Howdy all. Tim here. Me and DV8 have been tossing around ideas for my 1932 Five window Pontiac. On the body as it is, there is a piece of metal riveted in the area where the roof insert was. The old wood is still underneath. A question of matterial has come up and I was wondering about what was used orignially. Jon has used basic vinyl for his inserts, and I have seen some fake leather type stuff in Model As. What was being used here? Really. Had plastics come that far when Model A's were built to make what we would now call vinyl? Or was it something else? Also, I seem to remember that some sort of canvas might have been used as an insert material. Is there any truth to this? Did it vary based on car maker? Thanks for any help! Tim MBL
If the wood is still in place on your coupe, you can easily return back to the original roof covering. There was chicken wire mesh over the wood to support the other layers. The next layer was cotton batting as padding. That was covered by a fabric that had an artificial leather outside facing. LeBaron Bonney sells kits for your car, so that is the easy way to get the proper material. If you do not have the original finishing strip that goes around the outside of the opening, that can be a problem since they are hard to find. Someone does make a bendable material that you can use to make your own. Do a search since there have been other threads on this subject. Jes had some good photos of doing the task on her '33 coupe.
Thanks for the tip...A bunch of great build pics on that thread! Does anyone know if canvas was ever the the exterior finished side or not? If so, on what cars? Thanks Tim MBL
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