landau top elimination

[The Don]

hey I was curious, I am picking up a limited regal. Its has an ugly landau top...I hate them! I never owned a car with a landau top before so I was curious if there is a way to eliminate it when I repaint the car?

 

[turbofish38]

Lots of work. First off the quarter windows are different so you need some from a slick top. The rubber molding is whats different. The back window is the fun part. There is a metal retainer riveted to the body that holds the vinyl tight around the glass. The glass will have to come out. The rivet holes will need to be filled and new rivets installed that hold the chrome reveal moldings onto the roof. And of course all of the other rivets will need to be ground down. And if the paint under the vinyl was bad than you can count on some rust repair there. The factory installed the vinyl over a fully painted roof and if there was the slightest scratch or anything that exposed the bare metal than you're going to see rust there. Lots of work but it can be done.

 

[The Don]

damn g-bodies sounds like too much damn work!

 

[Brer Rabbit]

I did that on my car.

Mine was an 86 limited. Its not a big deal for a body shop and the 1/4 windows need to come out anyway when its getting painted so just have the correct ones on hand for the re-install. The rear window trim I havent finished yet, but Im going to take it to a glass shop so they can remove do whats needed including laying in the correct trim clips for the molding around the rear window. I also had all the chrome taken off and those rivets mentioned ground down. Not a big deal but then again I got a smoking deal on all the work for my car. Think about painting the bumpers to match the color of the car. It looks great on my white car.