Customs Vinyl top on a tri five chevy?

As far as Chevys go, vinyl tops look great on Chevelles, Late 60s-early 70s El Caminos, Late 60s Impalas, First Gen Camaros and Montes.

 

he said a55thru57

 

I know and I don't like vinyl tops on Tri Fives. Did you read my post correctly? It starts out " As far as Chevys go".

 

Way back in 1966, Dad ordered my Mom a new 66 Impala 4-Door Hardtop. It was ordered with Aztec Bronze body color with an Adobe Beige Top. It was ordered as a 2-Tone PAINT Combo. When the car came in it had a Beige Vinyl Top. Dad refused to accept the car with the Vinyl Top and demanded that the vinyl top had to be stripped and the roof PAINTED in the appropriate Adobe Beige PAINT. About a week later Dad accepted delivery after the re-paint on the Roof. The car looked pretty neat with the Vinyl Top Trim (chrome) still in place.
His reasons were that the Vinyl Top would allow the Roof to rust under the Vinyl. I did not understand that then but have seen tons of junk yard cars that once had a vinyl roof. Seems that they rust once the Vinyl is no longer waterproof................ Lesson Learned................... Jeff

 

I always kinda liked this one.

 

The only time I saw it done was when the 56's roof got warped in a house fire. They had to put on a new roof that was a botched job. The guy put on a vinyl top to cover up his bad workmanship.

 

That's the one thing bad about vinyl tops, a guaranteed rusted roof.

 

Yep, I went and looked at a OT Ford Maverick one time, the vinyl was the only thing holding the rust together! You could peel a strip off and what was left of the steel roof would come with it!

 

so, this is just a question - but, could the early installment of vinyl roofs have been to bring back the classic look of cars from the 30's that had fabric roofs?

 

I remember in the 80s. it was popular (at least here in SoCal) to cover the roof of mini trucks and imports such as Hondas, Toyotas, Nissans, with black cloth to give the appearance of a convertible top. They called them "Phantom Tops"

 

There's a local 55 Chevy 4 door green/white two tone that has a white vinyl top. It's also got a padded dash. I was talking with the owner about it several years back and he was telling me he had it all done in the 1980's. I thought it looked pretty good on it, although I wouldn't have it that way.

 

I am not certain about 55s, but 56s and 57s had a optional factory padded dash board.

 

A '56 I parted out had that option. The door panels had molded in armrests also.