beav626

Blow Torch

I have to agree with SleeperC on this; I am the second owner of my car; I bought it a few years ago from a guy that kept it in a garage WITH a cover on it (Needless to say it was imaculate) Since then, mine has spent maybe 15 days/nights outside (while on vacations). The rest of the time it is garaged, and is simply driven on short trips to town on the weekends. I notice the top was suddenly "peeling" about two weeks ago. My wife's car, which is a daily driver, started peeling a couple months or so ago. My car is one year older.

Keep us posted on the micro mesh solution. It sounds like somthing worth trying if it works.

DeFormula

My '99 is peeling and it is a lower mileage, garage kept car. In my opinion though, if it can't take some time in the sun, it's a defect. Is it really resonable to design a car that must be kept in a garage with a cover on it to not have considerable finish problems? There are countless other types of cars that have spent years in blistering sun that do not have this type of problem. Some fading is understandable over time in the sun.

I have seen some painted tops that look good and seem to be holding up well. I have also seen one with a headliner added that looks great, like factory quality.

Dave

camaroz96

Take the top to a body shop and get it painted to match the car...it comes out good and looks much better.

Dave68

I wholeheartedly agree that the design is defective, although to be honest, I rarely see older red DDs that have pristine paint (no fading). Reds and blacks seem to degrade faster than whites and silvers. Tradition polycarbonate material does not do well when exposed to UV rays. There are some grades that have some built-in protection, but even then, they aren't nearly as UV-resistent as say, acrylic, which is typically used for non-glass windows in outdoor environments.

Another possible factor in this equation is hot/cold cycles that stress the material quite a bit. My top doesn't see nearly the temperature swings that other CF member's tops see.

The bottom line is that the tops should be able to take prolonged-exposure UV and wide temperature swings without peeling and cracking. If this was part of a Toyota or Lexus, the dealerships would be replacing them for free. It shouldn't happen, period!

beav626

Why cant we get GM to pony up and admit to their defective engineering?

SLPRC5

If you recall it's the same defective problem GM had with it's pickups having the paint to peel, starting on the hood. I think it was mostly white trucks. It's like someone dropped th ball in the preparation before painting or in our case applying the clear coat.
Sleeper

lordbones

No doubt! My polished rims were defective...peeling behind the spokes. It was determined at the dealership that it was defective & GM replaced them.
Looks like we should be able to petition this or something...Camp out in front of GM, whatever it takes...lol

skydive120

Turned out good, only did the 6 inch area that was peeling so far, planning on doing the entire top this winter.
I will recommend using a DA to do this though, hand sanding takes to long.
Take your time and do it right!
Started out by using 1500 grit (all wet) and progressively moving up to 3000 and then using a power buffer a few times.

How do I add attachments here?

Email me and Ill send pictures to you.

Chris

Skydive120@hotmail.com

Torqued84

I have the same problem. I thought about having it painted as the American Flag (sort of like the mini Coopers and the Union Jack). What do you all think. Maybe buy a new glass top and use the Flag one on 4th of July, Memorial Day, Etc. Again, is this Cheesy or a cool idea?:

BTW, My car is Dark Blue Metallic

stingraymyway

Spoke to someone this weekend that has a C6 with top trouble. They're top is not only peeling but also splitting apart. Might want to check with GM to see if there are any recalls on this problem.
Might also want to check out Hot Rod Harry's for a replacement. He's on the Web.

Torqued84

One of my buddies has a C6 and is flirting with a flying top issue. Evidentially the heat in TX messes up the fit.

skydive120

An american flag would be cool, on the fourth-- or flag day, other than that- a bit cheesy. Guess it all depends on how its done-- how about painting it black with the vette logo on it???
chris

stingraymyway

These folks I talked with are from TN. I think this might be more of a quality control problem. They only had their Vette 1 month when this started to happen. They took it back to the dealership and the top was replaced.

Choreo

My 2001 top recently got scratched up by a dump truck throwing gravel and I replaced it with a new GM top. Previous to the accident I drove it everyday for the past 7 years and it still looked like new (had not yet displayed the peeling so commonly reported).

I kept my damaged top and I will be trying to polish it out soon to keep it as a backup. I have never seen a "peeling" top in real life, but my guess is that the Lexan is still fine underneath? These tops have a thin tinted coating applied and I am wondering if "that" is what is failing? I started sanding a small 2" section on my old top with 3000-grit and this coating/tinting comes right off. It also changes the "look" of the top as where I sanded it is not as rich a black color as the surrounding coated material.

We will see.

I also tried applying 3M Clearmask to the new top as an additional protective measure, but it just did not look good so I removed it.

beav626

Ive spoke to the dealers about this too and they say that the C6 has a recall on their roof due to the glue on the painted roof not holding.

However on the C5 they are doing Nada about the peeling roof

stingraymyway

Think GM would do something for the C5's, that is if the car is low milage and garaged. In an area of the county where sand storms with high winds are common, I can see an understanding of wear. Should be dealt with on an individual basis.

vizette

I had mine painted black too (after sanding it). Turned out great and no issues thus far (couple years later).

I talked to them about just shooting it clear but they were worried about adhesion. The adhesion promoter they had was not clear but helped paint stick to plastic type surfaces so it wouldn't bubble or peel off the lexan (esp. in the summer heat).

There was a clear adhesion promoter but they had never attempted anything like this and couldn't make any guarantees, so instead of testing I just had them shoot it black.

Looks factory.

I think if I get another clear I'll call someplace like Melrose, but not Astro-tops. Heard too many people say they had cheap products.

-Rich

beav626

I have a body shop saying that they have never done that (Sand down and re clear) but they are going to try it

stingraymyway

Good luck and let us know how it turns out.