69 Chevelle vinyl top material

[Keith Tedford]

How did they keep the vinyl down? They didn't. Vinyl tops out in the sun all the time soon shrunk and pulled up in the channels as well as on the bottom rear corners. There wasn't a whole lot for paint underneath either. We went to Florida in '68 and it seemed like every second vinyl top car had a big air pocket in the middle bulging the top up as they drove down the highway. In Oshawa it took 4 guys about one minute to install a top as the car went by on the drag chain. I'm amazed that the tops turned out as well as they did considering the time allowed. The guys were artists with scissors. There was one tool maker who kept their scissors razor sharp and it was a fairly steady job. We bought the vinyl top for our '72 Lemans Sport a few years ago and it was cloth backed rather than the fuzzy padding. Even though the vinyl was heavy, Doug got it on as tight as a glove. Sorry, I don't recall the manufacturer.