JAKE

Sure, it can be brought back to look like new. Mine felt like 00 sandpaper - much worse than yours - and it sanded down to be smooth as silk.

After the sanding, I shot a few coats of clear on the top, then color-sanded (wet sanded) and buffed it out. I used a foam pad and some Plastic-X very fine compound.

Jake

JAKE

By the way, it's an afternoon job; no need to wait until Winter.

Jake

510picker

I have no experience doing anything like this, so I'm a little nervous about attempting this. I might check with a couple body shops and see what they can do.

510picker

Thought I would post a follow-up to my threads above. I finally decided I might as well try to refinish the top myself. I recently purchased a Flex buffer with the ceramic show car kit and thought refinishing the top would be good practice with the buffer before I attempt to use it on the corvette paint.

I first wetsanded the top, starting with 1000 grit, then 1500, ending with 2000. Next I broke out the Flex with an orange pad and started with Menzerna SIP. Then I moved to a white pad with Menzerna Nano. Finally I topped it off with a coats of Zaino Z5 and Zaino Z2 applied by hand.

I decided against adding a new coat of clear at this time based on the results others achieved earlier in this post. My top is not perfect, you can see a couple small cracks in the photos, but it is now looks much nicer than it did before. Maybe this summer I'll attempt to fill the small cracks and add a new coat of clear. We'll see how ambitious I feel. Right now I'm very pleased with the end results. Thanks to all in this thread who took the time to share how to tackle this.

The first before photo can be seen at the top of this page. No need to post it again.

Before


After


After


After

510picker

Surely someone else out there needs a winter project to work on. The best part of this was having a nice day (compared to what we've been having) when I finished the project and got to take it for a drive. It felt good driving it and sure made me wish for spring!

red88L98convert

Nice work 510 and EXCELLENT write up Itallian33....great work.

My first attempt to 'fix' the top issue worked out perfectly though. I have a $0 comp deductable and turned in a claim for rock damage on the windshield and top. Presto....new top!!

I am going to do the repair on my original top. The top that came with the car was really bad and the previous owner rattle canned the top Silver to match the car. It didn't look as as it sounds at first. But the paint wasn't cleared and started to fade and peel. So now it looks as as it sounds. I was going to sand it down and paint it to match the car, but now I think I will try to bring the top back to life.

ColeTrain'sC5

i will be doing this to mine this spring. my top appears to be peeling the clear on the passengers side as well. I will likely clear mine for some added protection but we'll see

Itallian33

Looks great 510,
Is your buffer a Random Orbital or a just a normal high speed?

XtremeVette

510Picker, you replied to one of my earlier posts about this. Great job on the top! Any chance you get get a few good close up shots of the top and the cracks you're referring to?

Also, when you sanded did you run into any issues of a "top layer" protection film or layer? From the threads I have read, some folks said they literally ruined the top by trying to sand it down. Something about the top layer not wanting to come off or come off informally. In addition some people say once you remove the top layer, it won't be long before the top becomes brittle and cracks? I dunno how much truth there is to any of it. I really would like to do mine as I have one 6"x8" spot on the driver's side that has lots of hairline scratches in it. It's nothing that you can feel with your fingernail just you can see them. I tried wet sanding a little with 1000grit and then buffing with my orange pad and my rotary set really low. It looked really hazey when I got done. I was able to bring it back to be shiny but the spot sorta looks blurred or hazy. I stopped after that and went inside. I read a bunch of posts saying not to buff, sand, or try to remove scratches. etc etc. This is where I am at now. I am very curious on your side of the this. I am sorta stuck in the middle. My top is on a scale of 1-10 probably a 7 or 8. Unless you're really close and looking at the top you probably wouldn't notice the scratches. They are more annoying cause I know they are there and that I added to them with the 1000grit paper.

Thanks
Jeff

Oh when you guys are referring to "clear coating" are you using professional clear coat or can you use stuff from like autozone in a spraycan?

510picker

I used the Flex 3401 buffer I bought from Autogeek.net.

510picker

It doesn't sound to me like your top is in as bad of shape as mine was. I was at the point where I didn't have much to lose. I'm not sure if this fix will work well if all you want to correct is part of the top. I'm not saying it can't be done, only that if I remember correctly the people who have had success in this thread did their entire top.

I did not run into issue with the "top layer". If there was a top layer, I may have sanded it all off......I honestly don't know. I carefully wetsanded with 1000 grit until I couldn't see the majority of the defect in my top anymore. I then stepped up to 1500 and 2000 doing the entire top carefully making sure I cleaned up the entire top. When I was finished with this the enitre top was hazy and chalky looking like the photos from the original poster. My wife came out and looked at it and asked, "are you sure that's going to shine up?" I laughed and said it worked for others, so yes!

Below is a close up of my top that shows the largest crack on the front drivers side before the refinish. If you look at the after photos I posted above you will see the same crack. The link below will take you to more photos as well. Hope this helps.

http://www.pbase.com/510picker/corvette

XtremeVette

Yeh, its a tough call. Thanks for the pictures and the link. I agree mine is not that bad. I will have to take some pictures of mine and put it up here tonight when I get home. For me whats odd is that I used 1000 on it and then rotary buffed it for a bit. Had no issues with anything peeling or crazing yet. I just added more scratches is all. I guess its almost like...I can try to fix my issues and if it doesn't work and the top clear layer peels or something I will then just have to continue and do the whole thing and then re-clear it. I just don't know if the store bought clear in a can will work ok. Especially when it comes to buffing to bring back shine. I have never really had much luck in the past when it comes to clear coating and then getting it to shine like brand new.

510picker

Others said the cleared with a spray can and it looked good. I didn't clear mine and you see how it shined. You say you already wetsanded the area with 1000 grit, now step up to 1500 then 2000 and then buff it out.

JasonC

I think I've read most of the top re-finish threads, and I started mine last night. I've gotten through the coating on about 1/2 the surface. Unfortunately the micro cracks are still there. I was hoping they were only in the coating, but now it appears they are definitely deep into the plastic.

I suppose the project is still worth doing, as it will look much better from the outside, but will still have that "glitter" look when it's in the sun. My question is, has anyone that's refinished their top had the micro cracks, and did it help any?

rkort

My question is how long do you think it will last, since you did not use the clear.

ColeTrain'sC5

You may need to sand ALL the coating off to get the microcracks out. By doing that it will expose the cracks and when you clear it may fill them in and make them go away. I'm doing this to mine not because i want to get rid of the glitter look inside but because the top coat is coming off it hurts me to look at it

XtremeVette

Be sure to post once you get this done....

JasonC

My top coat was mostly gone too, I was thinking when I started that's where the glitter was coming from. Hopefully I'll finish removing the top coat tonight, and possibly apply the first coat of paint. I'm not very hopeful that it will fill in the cracks, unfortunately.

ColeTrain'sC5

Will do. I plan on getting the wetsand paper soon here and getting that going. Then it's off to get cleared from my dad's body shop. I will then buff accordingly

JasonC

I spent some time with the top last night, but unfortunately in the poor lighting I moved on to lighter grit paper before the heavier sanding marks were erased. So now I'm starting over with 220. Definitely need to keep plenty of sand paper on hand because it dulls quickly.

The good news is the "glitter" is much less noticeable than it was before. Possibly the micro cracks are very shallow into the material and I'm actually sanding into them. Still much work to do, but at least it's encouraging.