is nothing short of bedliner over top of it (don't laugh, I've seen it done rather effectively) that is going to "improve" or stabilize that surface. Every time a "dressing" is applied it wets out the surface for awhile until it evaporates returning that dry look. You just have to pick your favorite dressing and routinely apply it. We use 303 protectant on our hot tub covers. It is about the best of the lot....
https://www.amazon.com/303-Protectant-P ... 0048&psc=1
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PostPosted: Wed Oct 21, 2020 9:35 am
The bedliner sounds interesting. I would hate for the vinyl top to fail completely. It's something I wouldn't have the talent to replace the vinyl. Everytime I have someone do anything on the car I've very disappointed.

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PostPosted: Wed Oct 21, 2020 11:43 am
Okay, so I made some notes on the conversation I had with the guy that did that bedliner thing on his top. Let me get into some of my old computer files and get the highlights of how he did it. I'll get back on here later with that.....
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PostPosted: Wed Oct 21, 2020 12:27 pm
I've never used a bedliner product before. After your post I've been looking at it and think a non-textured clear would be the way to go. Now the issue will be to clean off every other product I've been putting on the top so the bedliner will adhere well.

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PostPosted: Wed Oct 21, 2020 3:55 pm
Okay, so what the guy had was a 1990 Caprice with a black top to start with..... He cleaned, degreased it with Prep Sol and also used a 50/50 mix of alcohol/water after that. It then dried out in the sun for a day or so. He did use a light mist of Bulldog adhesion promoter, let that flash for a half our or so and then got ready for his bedliner. Now what he did was something that Raptor says you can do which is use urethane reducer to thin their bedliner so it would shoot through a regular gun. He still ended up using a larger 1.8 tip so he could end up with a fine black texture.
I'm telling, it looked good and had been on the car for 2 years when I saw it. It was a nice "fresh" looking deep black with texture just slightly rougher than the OEM surface. If it was me I would not do this in a clear bedliner product..... Why?, because you need pigmentation for protection in these products. Raptor makes tintable bedliner so just experiment on getting close to your color.
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PostPosted: Wed Oct 21, 2020 4:20 pm
DarrelK wrote:Okay, so what the guy had was a 1990 Caprice with a black top to start with..... He cleaned, degreased it with Prep Sol and also used a 50/50 mix of alcohol/water after that. It then dried out in the sun for a day or so. He did use a light mist of Bulldog adhesion promoter, let that flash for a half our or so and then got ready for his bedliner. Now what he did was something that Raptor says you can do which is use urethane reducer to thin their bedliner so it would shoot through a regular gun. He still ended up using a larger 1.8 tip so he could end up with a fine black texture.
I'm telling, it looked good and had been on the car for 2 years when I saw it. It was a nice "fresh" looking deep black with texture just slightly rougher than the OEM surface. If it was me I would not do this in a clear bedliner product..... Why?, because you need pigmentation for protection in these products. Raptor makes tintable bedliner so just experiment on getting close to your color.
Thanks for the info. Would the jobber tint the bedliner or would I? I wouldn't know what pigment to use.

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PostPosted: Wed Oct 21, 2020 4:27 pm
Yeah, if you are getting stuff from a paint jobber this should be a no brainer for guys with tint banks.....
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PostPosted: Wed Oct 21, 2020 5:26 pm
DarrelK wrote:Yeah, if you are getting stuff from a paint jobber this should be a no brainer for guys with tint banks.....
Thanks for all your help. I may not get to this project real soon but I know what to do now. I could make up a paint sample in enamel for the jobber to match.

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PostPosted: Wed Oct 21, 2020 5:50 pm
I think you would be surprised how "fine" of a texture you can get with the Raptor. This pic. is my hard tonneau cover I built for my bed. This was done just using their included Shutz style gun which is more like a garden hose than a spray gun.....
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IMG_20200923_173655944_HDR.jpg
I was really pleased with this....it made my hard fiberglass surface look like textured vinyl.
IMG_20200918_185256315_HDR.jpg
This was 2 coats of black Raptor shot with their Shutz gun at 70 psi.
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