Top flying off??
 

Heard something about coupe tops flying off when on the highway.Any of you experience this or know anyone who did? When this happened what were the circumstances? High speed, not secured properly, very rough surface? What caused them to come off?

Not latching the top will definitely cause it to fly off.

Otherwise, 2005-2007(?) coupes had a problem with the skins separating from the frames and flying off. This was addressed by a recall. You'll find lots of old threads on this by doing a search.

The only stories I heard were ones that were not latched fully.

So you're saying
 

it WAS a defect in the top? Did it affect the clear top as well? Heard of any '08 experiencing this?

It was an adhesion issue not the entire roof. I think it was more common on Z's but I could be mistaken.

Man, when I first came to this forum there were dozens of posts every day about this. Mine went in for the recall before any issues developed and has never made sound.

I want the Z With the removable roof. :thumbs:

Another definition for FRC = Flying Roof Club:ack:

No, it did not effect the clear top. Only the painted roof. Basically, the glue which holds the roof to the roof frame did not hold and over time the roof would separate from the frame. Do a search on flying roof. There are hundreds of threads the subject.

:iagree:

There have been a few cases of panels not latched, but by far the more common problem was where the exterior skin delaminated from the frame and flew off the roof.

This issue peaked near the end of the '06 model builds. The last month of the '06s and the first month or so of the '07s (including mine) have an extra amount of adhesive added. The extra adhesive was used until the outer skins made from SMC could be put into the supply chain after the first few months of the '07 model year.

The problem affects only the painted roof panels. The problem affects all 2005, all 2006 and can affect the first two months of production on the 2007 cars.

When the C6 was introduced in 2004 the car was manufactured with a polycarbonate painted roof panel. This represented a change to save weight from the C5 removable roof which was made from SMC. A problem was discovered with the coefficient of expansion of the polycarbonate and the magnesium roof panel. During high temperature extremes the panel and the frame expand at different rates and put the adhesive in a shear condition. This condition existed on all 2005 and all 2006 painted panels.

In the 2007 model year beginning in June of 2006, the assembly plant began using a "triple bonding" process to adhere the painted panels to the frame. This was intended to be a stop gap measure until the inventory of SMC panels could be built up to ensure a steady stream of production. I am only aware two failures (not that there can't be more) of the triple bonded panels.

In August (August 3rd) of 2006 for the 2007 model year cars, the plant began switching over to SMC panels and this lasted a little better than a month. The changeover occurred color by color until the plant had exhausted all of their inventory of painted panels. The painted roof arrives at the assembly plant all ready painted by the vendor and this was the only way that they could maintain production.

The other possible cause and it happens more than most care to talk about is that the owner failed to latch the top due to their focus being on other things at the time they reinstalled the roof panel. If the top is not latched it will come off once the car gets up to speed.

.....and DOH!!....some vert owners forget to latch their tops too!

Don't ask.

The front right quarter panel coming off was a way worse situation but was easily fixed with 3M double sided tape.

It seems that delamination is different than coming off.

Glad to know I need to pay attention when securing my clear roof.

Past problems, not so much anymore! I hope!

:rofl:

Quick question while we're on the subject...

I know you cannot just purchase a complete solid painted roof from GM... gotta piece it together which is a hassle.

But... has anyone yet purchased a clear roof top and painted it? This would be one way to get a brand new "painted top" easily. I guess you'd need to add a headliner to it if you wanted the extra sound and thermal insulation, but I would think that wouldn't be a problem.

Even buying used... it seems way easier to just buy a used clear top than a painted one, especially since when buying a solid painted top, you need to make sure you're getting the newer version and not the recalled one... with the clear, you're safe no matter what... then just paint it.

Painting experts... can a clear top be painted successfully? Has it ever been done? Etc?

They had the flying roof syndrome too!

Guys have done it, you'll have to do a search to find the threads.

my 07 is a 3rd month and just had the top replaced due to seperation on the aft pilot side... then when they put the new top on , the tech didn't tighten the torx correctly and the window was chipped in 2 places when it indexed... new window (with tint) was put in at dealer cost. Bought the recall in with me along with the new hardware TSB,, dealer did both under the recall . Car had 44K at the time