C1 Hard Top Restoration Advice

[Mark P.]

Has anybody restored their top and wish they would have outsourced this job ?

Trying to decide if this is a job I want to do. I have lots of other things to work on but need some help deciding if I should farm this one out.

[Joe M.]

Re: C1 Hard Top Restoration Advice

I restored the hard top on my 1960 and would never do it again. If you have the money, farm it out and work on something or somethings else.

[Frank D.]

Re: C1 Hard Top Restoration Advice

A member on the Corvette forum said the same thing...
Glassworks or Auto Entec will do it. Not cheap and a long turn around time though...

Glassworks has several videos on the process:

[Richard D.]

Re: C1 Hard Top Restoration Advice

I used Ron Lefler, he is in Calif., NCRS member.

[Jim D.]

Re: C1 Hard Top Restoration Advice

I restored the hardtop for my 1960 many years ago. Today, I just finished restoring the hardtop for my 65. Neither one was too difficult, just time consuming. I certainly wouldn't consider paying someone else to do something I can do myself.

[Rick G.]

Re: C1 Hard Top Restoration Advice

Mark,

Talk to Don in Livermore. He did the restoration on both hardtops for his 59 & 65.

Rick

[Keith R.]

Re: C1 Hard Top Restoration Advice

A local member of our Chapter who is in the Corvette restoration business with 30+ years of experience restored one for another Chapter member and he said that he would never do it again. I had mine done by Glassworks and they did a beautiful job. Send it off now as it is a two year project for them.

[Mike M.]

Re: C1 Hard Top Restoration Advice

i've restored a 61 hardtop, tore it completely apart, got needed parts from glassworks, and put it all back together. no problems. took a weekend from start to finish. mike

[Ed H.]

Re: C1 Hard Top Restoration Advice

Mark, depending where you have your car, on the west coast I had Jeff Reade, American Motoring Memories Culver City Ca., rebuild my 57 top with Glassworks date coded side and rear Plexiglas windows. It took about two months, great job.

[Mark P.]

Re: C1 Hard Top Restoration Advice

Thanks Mike. This is encouraging.

[Jim D.]

Re: C1 Hard Top Restoration Advice

Thanks Mike. This is encouraging.

Mark, disregard the posts by those that have never done one and go with us that have. It's no big deal to do it yourself.

[Mark P.]

Re: C1 Hard Top Restoration Advice

I disassembled the top this weekend and now have the fiberglass skin I can drop off at my painters so he can paint it when he paints the car.

It was more straightforward than I thought. It took 2 hours and everything came off OK. Will probably send the stainless out to be restored since I don't have a lot of time these days. An article on Corvette Forum helped a lot. Just Google "Brain Dump on restoring my 1958 hardtop" if interested. I used a flat chisel to pop off the 2 rivets on each side on the vertical supports and drilled out the rivets along the rear top section with a 1/4" drill. All other fasteners were slot or phillips screws. My top had been "restored" before so I had lots of silicone and adhesive holding parts. together which was a pain at times. A Hyde 5 in 1 painters tool with a stiff putty knife worked well to remove the trim, especially the 2 pieces that cover the top cross bow.