im about to get my 1969 19' painted.anyone know what kinda paint they used on the hard top that is so thick.it looks like a vinyl top.can you still get that or what do you do to keep it original?
i'm not convinced the top is gel coated. i'll have to go look at my ht, but i'm pretty sure i got places on it that look like paint wearing thin.
as for how to gel coat. i've never done it. never seen it done. but i've read about it some over on the restorations forum. if i'm not mistaken. gel coat don't dry in air. ya have to cover it to it to dry proper. kinda hard to do i would think.
i use 303 instead of armor all to keep mine looking good. 303 is similar to armor all. the worst thing that happens is it rains on it and washes all my 303 away and i have to start over..
Where do you get 303 At Ziggy?Armor all doesn't stay on long at all either.Looks great for about a week unless It rains or it is kept out in the sun,which ain't often...
I also use it on my vinyl, which is what i got it for. I just accidently tried it on my ht. wax on the ht was bummin me out for getting down in the texture of the top. So one day I was doing the vinyl and tried it on ht. It seemed to help. So I did the whole top. While probably not like new looking. It looked better. So that's what I do. Unfortunately, it does wash off fairly fast. Especially if it's been raining a lot. Like it has around here..
Bill at Aristocraft said that the hardtops were fiberglass, just made to look like Vinyl. I've done everything I can to "bring up" the color on our recently purchased 72 nineteen with no success. So... I've ordered some Veribond paint from Parasol to redo the top, and Vericote to do the vinyl.
Cleaning - I use Purple Power from Autozone. It is a clener degreaser that is strong enough to do AC coils with. The stuff work great on the noskid and the vinyl or carpets. It just cleans the stew out of everything.
I repainted my top with many rattle cans of (?) Krylon plastic paint after much cleaning with a toothbrush toget into all the little cracks. Believe me, the purplish blue is hard to cover with a cream.
