I had GREAT difficulty finding a reputable maker of convertible
tops who said they could provide the correct material (inside and
out) and had a good pattern for my 1957 300C convertible. When I
finally found a place that said they could make me one that would
fit, I gave them the go-ahead and sent money up front. It took
them 6 weeks to finally send the top, which I then took to the
highly reputed shop where I had previously had them rebuild
springs and fresh padding under the Goers leather, which they
cleaned and delivered in beautiful shape. At that time, I knew
the top replacement was on the horizon, so I asked them in detail
about installing a premade top, and they also showed me in person
some work on recent high-end BMWs, Audis and Mercedes. I was
impressed with their workmanship and attitude. They took barely
two weeks to call and tell me the car was ready for delivery.
When I got there, the top looked excellent, but the meticulous
installer and manager showed me in detail how the top was
unavoidably quite tight in a couple areas, and had also been loose
in other places, which they were able to mitigate, but not
entirely remediate. They demonstrated up/down operation and I had
the car towed back to the restoration shop for further work.
About a week after delivering the car back to the main shop, he
needed to retract the top for some reason; when he got the top
about 3/4 retracted, he heard a very loud "SNAP" - the top had
overstretched in one place and had instantly ripped an 18" tear in
the aft quarter of the top! We towed the car back to the
upholstery shop (50 miles each way), where they examined it
carefully and said the top was not only too tight, but that the
pinpoint vinyl material in that segment had apparently been
installed incorrectly - they said the material is manufactured
such that it is able to stretch in one direction but not the
other, and the material had been installed crosswise, so it
couldn't stretch. With the top material now torn, the inner and
outer materials could be carefully examined, showing lines on the
backside of the outer material to indicate the direction of
stretch. I contacted the manufacturer of the top, and they
pointed fingers at the the installer instead, so they were
unwilling to offer a refund, but would give me a discount on a
replacement of the $500 top material. I didn't trust them now and
declined.
I talked with the upholstery shop and they offered to make a new
top from scratch if we could find the correct material for inside
and outside. It turns out that the maker of the top material only
offered it in white outside with black inside, whereas the
original top was supposed to have a tan interior - probably to
match the universal tan of the leather seat upholstery. That
supplier said they could provide the correct white/tan material,
but only in a 100-yard quantity - and the material was already
hideously expensive at $350/running yard (plus shipping from
Germany). That was obviously out of the question, so we went with
the black interior material, which was immediately available at a
reasonable price.
We towed the car back to the upholstery shop and two weeks after
the material was delivered, they called and said it was ready.
This time the installer had used the old torn top as an initial
guide, but custom-fit the new material a little longer here and a
little shorter there, etc., yielding a perfectly fitted, tight,
wrinkle-free new top. The said they had actuated the top several
cycles, and confidently demonstrated that before I accepted the
job and towed the car back to the restoration shop again. Three
months of great stress, six tow-truck bills, finger-pointing and
education the hard way was finally over!
Final note to a semi-happy ending: My insurance with JC Taylor
covered the complete cost of the new material and installation,
with a no-quibble check for $2300 after I sent them a couple
photos and description of the calamity!
Based on my horror story, I would strongly suggest that you
contact the best upholstery shop you can find that perhaps
specializes in convertible tops, work with them to get the correct
raw material, have them purchase that material and custom-make a
new top for you. Now you have a single point who can make
on-the-spot modifications and adjustments and will then stand
behind their work.
Ray Melton 1957 300C cvt in Las Cruces, NM
*********************************************
On 5/20/2022 8:56 AM, Dan Plotkin
wrote:
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