S&S top material & rust

For those of you who have dealt with this before, what kind damage have you found after removing a vinyl top or an S&S cobra top? This '70 is showing signs of rust at the bottom edges, but I'm trying to gauge what to expect above, below, and behind it. This is the worst of an otherwise solid coach, but I think at least it will need minor rust/body repair and a re-spray of these sections. There also appears to be a minor leak above the windshield in the center, as can be seen from the dried drip marks on the inside of the glass.

Also, can the S&S top material ever be re-stretched and glued back down after repairs are made? If not, and the entire top had to be replaced, can it still be found, or a very close substitute?
 

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The rust can be very tricky if you are trying to judge by a picture. S&S tops.are so paced it ls hard to tell with out putting you hands on it to feel. I have seen these tops stretched and re glued on newer ones but these older ones tend to pull apart especially if it has not been taken care of. I know this doesn't help much but I have dealt with several S&S coaches that have a the rust issue under the top.
 
lets just say I bought one that looked like this in the pictures. it looked like this when I I got it after the top blew off in transport. the S&S has a bad seam right were your looking at the rust. the top and lower body were fit together in a way that trapped the inside panel condensation agents the outer skin. causing them to go threw at that location. how long you wait will depend on pin holes or gone. same with the spot over the windshield. the top material is still available. do it sooner rather then latter. you will not know what you will find until you get it exposed and if your going to do the repair pull the panels off on the inside and fix it from the inside out. you don't it will come back and get you. the worse part of this job was redoing the damaged left over from the first mans repair. they had pealed up the top put in some filer and pulled the top back down. this had let the pin holes leak between the fill and the body and remover all the steel from the top, as seen in the last picture.
 

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Where you see bubbling under the top material, it means that the steel is disintegrating underneath. If it isn't too bad, it might be able to be cleaned, and coated with a filler, and filed smooth. The problem is that many times, the rust has already created pin holes in the metal, and it is also flaking apart on the reverse side. If this is the case, then the only solution is to cut out the damaged sections, and weld in new metal, and treat both side of the new metal, so it doesn't rust again in the future. A quick fix would be to fill the damaged sections, and put a new top on, however, this isn't a lasting resolution to the rust problems. If you lived in Arizona, you might get away with this, but in most parts of the country, the repair will fail in a few years. If rust repair was easy, it wouldn't be so expensive.
The top material is still available, and you can use the original top as a pattern for making a replacement. My guesstimate for a replacement top would be around $2000 for material and labor, depending on where you live, and who you can get to do the work.
 
Push - and push hard - over every inch where top meets windshield molding. Gauge give, consistency, and crunchiness. Header is easiest place to tell under top how bad metal will be.
 
Memories....November 1987 :D

2r6nww5.jpg
 
While the "crunch factor" on the car you pictured is certainly a factor if it is the car I think it is the exposure to the elements hasnt been that long.
 
your going to find that rust on the left rear pictures is threw. bubbles that big are threw. you hit that with the disk and all you got is pin holes. it's a easy fix now. to do it right you need to take off the panels in side and get the rust stopped on the side it's coming thew at. I would not count on salvaging the top but it worth a try. that's a heavy material. I have see them come right off and seen them come off in chunks. just one of those try it but expect to loose it kind of things. you might get by with pealing it up for the quarter repair and back for the over the glass. but my experience is once it starts you need to redo the top as it just a short time before it bubbles some other place. i keep looking at the 72 and seeing the same over the windshield. but the top is so nice I'm reluctant to destroy it.
 
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