I'm refinishing the top and I've tried a couple of different products to replicate the texture on test panels but, I haven't found the right one.
I'm sure this topic has been covered several times here already but, I'm not having any luck in the search so, I thought I would ask.
Thanks,
Mike

n reading over your top refinishing project, I used marine black Gel-coat and the appropriate texture additive that resembled the factory Tex-coat finish.

If you have never worked with Gel-coat products for boats, I urge you to take the top to a marine finish yard that can ,prep, paint and apply the finish as it is a one shot deal and better to be safe than sorry.
Gel-coat is a fiberglass paint use to finish fiberglass hulls more durable than any epoxy
finish for exterior UV use.
Good luck,
Jack

I’m in the process of refurbishing mine. I removed all the hardware and seals and am now waiting for a decent day to paint. My top is in fairly good condition, so I am going to epoxy prime and then paint with satin black.
Others have used bedliner to retexture with pretty good results. I used the Raptor bedliner on the underside of my car, and would agree that it is close to the same texture as our tops.

Good luck,
John

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Thanks guys!

I also went the gelcoat route. I had never worked with gelcoat before but with a little help from Youtube, it turned out pretty good. If I were to do it again, I would buy more gelcoat than I did so I had more material to practice with to dial the texture a little better. Mine came out a little more "fine grained" than the original but only people intimately familiar with these cars would notice. You might find something useful in my build thread here.: http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?s=&...t&p=2834219

According to the book Tech Tips 700 page 71 "to achieve the textured finish, use Wurth Stone Guard Black" product 890971. Hope this helps.

^ The finish in Tech Tips isn't the actual finish, though it might be "close enough" for most. Years ago, while looking at a $100,000+ restoration of a 914-6 GT that had a glaringly wrong texture on its targa top, I knew I wasn't going to be able to achieve the right finish while redoing my tired top. Then a NOS early top popped up here on 914world—and while expensive to me back then it was a bargain in hindsight.

Still, the finish on the 914 top remained a mystery to me. I could find nothing on it, and asking the guy who designed our top latches—who really knows his stuff—brought a blank stare. I've watched others try to achieve the correct finish to no avail. So I paid a German author to research the materials and methods, and an American photographer to take professional photos of the NOS top as a reference, and then paid to publish them in large format over 7 pages so they can be used as a reference for someone trying to duplicate the look (I surely would have been fired from Excellence for doing this, as we only gave 7 pages to things like full features and worldwide debut of new cars-like, say, a GT3…and I would have fired me too).

The good news: The author got the lowdown. It's called Tupfeffekt.
The bad news: If you want to get it right, it'll take some practice, as it's more about method than materials. But the information is available in Issue 015.

https://www.000magazine.com/shop/015

Yes, not the usual cheap magazine at $75, but I'd like to think it isn't a bad investment vs the paint supplies and your time…and the work that went into gathering the info and reproducing it. And you get the rest of the issue, too.

Thank you for sharing, I have been watching and "knew" someone out there had the answer. I will probably not go to this degree, but great information.

Germans, .....

The best refinish I've come across was posted by @McMark http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?s=&...t&p=2516787 and is where I got the inspiration to try gelcoat. I'd be willing to wager that Tupfeffekt is a brand or proprietary version of gelcoat. The tops are fiberglass and gelcoat is a common finish coat either applied in a mold before laying the fiberglass, or sprayed on after. You can get the look with Wurth or other body schutz, but I can't imagine it replicates the hardness and texture of the original. Gelcoat does. If you get the texture and sheen right, you will not be able to tell the top has been refinished.

The texture does take practice and I didn't quite get there, but I convinced I would have with a little more material to practice with and probably a better gun. I got very close and just wanted to get the job done so went with it. I'm happy but there is room for improvement.

Hi guys,
I finally found some Wurth Stone Guard. Every where was sold out for the longest time. I tried SEM, UPOL, 3M and House of Color stone guards and none of them looked good enough.
The Wurth is the closest I got to the factory finish. It's not "perfect" but it looks good. It's actually drying in the garage right now.
Thanks for all the help and suggestions here.
Mike

What did you spray the material with?

We used it from a spray can but it looks like a shutz gun would have been better.

For my top, I sprayed 2-3 coats of raptor liner in black thinned about 15% with urethane reducer using an HVLP gun, not the bedliner gun. I used one complete bottle with a tiny bit leftover. You can buy a single back on Amazon for about $40. I am very happy with the results.



Close up of texture:

Wurth SKS, with the special gun, MAJORLY thinned down, to get the texture right

Took 3 attempts to get it right, do yourself a favor and test the sprayouts on something else until you're satisfied you've thinned it down enough.

Pretty happy with the way mine came out in the end:

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I thought mine looked alright until I saw the last two.
Those look great, guys!

@eric9144 what special gun did you use. Looks amazing!

What did you use to clean the top to prep it? I have a spot on mine (no idea what it is), but no matter what I do, it will not come clean. I was considering sanding it, but that would completely ruin the finish.

@iankarr The 'special gun' came from the Wurth supplier, here's pics of the one that was used to do my roof, oddly made in Italy, but a Wurth parts number slapped on the outside of the packaging. Gun was ~$60 https://www.wurthusa.com/Tools/Pneumatic-To...-Gun/p/18911063

Looks like there are different iterations of the gun, found one listed on Pelican also for reference, its a different one... (listed at a crazy price IMO)
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/porsche-911...ercoat-gun.html

Can't stress enough to do test spray outs on squares of cardboard or some other material so you are sure you're getting the right texture when you finally lay it down on the roof.

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