I'm building a 31 Traditional roadster. Top is cut 2 1/2-3" . Don't want to buy a new top and alter it because the rest of the car has patina . Any ideas on how to get the look I'm after? We can make on from scratch if needed but the material has to be right Thanks
Buy an old stock top and cut it up? Use new “white” canvas and ruin it with some coffee or tea? Buy new roof fabric that’s the right color and maybe not the best quality and then drive the **** out of the car and it’ll weather pretty quick. Just a few ideas off the top of my head
There are a couple good youtube videos on making a roadster top from scratch that may help with a direction. There are lots of options for the Hartz fabric available for the roof.
I don't recall which thread but someone was bringing back an old patina deuce roadster. They used old army tent canvas. It looked perfect.
Google Hartz convertible top material. An alternate thought is to buy a large black fabric boat cover as it can take the weather and is sun resistant. The boat cover would give you lots of fabric to work with. We needed to make airplane wing covers and looked at buying the fabric but it was crazy expensive. We were in Costco just after shopping for the cover fabric when my wife said why not make them out of the fabric boat covers that were on sale. They are water proof, sun tolerant made from tough fabric. We bought 2 large flat boat covers for a lot cheaper than buying the same fabric off a roll. My wife used the boat cover material to sew up a beautiful pair of wing covers. They have been out in the elements for 3 long winters and are still in great shape. They have faded slightly but no big deal. Low cost durable material.
Years ago I did a roadster that needed a weathered top so we started out with some darker tan material and after the top was done added some darker stains using tea as a staining agent. We thought it looked good at the time.
I'm getting close to doing the top on my A, I like the way this one turned out https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/1932-jalopy-roadster-build.1157996/page-9
Here's a top build thread that may have some useful info: https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/building-a-foldable-stowable-roadster-top.1113268/
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