Well I finally decided to take a crack at the repair of my clear targa top.
The top was peeling like most on the passenger side of the car in the photos below and had a dull
and frosted look on the surface (clear coat peeling and cracking).
I did some reading on the proceedure that people where using to try and strip off the old clearcoat
and then resurface the top back to a smooth finish with the option of clear coating the top back to
its original look. That being said I only added a good coat of Carnauba car wax to the surface to
help seal it and polish it up a bit. Later this winter I will remove and either get some more of the fine
scratches out of the surface and then maybe have it clear coated as I think it would hold up much
better then with just the wax on the surface.
Here is the items that I used in the process of stripping the clear coat off the surface of the Acrylic top.
I did have to use a bit coarser sanding paper and went all the way down to 400 grit to help get the
coating off the surface as in some spots it was much thicher then others. Then just went from 400 to
600, 800, 1000, 1500 and finally 2000 that where all wet sanded with my old hand sander.
Once I was happy with finish and there where tiny little scratches still on the surface then I broke out
the Meguiar's paint cleaner starting with the more abrasive #1 Med Cut used after sanding with 1200+
grit paper, then to the Meguiar's #2 Fine Cut and then finished off with the Meguiar's #9 Swirl Remover.
Then as a final stage for now I threw on a good coating of Carnauba car wax to polish and shine the top
up a bit more. The total time for the stripping of the clear coat was around 4 hours, yes hours.
Then I took about 30 min per grit stage the the final 1000 and 2000 grit I put in about 1 hour of wet sanding
for each of those for a total of 7 hours time.
The polishing time was around 1 hour per stage, #1, #2 and #9 so I think the total time max would be about
10 hours for me at least. This is not a very costly job the parts and cleaner and buffing pad was around $100
the time and labor is much more and you should plan on spending lots of time in the stripping of the top and
as I would say this job if tackled is a Labor of Love. Here is a quick picture of the top on the car again, its
very clear to see though now and is very shiny again. The spots on the photo are actually pollen that is falling
off the trees at the house, tried to wipe it off but the static on the top is very crazy when you get buffing on the
end of the process. Anyone who tries this good luck and have plently of patience.
...
, B&M Short Shifter, and a Tune.
