I just bought a 69 SS Camaro and according to the trim tag it is supposed to have a vinyl top. Well, there is not vinyl top on my car. What should I look for if one was ever there? I am assuming the orginal one was removed and everything sanded smooth. Just how hard is it to install one of these tops from scratch? What all is involved in this installation? Are there any special tool I will need. How do you get the trim around the vinyl to stay down? Any help would be apprechated. Thank's

The top was originally glued on with the molding being attached via weld pins on the body. Clips were fitted over these pins and the molding fastened onto these clips.

A popular modification is to remove a top and cut off the weld pins. The area is smoothed out and painted over.

To put a top back on, you can either buy a special tool to weld new pins on...or you can go the replacement pin screw way.

Here is a pic of the top molding pins...its a little hard to see the pins.... http://www.mindspring.com/~mccorry/07_07.jpg

Here is a better picture to show what a pin looks like (these are in the rear window channel...but are the same dimensions)... http://www.mindspring.com/~mccorry/06_06.jpg

[This message has been edited by mccorry (edited 07-17-2000).]

if this is the first time for you to put on a vinyl top it's a lot of hard work! put one on my 67, my first one took me almost all day. called a guy who installs tops for a living and quoted me a price of $500 just to install it. i had the top, and the $ didn't include putting all the trim and molding on, so i said i'll put it on my self, the top and etc. if i had to do it for someone i wouldn't do it for less than $300 if they helped, and bought all the parts. but it was good practice. the glue is about $30+- a quart.

Well it sounds like putting a top on is a real bitch. I had a feeling it was going to be difficult. Thanks for the input.