1966 coupe’ project by jaydee

3 minute(s) of a 17 minute read

It was time to peek underneath the vinyl roof. A trim man told me aftermarket folks often pad the vinyl to cover up rust, so there was some trepidation in peeling it back. 

The vinyl came off easily, but the padding had been glued to the car and that took a putty knife, commercial solvent (from Painter's Supply), and 8 hours of rubbing to remove the cement. 

It did look good once it was cleaned up and there was no rust! 

The small areas of rust on the quarter panels were repaired. 

For months I wrestled with whether or not to replace the top with vinyl or make it a slick top. 

I was leaning towards a black vinyl top to tie in with the black dash pad. 

Once I decided to return the car to factory-ordered specs, the roof belt moulding was about to be shipped to the chrome plater when I noticed a gob of black dum-dum on the back of the moulding surrounding one of the studs that go through the sail panel. Upon pulling off this crud, a little strip of original vinyl top material came up. Lo and behold, it was (gasp!) -- WHITE. 

No supplier had an NOS vinyl top in white, so a sample was ordered from SMS. 

Their "Ford White" matched perfectly and a replacement top was received 8 weeks later. 

And here it is.

Because the material is narrower than original, the seams are inboard, but it's the best we can do.

Thanks, guys, for the compliments. The color is pretty cool. 

It went to the local body shop where the C pillar was repaired (large holes and bent metal from the roof stars) and the usual.

The windshield and rear window were removed as well as the trunk and hood.

Trunk and hood had to be completely stripped due to literally thousands of fisheyes from a previous paint job.

And here's a pic from this morning. Coming together.

It's wearing new bias ply tires with 1 inch WSW, as factory.