Mikes1991

[B]Ok I got a few inquires into how to do this Job. Very easy. You will need to know how to use a high speed polisher but if You cannot use one you can still do this Job you will just need a good bit of elbow grease

Ok you can take the top off to do this job or leave it on. I left it on and found it much easier to work
Step Listed below

1) Get some masking tape and tape off the entire perimeter of metal that wraps around the edges of the top. This is done to prevent sanding the paint off the trim. If your really good with wetsanding and controlling the block you wont need to do this but for safety if not sure just tape it off. Really easy to do should take no more than 10 minutes

2) Get some 600 Wet Dry Sand Paper and a bucket of water with soap suds in it. A spurt of dishwashing liquid should be good enough

3) Now get a soft flexible wetsanding block or if you don't have one a small sponge the size of your hand. Most sponges are about the same size. With ethier the block or sponge wrap the piece of 600 wet sand paper around it, dip it in the bucket of soapy suds and start sanding your top. Now the trick is to keep an eye on what is being removed. As you do this you will see the peeled broken clear start to disapear. You want to sand every bit of broken old aged clear off. You can use a squeegee every so often to wipe the surface and check how much of it is coming off. This part of the Job depending on how beat up it is or how much clear was on the top should take no more than 30 minutes to an hour at most

4) Once you have all the clear stripped youll know. You can see little flakes of clear that are left as most of it disapears. It is not hard to doscern this. Once every flake is off you will then step up to 1000 grit and sand out all the 600 marks. This should take no more than 15 to 20 minutes.

5 ) Now take a piece of 1500 and sand out the 1000 girt marks. This should take the same amount of time 15 to 20 minutes. Once done the surface will look dull and matt. It will not have any flakes or specs of clear left on it

6 ) Having preped it properly now you will simply get some medium cut rubbing compound along with your high speed polisher and a cutting pad and compound out the top. Yes Rubbing compound works excellent, just buff until that mirror look starts to appear. If you have gotton this far this is when it will start to look absolutely amazing

7) Last step get some machine galz or hand glaze and fine polish the rest of it. Its nto necessary really when you see what comes after the compound but it does get some of the finer marks out and just finishes it off really nice

8) Having done this your top will look absolutely amazing. No need to reclear just wax it twice a year.

Here is a Picture of my top up close finished. i should have taken a pic of what it looked like before but I didnt unfortunately. I can tell you it was outright ugly and beat up with the clear having dried up and flaked off and tons of scratches across the top. It was outright nasty looking. Click the link below and thats what your gonna have when done and to note. That is before I glazed it after compound only

If anyone has any questions always feel free to ask and hope this helps someone out this will make you smile and costs hardly anything

http://www.flickr.com/photos/50102614@N05/4726248134/

94z07fx3

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c5-t...sh-how-to.html

Mikes1991

Ha Ha what are you trying to compete with me lol The reason it took you three hours to cut it down is because you used to fine a grit. start with 600 and its off in a half hour. Also the clear orange peel is a result of pumping to much air into the surface. but the damage to mine was way worse as well as some others on here. Your looked pretty good except for a few marks which nevertheless need to be fixed of course. Nice job though

94z07fx3

Oh that wasn't my thread. I read yours and thought, "hey another success story!"

My top needs TLC so I bookmarked the thread that I linked.

No competition from me. Just admiration!

Mikes1991

Ha ha its all good. Put it all together to help so many others out there. When that top is beat up holy cow it is nasty looking. I wish I took a pic of mine before. Im sure others will take some nice pics of theirs before they do them

NCBLACKC4

I have a spot on mine that was the result of bird crap sitting on it for about a week outside. (not the owner at this time!) can you spot sand these tops with any luck?

Mikes1991

If the spot did not break the clear definitely can spot sand but do it lightly with say 1200 wet sand and then a little compound gently rubiing it so as not to break the clear. If the rest of the top is a little hazzy you could also do a nice light sand of 1500 and polish it out
Thew main point is that the clear is not broken. Once the clear is broken thereis no other solution than to strip and respray or strip and polish. Let us know what happen is fact if you have a pic send it and we could consult on it. TTYS

NCBLACKC4

Looks like the clear has a ripple affect to it?

RonsRed88

I think I just found my next project.

Before I get to sanding here are some pictures of my top. Is this what I should expect to fix?

outside:


inside:

Mikes1991

Yep you got yourself a prime candidate there. Once done youll be amazed how much cleaner it looks. Keep us posted and get to work lol

Jimbo 89

I restore & polish plastic headlight lenses down here in Fl. and it sounds like all the same steps, just a larger surface. A final step you might try that I use is to clear it with WATERBASE polyurethane. It works on headlights.

lt4obsesses

Thanks for this. Right now my top looks really bad. Just about all the clearcoat is gone now. This looks very doable, and will attempt it soon. Heck the way my top looks now, even if I do mess it up, it can't be any worse. (unless I scrub a hole in it)

Mikes1991

Hi there
highly unlikely youll wear a hole in it. Youd have to sand in one spot for a month before you might go threw lol If most of the clear coat is gone you can just sand with 1000 and then move up to 1500. The pics listed in the other fellas post show what it should look like before you polish it out. Let us know how it works out for you with some pics

Tim_Ko

Guys, I know this is an old thread but maybe someone will see it and reply.


After reading these posts on how to refinish the exterior clearcoat, no one talked about the tint.

Where is the color? Do they use the same colored plastic on the inside that you might find on the door glass and the rear window so that you can remove that also and change the tint color?

cadwiz_01Z

I think the tint is in the acrylic material.

Tim_Ko

Thank you Wiz,
OK. I get you. So, there is no tint layer below the clearcoat. This whole process is to remove the clearcoat and then redo it.

Thanks

89L98TPI

Wow what a difference this made. My top look just as bad as Ronsred88 and looks damn near brand new. Id post a license but haven't figured that out yet.

tbirdsps

Nice project. Mine has some minor crazing in the forward corners. Not bad yet. Being in desert it's my winter top.

BucfanTitan

I have a question. If I took a scotch pad to the top and removed all of the silver flakes and now I have just the haze instead of a haze/silver flakes am I ready to apply medium cut to the top or do I still need to wet stand the top?

BucfanTitan

I sanded the top tonight. When I look at the top though the outside looking in it has a haze to it and looks really good. When I look though the inside out of the top it still looks like it has a million little spider cracks. I hope that makes sense.

Keep sanding? I used 800, 1000, and 1500.

Thanks.