I have a 1988 c4 with a cracked Tanga top. Can they be repaired? Is it worth while to try? Can I purchase plastic? Thanks for the help

 

I have a clear/tinted top and top frame from my 1990. I also have mounting brackets. You can glue them back together. I can take pics if you are interested. There aren't any scratches or chips/nics. A new top will run you from $1200-$600. I replaced mine with a hard/painted top. My clear top had been glued by previous owner. I decided to go with a used painted top. I purchased my hard top from TaberCorvette in Indiana. It was $450 used w/ a 16" scratch. Tops are not cheap good luck.

 

The targa is a high grade acrylic piece that is thermo molded in a form....this would be very difficult to reproduce without the proper tooling. I used to build acrylic acquariums for fun....the acrylic glue/epoxy is the key for a transparent bond...very expensive and very hard to work with... I'm sure you could bond the broken targa back together to be water proof....but you would end up with a visable epoxy ridge no matter what you did....even if you beveled the acrylic first.

 

I think Melrose T Tops has an exchange program. You send them a usable top to fix and they exchange a rebuilt one to you with new lexan and weatherstripping. Not sure of the price somewhere between $500-$600 Pipe

 

Mine dosent leak and its not broken but it dosent look good because of the heat cracks, is there something that can be done to make it look better? Something that dosent cost $600?

 

Not even worth trying, just get another one, contact www.vette2vette.com for a good used one.

 

For Jake Dragon, you might try a search, someone once posted how they sanded, buffed ect. and was very happy with the results. For the OP, time for a new or used top, trying to glue it is a waste of time regardless if it's an exotic epoxy. Make sure you do a searh on new tops, I thought it was Melrose who had a few complaints, maybe not though.

 

the reg hardtop non acrylic is fixable. I did it. but the acrylic I wouldnt know

 

We have hundreds of cores here from people that have attempted to repair their cracked lens in many inventive fashions from plastic filler and paint to rivets and silicone. Each fix basically works as a bandaid that eventually reappears and leaks. Plastic is a wonderful material but unfortunately it changes with age. Both Lexan and acrylic lenses become brittle and tend to shrink with age. If the cushion of urethane runs out of "give" between the frame and the lens it usually results in catastrophic failure of the weaker of the two materials which is the lens. The result is most often a split running from the front of the lens toward the rear. If it is a lexan top usually the hardcoating fails and flakes off as well.
I believe we have done more testing and research in this area to help eliminate this problem than anyone else in the industry. We thermoform all of our lenses in house to very strict quality control standards, and only use top of the line hardcoated acrylic. Regarding buffing- I talked to a lady in the past that said she successfully sanded off the protective hardcoating and repolished the plastic, but in the end it took so long that it wasn't worth the time since all you ended up with was a uncoated lens that was even more prone to scratching w/o the hardcoat on it.
Let us know if we can help
Chris
Melrose T-Top

 

Sorry to say...Bite the bullet and go with a good used or new top.

 

I am going to sand my clear lens and shoot it with some rattle can.
No cracks just delaminating.
I am also going to install a headliner.