Vinyl Tops, Glory And Regret

The Rise Of Factory Vinyl Roofs

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Today.

SPEAKER_02 0:06

Okay, time now for Jeff's Car Culture, a feature on 1970s vinyl roofs.

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Well, it's more than just 70s, it's just the actual concept of it. Because these days, if you use the word vinyl when describing a car's exterior styling, the first thing comes to mind is especially for the young people would be the colored vinyl wrap. It's not that. These days a wrap is cost-effective and relatively easy way to change the look of a vehicle. However, before the era of body wraps, when someone referred to a car of having a vinyl roof, it meant something more than just a roll material and some adhesive, and vinyl roofs were uh done at home after the fact. They were done on an assembly line. The factory vinyl roof could be considered one of the most distinctive automotive styling trends, gaining popularity in the 1960s and lasting in various forms up until the 1990s before disappearing completely. Why do cars have vinyl tops? They weren't used to protect the paint or preserve anything or vinyl wraps. Nope, the vinyl roof was about style, and one more way to add color and character is during the time was with no-way storage of options or personalization off the factory floor. Vinyl roofs and other forms of fabric covers first began appearing on luxury vehicles, specialty cars, in the late 40s and 50s. It wasn't until the 60s that the vinyl roof option began to take off. Initially, the idea was to give fixed roof cars the more upscale appearance of a convertible. Go figure. Some automakers, even offering things like flower patterns, even textures-inspired alligator skins. At peak, their popularity from the 60s into the early 70s were the factory vinyl tops available on everything from muscle cars to pickup trucks, even a C3 Corvette Don with a vinyl covered top. Oh yeah. In the 70s and 80s, vinyl tops continued to be popular, but shifted more toward the luxury car segment. In the 70s, especially vinyl tops reached peak flamboyance. Paired with things like opera windows, Buick and Cadillac were the last ones to offer factory vinyl roofs in 1996, though aftermarket and dealer conversions have long been available for those who really wanted the vinyl top look. I remember the fate and stuff. That was cool. While they

Peak Style And The Backlash

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may have disappeared from modern cars, if you go to a classic car show today, you'll see lots of vinyl roofs, many of them restored and recovered to look like new. When it comes to a vehicle restoration and bodywork, vinyl tops can be a bit more of a nightmare for starters. The vinyl can be distressed, deteriorate, and exposure to the elements in more noticeable manner than traditional painted roof. Rust. The vinyl tops are regularly considered one of the auto industry's worst design trends and likely one that won't be returning anytime soon, Michael.

SPEAKER_02 2:57

We had a Corvette, and this was a 19, it was a 69 or 70 Corvette, brand new at Richardson Chevrolet. And it was red, but it had a black vinyl roof on it. They covered the T-top individual panels. Remember, they were two back then. So all that was, and it was like, do I really like that? I never could decide whether I liked that or not. Because they trimmed the edges with chrome. Yeah. And it was just it was jacked up. It wasn't until later that they went away with that one that I put it up, how ugly of that was, that they were able to tuck it under so you couldn't see the edge.

SPEAKER_01 3:36

Well, I have a story. My uh dad with General Motors execs and all that. Uh my doctor had a Cadillac and he ordered a vinyl top that we actually did in our garage. My father and I.

SPEAKER_00 3:48

Do it yourself, though.

SPEAKER_01 3:49

We did it on a vinyl top. It was a factory vinyl top. He had all the materials and stuff brought in, and we did it in our garage. It was like February. Did you?

SPEAKER_02 3:56

Oh my god,

Personal Stories From The Garage

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you had to heat it to keep it. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:58

We had to heat the garage, and that was before heated garage. We had to get heaters out and all that and stretch it and glue and all that. Straight to the paint paint? Straight to the paint. Came out perfect. You put the glue over the paint. Yeah, you just slapped it. Painted the whole car. Give me a little Elmer's bottles, and you scoop it.

SPEAKER_02 4:12

It wasn't Elmer's. It was that really smelly, ugly, yellowy looking stuff. Oh, that was a great story.

Banned, Crushed, And Forgotten Muscle

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So time now for Jeff's car culture. Banned, crushed, and forgotten muscle.

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That's right. So not every muscle car made it to glory. Some were banned before they even hit the streets, others were quietly crushed after their moment had passed. So this first one up on the block is a 1969 Chevrolet Corvette ZL1. The 69 ZL1 was technically a production car, but just barely. Chevy built just two of these powered with an all-aluminum 427 V8 designated for racing. The engine alone added four grand to the price, doubling the cost of that standard Corvette and that year make model. Too expensive, too aggressive for the public roads. The Z L1 faded into obscurity. Well, it didn't fade that much because you got it on this thing. Well, both examples survive, but they're uh it they're in private collections and not used. So, next one 71 Ford Torino King Cobra. Ford's response to the Dodge Charger Daytona and the Super Bird was the Torino King Cobra. Sleek, fastback, and radically sloped nose designed for NASCAR. That's ugly. Who only three prototypes were built before NASCAR changed the rules after they built them and said no more, no more of that. Uh with the program scrapped, the King Cobra never reached production. The prototypes were quietly shelved, and the 429 jet engine silenced before they could make the headlines. 65 Pontiac Catalina 2 plus 2. I remember 21 high output. I remember these. I love that car. Pontiac Catalina 2 plus 2 is built to move, especially when equipped with a 421 high output engine, making 376 horsepower at the time. Though it was a full-size coupe, it had quarter mile performance that rivaled mid-size muscle cars, but overshadowed by its GTO sibling. So it's a little bit smaller on the GTO side, but that's a beautiful car. Plus, it's a rag top. That's good. Next one we're going to go to, Mike, is the 71 AMC Matador machine. The machine. AMC planned to follow up with the Rebel machine with a more aggressive Matador version in 71. The idea was to carry over the machine's 401 V8 and the graphics. But marketing didn't back it. They didn't like it. A few prototypes were made, but the project quietly died before mass production. What's left of the Matador machine concept is mostly photos, paperwork, and a few scattered parts. No one completed, no, no, no one completed cars have survived, uh, making it one of the strangest EMS.

SPEAKER_02 7:06

Wait just a minute. That's a late model Taho back there in the back. So somebody's got that there.

SPEAKER_01 7:11

Somebody's got that there, but that's just what I can tell you.

SPEAKER_02 7:13

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 7:13

Okay. Maybe it's a photo show. It could be. Uh 1966 Fairlane GTX prototype. This Fairlane uh was a Ford prototype created to bridge the gap between the Mustang and the full-size.

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So what are the valve covers that have shot through the hood there? What the hell is that? They're loose bolts.

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I think it's been recalled.

SPEAKER_00 7:33

Yeah, but if you think about if you think about the the later models of the Roadrunner and stuff, they had hoods. Not like that. That's ridiculous.

SPEAKER_01 7:41

Or it it wore unique badging interior trim, reported, uh reportedly tested a few suspension tweaks that would later show up on the GT and the Cobra models. It never intended for production, but after a few developmental changes, it was reportedly destroyed. What makes it interesting is how the little photographic evidence remains. Uh one of these cars you hear about, engineering's performed executives, all that good stuff. Uh no one knows where it went.

SPEAKER_02 8:06

What so that that is a new explorer or something? Yeah, it's an expedition.

SPEAKER_01 8:12

There you go. Uh 73. Somebody has that car. 73 Pontiac Transam SD 455 with an aluminum block, or as they say, aluminium block. SD was super duty. Super Duty 455 is already a rare piece of Pontiac history, but there's a subset of prototypes that took things further. A handful of pre-production cars were fitted with experimental aluminum blocks for weight savings and better heat disp uh distribution. Only a few were ever built, and most were destroyed after testing. None were sold to the public. Uh rumors persisted about one surviving car at private hands, but nothing has been confirmed. That's a pretty car. I like that car.

SPEAKER_02 8:52

Well, that would be easy to do. You could hide that all aluminum V8 underneath the hood. Yeah. Even though it was just a regular Trans Am at the time or a Camaro or Firebird, whatever.

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All the externals.

SPEAKER_01 9:04

And there's companies that make the retro. They'll take a new Camaro and they'll make it look with the old body styling and stuff. It's still new, but they'll make it kind of retro looking. That's no fancy.

SPEAKER_00 9:13

I had an aluminum block car one time. Uh it was the lightweight, I understand, but it it always had a heating problem.

Prototypes That Vanished

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You had to be careful that you didn't cook the engine because it just didn't take much to heat it up.

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Well, you're probably using the mechanical fan in the front there of the motor. Oh, absolutely.

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1963. Oh, oh yeah. They didn't have electric fans in them back then. So it was, you know, I can see why they tried it. But uh didn't work so good.