Found what appears to be a pretty nice C5 convertible except the cashmere colored top is severely stained and discolored. Would probably want to replace it, perhaps with a black one. Does anyone still make them? If so, what should one expect to pay for it? Would it be a tough job to have professionally installed? Has anyone ever tried doing it themselves? Thanks in advance for all replies. 🙂

 

I have a 99 that has the light oak top. My original top had black marks on it that I could not remove. I replaced it a year ago with a top made by EZ On tops. They use the OEM material. I had a shop do the job for $1,300 total.

 

$1300.00 is about right to have it done professionally. I had mine done by a shop that specializes in it. Even got a lifetime warranty on the back window.

 

I would first try Soft Scrub and a stiff toothbrush. I got most of the stains in my oak top out. That material is tougher than it looks........use bleached cleaners and scrub hard!

 

I have my eye on a Robbins top, because I know they are a leader in the field, and from past personal product experience, but then I only need a black top.

the company used to instal tops at their factory, but now have expanded to where they are sometimes an OEM supplier, for nisson, and now just provide a list of recommended installers.

I usually stick to the advice of using only GM parts unless cost is an objection, but I know the Robbins product is top quality, and if I remember correctly about $500 less than the OEM part I dug up on the internet, and all the tops use the same material, but you can go cheaper. From looking at my OEM top, I am confident the Robbins top will look the same, but the back glass won't fall out after only a measly decade or two.

I once self installed a very simple top, a primitive one layer vinyl deal for an old TR6. Man , it came out prettily, a tan top on a dark blue car with baby blue interior. One old guy down at the post office said I had a real ***** wagon, a southern phrase unfamiliar to me, I was more used to bitchen, tough, cool , expressions like that . Caught me by surprise when the old guy landed that on me out of the clear blue sky.

when I was installing the top, I made a mental note and a sincere promise to myself about installing another convertible top, never again. the simple antique English sports car top was very basic, like building a tent , unlike the much more modern corvette that runs a more complicated multi layered design.

the thing with hiring the installation out, is you don't have to learn how to perfectly install a top on your first try. I have seen rare posts where a DIY install came out fine , but more often have seen posts where professional installers had wrinkles on the side of completed work and the guys who paid were bummed. The main difficulty for me was the correct tension, too tight and it pulls apart at the seams after a while, too loose and it flaps when you drive. this type of job cries out for a well experienced hand, one who knows the correct feel. I had to guess, and did fine, but that top was fairly cheap, where with the C5, you are playing with higher stakes.

When the time comes, and it will be soon, I am paying a skilled installer , and any problems with the work will be his to deal with, I will just have to point and make a really disappointed face, like I had trusted him with my once in a lifetime, life or death deal, and he let me down.

I learned the hard way, it is not the cost of the work that matters, what matters is the quality of the craftsman doing the work. Since even the second string guys know enough to charge the going rate, it is hard to know who best to hire, unless you choose to pay exceptional money for a known exceptional guy, which for a normal street car, is not needed, and you might have to wait months or years to complete the work.

My local Robbins installer will be stepping down to work on my car. he is right across the alley from a restoration shop that has a space problem , so most days has over a million dollars in cars parked out front. the Robbins guy does all of their work. I couldn't help bragging, the thought makes me so happy to have talent like that available for my humble ride.

Although my ride is humble, it did get a compliment from a very big deal collector as he was loading up his trailer with a little thatched roof runabout resort car, a jolly, not sure of the name, built for hotels in the Bahamas at one time, and more commonly seen with a striped canvas top. He said my car could look pretty good if I just cleaned it up a bit. We both smiled at my explanation that I had just washed the thing in anticipation of coming to see the show. if you ever have the chance, the art center collage of design in Pasadena california throws a heck of a car show,

 

had to appreciate your answer, cleaning is a very helpful , and best, answer. the task is to get the imbedded dirt out of the weave, since the dirt settles into the threads, and then bonds into it from the grease and oil in the dirt, and I don't think the heat from the sun helps the situation either.

A washing machine mainly uses agitation, soak time , and sometimes heat to get the cleaning agents into the material to break the bonds between dirt and the fabric , so expanding the weave to enable the cleaning agents to get in to break the bonds between fabric and dirt is the task. Without being able to expose the thread interiors with agitation, scrubbing and perhaps a soak is all one can do. the guy who suggested using a blow torch is a damn lier, trust me, and don't ask me how I know.

In my case, a commonly internet available two container top cleaner ,, called RaggTopp, from the wolfsteins pro series and recommended by Haartz, where one is a spray cleaner , the other a metal spray can of preservative coating worked fine on my black top, and I still have about a half a can left of the protectant coating, because of the size of the car. I bought it from a supporting sponsor out of Florida, but had some internet fraud tacked onto my purchase in the form of wedding dresses and shoes that my bank called me up to ask about. luckily for me, I don't have a history of buying wedding dresses with matching heels , so it kind of was noticeable.

if I do the job again, I will carefully mask off the top as if I were painting , so I can get the protectant on the edges better. I didn't want to have to clean the " micro bonding fluoropolymer film" off of the car glass or paint, so was very careful working without masking tape , just some paper put down I places where overspray might land , but now show a thin observable edge in one small area , a faint one inch long white line in a spot where the spray on plastic has lifted from the fabric.

the application flaw is hardly noticeable, looking somewhat like a hard water mineral deposit, but it is right along side the passengers door, at the bottom edge where an opera window might go, if this were a very different car . If not for that one observable edge, you would never know the fabric had a coating on it, it just looks new as the only observable result.