Has anyone removed the fake convertible top from their STS?

[Murphyg]

Sounds like a can of worms to me too.
But if by chance it was quite easy to remove......Can bet that the paint wont match. Whats under there would be brand new.
Sure the rest of the paint looks good. But it has been weathered for 14 years. Even though it may not look like it, there will be a considerable difference.

[matmoeb]

I dont understand why you would want to remove a "in good shape" top. But whatever floats...
I get a lot of compliments on mine.
1900 huh?
I would be seriously watching how much oil you burn but I guess '92 is b4 the northstar.
Nice catch.

[gistecknician]

I just removed the carrige top from my 1992 Eldorado. The screws that you see in the chrome trim pieces are real screws going into the sheetmetal. There should be a chrome strip on the trunk which is screwed into the trunk lid, and a chrome strip on the rear sides of the car which are also screwed into the body. The top is actually a fiberglass shell covered by canvas. Another thing that I found was that there are 6 - 8 screws in the front of the carriage roof as well, but they are covered by the material and you will not see them until you begin the process of removing the carriage roof.

Talk of there being "goop" holding the fiberglass shell to the roof is correct, but you will not be able to simply remove it. I had to 1st cut the majority of the tar like material off as close to the paint as possible, then I had to use rubbing compound and lots of muscle to get the rest of the material off. I am prepping my Eldorado for paint so I am not really worried about scratching/dulling the paint (which will happen if you try to remove the carriage roof).

I know that I have been quite long-winded here...but I wanted to be as detailed as possible so that you understand what you are getting yourself into if you decide to remove the carriage roof. Be prepared to get the holes filled (welded not bondo'd) and a new paint job if you decide to remove the carriage roof.

Good Luck, hope that I have helped at least one person in some way.

[turnerbend]

The carriage roof on the eldorado is factory installed and the So called fake convertible top is after market installed. The convertible top is mostly glued on. I've got both.

[MN-STS-LOVER]

I'm not a big fan of those tops but the color match helps alot! How many miles? it looks great! good catch!

[chubbyranger]

Even if you can get the top off without damaging the paint underneath the other consideration is that the paint underneath the top will not have 15 years of fade, like the rest of the body will. So it will look like some kind of zebra two tone Mod Squad Starsky and Hutch cruiser. Save the aggravation factor for other projects.

[Pete Benson]

It's worth whatever you have to do to get the damned thing off, no matter what kind of shape it's in - these monstrosities are grotesque beyond belief on any car, much less an STS.

[kdcing]

I've attached some pictures of the roof of my '93 Eldorado on which I removed the carriage top. The vinyl on my carriage top was all ripped up due to age, so I had nothing to lose by removing it.

You should be able to see that the paint on the roof - that had been under the fake top for 13 years - was in very good shape and matches the paint on the rest of the car. All paint is original. Some things to watch out for:

1. The roof is held on by silcone rubber. The silcone is applied in circles that are approximately 6" in diameter. On my car, the silcone circles were positioned in a 3x3 grid in the area of the roof behind the sunroof, but in front of the back window The silcone rubber is very similar in texture to the silcone rubber caulk used on bathtubs/showers. The blobs of silcone rubber were probably about a 1/2" to 3/4" thick. I used a razor blade to cut the silcone rubber as closely to the roofline as possible, then left the car in the sun to let the sun's UV ray degrade the silcone rubber away. If I were to do it again, I would try using carburator cleaner on the silcone rubber as I've found the carb cleaner to do an excellent job of removing tar and rubber from other areas on the car's body....surprisingly, the carb cleaner did not damage the paint.
   
2. The roof is also held on by screws around the carriage top's perimeter behind the side windows and also on the trunk lid. The screws do go thru the metal and after 13 years, Mother Nature did start the corroding/rusting process around the screw holes. Plan on filling, sanding and repainting the screw holes unless you can live with the quarter-sized imperfections. I've circled some of the screw hole damaged areas in red in the attached pictures.
   
3. There also are about 5 or 6 screws hidden under the vinyl just above the front windshield, but in front of the sunroof. The screws go thru the carriage top's fiberglass and hold the carriage roof to the car. If you run your finger across the vinyl, you many be able to feel screwhead indentions thru the vinyl. I did this and simply forced a philips screwdriver thru the vinyl and removed the screws. The screw holes left in the sheet metal will need to be cleaned-up similar the the screw holes left in the trunk lid and underneath the side/rear windows.
   
4. Because the carriage top is approximately 3/8" thick, I found that the trim ring around the sunroof need to be repositioned to sit "lower".....i.e. so that it sits flush on top of the sheet metal roof. There are rivets that hold the trim ring to the sunroof enclosure (...slide the sunroof all the way open and you'll see the rivets in the sunroof opening....they are located around the front of the opening and along the 2 sides of the opening.....the trim ring is held on the back side of the opening by glue/caulk, sealant).
   
5. Here's 1 that you may not think of......the carriage top is sized to fit over the perimeter of the rear window. When the carriage top is removed, the perimeter of the rear window will become exposed. Because the carriage top is originally fitted over the rear window's perimeter, the factory did not install a fashion trim ring...thus the rear window will need to have a trim ring installed (i.e. from a salvage yard) to look finished.
   
6. Learn from my experience......do not use any tools when removing the carriage top. I used a pry bar to pry the carriage top up from the car. If I were to do this again, I would use only my hands to pull the carriage top up (...obviously after removing the screws from above the windshield and from beneath the rear/side windows). I've circled some of the dents/dings/scratches in the pictures that were caused by the pry bar. I do believe that the sheetmetal roof would have looked perfect (except for the screw hole damage) had I left the pry bar in the toolbox and simply used just my hands.

[big420atx]

looks good....but that car got some serious hail damage...was that before or after u popped the roof off.

[jchughes101]

I think that is pry bar damage...

[mike.nite]

Is this also as easy by older models?

[tibi500cid]

Originally Posted by kdcing

I've circled some of the dents/dings/scratches in the pictures that were caused by the pry bar.

Hi I know that some time has past since you wrote this post, but I would like to see the pictures, and don't see any. Was it removed, or do I do something wrong? How can I see them?

Thanks.

[submariner409]

tibi.....Quite a few members purge their picture lists every 6 months or so in order to drop their total saved memory on the server. Wait a day or so and see if someone comes back, if not, then post another thread down in Technical, Appearance......

[kdcing]

Originally Posted by tibi500cid

Hi I know that some time has past since you wrote this post, but I would like to see the pictures

Pics attached.

[tibi500cid]

Thanks for the pictures!