The ABM needs a new top. The prior one I had restored is early vs late. This time I’m going to do it myself.

I picked up a late top at the swap yesterday.

What are the 4 stages and products from wheeler dealer? I need to paint it for sure due to aging, scratches, dings and chips.

Also, what is this seal on the rear inside. It is chalky and old. Needs replacement.

The top during cleaning. Lots of crap n crud.

Clean, clean, and clean again. Many years ago some guys were using black shoe polish. Not me though. I am guilty of Armorall though.

I've had a roof that I just couldn't get a good coat of paint, without problems. I personally hadn't Armorall'd that particular one, but I think it was probably shoe polish or silicone that had permeated the fiberglass. I bet I cleaned that thing 10 times with Prep-Sol and another 10 times with Klix, as well as several soap and water scrubbings.

Has anyone tried wrapping it? I think it might look cool wrapped it carbon fiber, or black,or even color matched to the car??? Seems like a inexpensive and reasonable solution.

I've wiped it with Simple Green 10 times so far. I finally got to the point where no more black stuff came up.

Damn good looking Oly blue in the background!

Glad you made that deal. Have you tried forever black ??

Smoothed out and painted body color has been done to lots of 914’s. If I had an extra top I’d give carbon fiber wrap a try. I think it might look good.

Thanks for your help!

Its got about 20 points of chips, wear, and dings that I have to deal with to bring it back, but the corners are good! so I'm going to primer it, rubberize coat repair, prime again, and paint it. We will see.

I'm going to do a final acetone clean prior as well.

Brake clean?

I tried wrapping mine, and due to the surface, the wrap would never stick to the targa top properly. Now, I will admit that I didn't sand the surface flat, and that would have helped, but like Perry (I believe it was him, not going back to check) said, something gets into and permeates that top and nothing is going to stick

I plasti-dipped mine in black. Came out nice.

My top actually looks really good. I have been considering it on mine though along with the front and rear valance and the rocker panels. I just think with my Saturn yellow it would look really cool. Kind of a modern retro look. I also thought about wrapping the sail in Carbon and carrying that over into the dash. Obviously, I'd do a full repaint in yellow first... but a nice clean touch in my opinion.

If you paint it, it will scuff when it gets stored in the trunk. Some guys have two. Painted and oem.

Absolutely agree. I have seen some guys carry around a towel in their trunk and cover the top before closing the trunk. That way the trunk lid rubs against the towel. Not sure I'd be comfortable with that.

I wonder if this happens because guys aren't sanding the textured paint off the top, instead maybe just sanding it down some and using a filler (filler primer?) to get the surface of the top smooth. That would introduce a thicker overall coating thickness of course...and then you'd be putting even more paint on with your color coat.

There doesn't seem to be an issue with the factory paint rubbing that I'm aware of. Maybe the engineers just had some really close tolerances between the trunk lid and the top when it was stored.

I meant at the hold down clips.

I may end up having a project car and have been thinking about this but remembered from my previous 914 ownerships that the top seemed to rub the bottom side of the trunk when stowed. You could see it best in the crossmember paint as opposed to the top itself due to the relatively flat finish of the top. As much as I'd like to do a painted top I have not been able to figure out how it would be kept unscathed....

If I don't paint it, then what do I do with it? Put 914world stickers all over it?

Seen that quite often too...

So you guys scared me out of painting it, so I ordered black rubberized spray, and forever black.....

Cleaned it thoroughly with simple green and acetone.

Thought I was a genius after 2 applications, but by applications 4-5 I had some awful streaking and swirls going on.

Tested some really old black chrome on it and got this....

Another shot

So that's a success right? I'm not seeing any streaks in those pics, looks good to me. What exactly was the rubberized spray product you used, and how many cans? thx.

Wow! That turned out really good. I would definitely call it a success. I'm not familiar with the "black chrome" product. Is it durable? ie paint? Or, will it degrade quickly like Armor All?

Here’s the line up.

The plastic dip was just filler on the messed up points. If I had to do it again, I would have used much more on the repairs areas.

Looks fantastic, the one "warning" I will mention to you is, put something over the top of your targa top when it's in the trunk. I got mine all done, put it in and went for a drive, got home to button the car all up, and it was scuffed and marked in one of the upper corners, which I have read on here (maybe this thread) is pretty common.

Great work

It shouldn't touch, even with spirited driving.

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It shouldn't touch, even with spirited driving.
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That's what I thought too. It may be caused by the "replacement" roof holder that the PO made. This is my first 914, and it won't be the 100th time that I find something that he did that, while it works, is not the way it was designed.

Oh well, I haven't had to order anything from Mark at 914rubber lately, guess I'm buying new roof holders today.

Your car looks great EdwardBlume, since you are "semi-local", would you mind telling me who painted yours? I have a wrap on mine, as I get the interior looking like I want, and all the mechanical stuff dialed in, but I do plan on having it stripped down and painted properly, and since mine is an ABM too (PO had THAT repainted at Maaco and didn't totally match the paint), and yours looks incredible

FWIW, I restored my top as follows:

1. I took all the hardware off and sanded it down. Used a DA and electric sander in combination. I used industrial strength adhesive remover (3M 38987) to get the glue off from the headliner. I also sanded that side.

2. I accidentally sanded thru the fiberglass gel coat in one spot, so I got some polyester primer surfacer and a cheap Harbor Freight gun and sprayed the top with it. Turned out really nice.

3. I then sprayed the Wurth Stone Guard Black. Used about 3 cans. I did the whole thing, top and underside. I'm not putting the carpet back on the underside. I did a few practice sprays on some scrap to get a feel for what it should look like.

4. I then sprayed Trim Black (from my local autobody supply place) with the same HF spray gun.

5. I have all new rubber from 914rubber. I also cleaned up all the latches and screws with a wire brush and Evapo-Rust. I painted them with Trim Black. The plastic parts were in decent shape.

Looks bichin'.

My top did not rub the trunk lid before I restored it.

I had this top done by Scott Yeaman in Palo Alto. He shot it.

Unfortunately it’s an early top which is going on a 74. Not sure how that happened.

The other pictures are what I did and it was not shot at all. I wouldn’t mind doing another one based on what I learned....

Stop by anytime!

Not in any sense of order but this picture is of the swirl marks before I did the top off with black chrome.