T-Bird Car Restoration Project Part 6

T-Bird Car Restoration Project Part 6 - Two in One!

You are no doubt going to ask why, in the depths of disassembly, did we decide to restore the hard top on our '55 T-Bird car restoration project? There are two answers to this question: first, the top was in the way and we thought that a brief turn of our attention to restoring it would allow us to move it inside the house. Second, it is in the depths of disassembly (that time when it appears nothing will ever be finished) that a psychological uplift is needed. What better uplift than a finished, painted, trimmed hard top to look at?

Where we started...the inserts show some of the sordid details.

That was our thinking and - in spite of the nearly 60 hours of work it took - we're glad we tackled the hard top. It looks beautiful now, a far cry from what we started with. The fiberglass top had seen hard times during the past 49 years and someone had attempted repairs in an amateurish way. Internal parts were improperly attached and the top surface was coated with a poured-on, 1/4-inch layer of semi-cured resin in a botched effort at re-glazing.

The first step in the restoration was to pry loose the front edge of the top and re-weld it with new resin. We took lots of measurements and test-fitted the front trim several times to assure correct placement, then mixed resin and set the piece in place. Once cured, we touched up the corners with filler and re-glued the side pieces and porthole openings with fresh resin. We test-fitted the rear window at this point to make sure all the dimensions were correct.

The front edge was set in place with judicious use of clamps and wood blocks.

Reinforcing the corners.

We test-fitted the rear window to check out the dimensions.

That led us to the top surface. There was no choice but to remove the gooey, uncured resin. We contemplated using chemical stripper (too many applications would be necessary) and several mechanical means, but after some testing we found the most efficient method was a belt sander with 36-grit belts. It took a couple hours and nine (9!) sanding belts to get the mess off the original top surface.

Notice how loaded the used-up belts are with melted resin.

From that point we sanded the top surface as smoothly as possible. Hundreds of "desert-like cracks" were revealed in the original gel coat so we spread a layer of body filler (mixed with a little liquid resin to make it flow into cracks better) over everything to act as a new coating layer. Once that layer was cured we sanded the top smooth, first with 80-grit and then with 150 grit paper.

Even the raw layer of filler looks better than the old resin layer did!

It's beginning to look like a car again...

At this point we took the top to the garage and prepared it for a coat of filler-primer. Wipe-down's with mineral spirits and enamel reducer were followed by drying and a final wipe with a tack rag before spraying the filler-primer. We then sanded the surface with 220-grit paper and touched up any imperfections with glazing putty and then sanded again with 400 grit paper. We then repeated the cleaning processes and shot four coats of the final white color and allowed it to cure for several days. By the way, we didn't show the actual painting process. That will come later when we paint the car itself.

It's got a generous coat of filler-primer and is ready for sanding.

Now we're starting to feel that psychological boost we were looking for.