Okay, Concours Weenies, what is the correct finish for the Targa top? Mine has been resprayed poorly.
Did these tops have ANY paint or finish on them from factory, or were they a colored material from the mold?
What type of finish would best replicate original? I use Wurth satin black on lots of parts, and I am tempted to use it here. it looks really close.
?

They have a texture that is hard to reproduce exactly, once they have been messed with you can pretty much forget about it. I have seen a few different methods out there, but the only way to get 100% factory finish is to find a good used one.

Breaking news....

I just came across this 5 minutes ago.
I have been working on a OEM type Finnish for interior fiberglass parts for some time now. I was doing touch-up on a black gel coat dash and saw the targa top spatter pattern.

Polyester Gel coat cured in the mold will have a hard surface when pulled from the mold.
If I spray it on of a part it stays soft.
I have been using epoxy resin exclusively now for parts for quite a while. It just happened that I picked up some polyester resin this week. It has been so long since I have used polyester resin so I started asking some questions about the clear gel coats.
This is when I was told to spray PVA over the sprayed on gel coat to make it cure hard on top.

So on this touch up job I used a large tip on a top feed paint gun, little to no fan pattern. If I didn't spray too much for it to level out it had that spatter look.
I went ahead and sprayed more than I had planned just to test the texture look, topped it all with PVA.

I am thinking this could be perfected to be an exact match of the OEM top.
Still may have to thicken up the gel coat.

What I used is Professional Series rubberized fast dry paintable undercoating.
Goes on textured like, just practice on cardboard first then do top. I got it so I can not tell from the other top I have. Dry in 1/2 hour then paint with Wurth satin black. Cost about $9.00 at automotive paint supply store.

It's a Gel Coat likely sprayed after the tops were pulled from the molds.

I wonder how glossy the tops were back in the day?

I'm in the same boat and was thinking of SKS gravel gaurd (test pattern 1st)
then "scuff" it down as close as possible then spray it ?!?

Curious too...

I believe the tops were more of a satin finish than flat. You can sorta see the difference in this picture. Compare the sheen of the front bumper top (a NOS bumper top I had just put on my car when this picture was taken) to the sheen of the targa top.

I was told a paint gun with special nozzle was used to apply the paint in one step over the fiberglass shell. The paint was a Wurth product ... yes/no?



nuther ...
Click to view attachment

The roof is definitely not flat and does have "more of a satin finish"...however one cannot compare the sheen from the rubber bumper pad to the fiberglass roof panel.

too bad they tried to emulate the vinyl tops of the day...a smooth roof would have been much better and what I'm going to end up with on my resto...I'm going to keep my 62k roof just as it came from the factory though and use a parts car roof to sand smooth.

I tried to make my top look original but it was too far gone so had mine Line-X.

The only place I know who gets the finish right, and have been for over 30 years is:
Paterek Brothers
Commerce Drive
Chatham, NJ
973-635-5924
Ask for John or Ray (the brothers)
I'm sure they will divulge their secret formula if you want to DIY

They have been restoring Porsches for almost 40 years with several of their cars owned by the Porsche family.

Dave