My newly acquired 1974 Eldorado convertible project car

[MaR]

With the 2nd bow out of the way, I went back to the front bow to get it completely removed. Under the front seal were more staples that held the top itself to the front bow.





Like the strip for the 2nd bow, I marked the center of both the front seal and the top for alignment on the other frame.




After all the staples were out along the front, I was able to peal it back off the front bow to expose the side flaps. The installer had glued the front flap to the front bow. It's supposed to be stapled only, not glued. I think I can clean all the old glue off though.




This front bow is bad. It's not completely scrap but it's close. The corners are rusted out and all the tabs that hold the tack strip in are rusted off and gone. Rather than replacing it, they just glued the tack strip in (poorly).





Another thing I noticed is that this was not the first replacement roof this frame has had installed. I could tell that the tack strip had been replaced with an aftermarket one but under the top, there were old staples and bits of an old top that had not been removed before this one was put on.

[MaR]

With the front loose, I went around to the rear of the top. I made some alignment marks on the top to get it lined back up with the rear curtain and started pulling the staples around the rear sides.




Another install issue that I noticed was that they did not use stainless steel staples and they were starting to rust.





I pulled all the staples around the drivers side an peeled it up off of the rear tack strip. You can also see a test spot where I scrubbed it to see how clean it will come.






Next, I folded the top frame up to expose the rear quarter window upper weather stripping. This piece retains the top around the window opening.





That section was supposed to just be held in with the weather stripping but it was glued also. I then moved over to the passenger side and did the same as the drivers side.





Next I had to remove the staples from the 3rd bow. It's very similar to the 2nd bow and just has a flap with a carboard insert to stiffen it up.




Lastly, there is a big zipper that holds the top to the rear curtain above the rear glass.

[MaR]

With the actual top off, next is the pair of pads. The protect the seam in the top and pad it from wear on the frame mechanisms. These pads are completely shot and they just fall apart in your hands. The only thing left of them is the upper liner. The foam and the heavy inner liner just crumble in your hands. They were screwed to the front bow, stapled to the 3rd bow and just the foam and upper liner portion continue on to the rear curtain where the foam is glued down.







Once the pads were off, the rear curtain with the rear glass is accessable.




The white part is the apron and is the only fabric part of the curtain that is visible when the top is up. It's stapled along the rear tack strip.




With the staples out of the apron, the curtain is exposed. It was supposed to be stapled down but the installer just skipped that step. I pulled all the staples around the sides to free the curtain from the rear tack strip.




The last thing holding the curtain on was a row of staples on the 3rd bow.




With the rear curtain out, next was the well liner. It did not have many staples holding it on.




Lastly is the gutter. It does what it sounds like it does and directs water to the body drains.

[MaR]

While I had been working with the rear tack strip, I felt like something was wrong with it. The tack strip material was loose in the track on the ends and when I got down to the gutter, I found that it was installed completely wrong.




The gutter is supposed to be stapled to the rear tack strip and just allowed to drape down on the outside of the tack strip. This installer stapled it on upside down and wrapped it around rear tack strip and let it drape down on the inside of the tack strip. This caused two problems: the gutter is now too shallow and lets the water pool up inside the gutter itself, and the water wicks that are supposed to go down the front of the inner wheel wells to the body drains were just cut off because they would have gotten caught up in the top mechanism. This let water spill under the back seat and into the trunk. Another issue with it installed incorrectly is that it was too tight and ripped on one side. Fortunately, the gutter on my old top is salvageable and I'll reuse that part. Once I got the gutter off, this is what I found:








This rear tack strip is garbage. It's completely rusted out and was like that when they put this top on. The tack strip material was missing out of most of the channel and was replaced with the wrong type. On top of that, since they used the wrong type, they had to rivet it in just to get it to stay. Since they tried to rivet it in to rust though, they rivets just popped out.






On top of that, the front 18 inches or so of the passenger side was just completely rusted away. They cobbled in a piece of Home Depot C channel to replace the missing part but that just barely worked to get it out the door.






What I don't understand is why they even bothered wasting the time to botch up the rear tack strip when you can just order a brand new one for not much money at all.

[MaR]

I pulled a few staples.

[MaR]

While going though my collection of parts I noticed that the rubber seal on the replacement passenger side gearbox was in better condition than my existing one. One clip and one rivet later and I had it swapped over.





I also found that a specific carriage bolt on the replacement frame seem to be of a revised, stronger design. My existing one was worn so I swapped in the different ones.




Next I mounted the drivers side lift arm to the gearbox and mounting frame.






With this arm assembled, I mounted it back into the car.





The arm was a little long and the front guide pin missed it's hole.




To correct this, you adjust the stop at the middle hinge and that adjust the length of the arm by allowing the joint to pivot more or less at that point.

[MaR]

After putting the drivers side arm together and back on the car, I found out that it's much easer to just put it together in pieces on the car rather than building it on ground and then mounting it to the car. I mounted the bracket first.




And then the arm to the bracket.




And finally, the gearbox to the bracket and the arm.

[MaR]

I put a new tack strip on my front bow. You can see the tabs that hold the tack strip in that were missing on the other front bow.





And finally I bolted the front bow to the two arms.

[MaR]

One of the last things under the hood I needed to refinish was the top of the radiator shroud. It has various stickers on it and I just had never bother to get some reproduction stickers so I could refurbish it properly.






I removed the old decals (deck-uls for our Canadian friends) and sandblasted it.






And then I painted it to match the other parts under the hood and put the repro decals (deck-uls) on.

[MaR]

Back to the top frame. The 2nd bow is the next part to work on. It just had a little surface rust in places and the pivot arms needed to be replaced. I removed the old arms, sandblasted the bow, and painted it to match the other frame parts.







Next I put a pair of new pivot arms on. The pivot arm kit comes with brand new arms and all new mounting hardware.






I also reinstalled the pivot arm wear sliders in the lifter arms.





The pivot arms point forward on the lifter arms and allow the 2nd bow to remain parallel to the windshield while the lifter arms fold up when the top is being put down. When the top is up, they lock into tabs on the lifter arms and help keep the arms aligned with the door glass so the weather stripping makes a tight seal on the top of the door glass.






Here is how the pivot arm folds when the lifter arms fold inward when the top is going down.

[MaR]

Next to go back on are the latching handles. Previously, both of them had sticking problems and the passenger side was almost impossible to latch. You had to push the top down from the outside while moving the latch handle to even get it close to latching. After I sandblasted, refinished, and greased them, they worked perfectly the first time. I think there were a few issues that made it hard to latch before: the old top material was binding up the top frame, the 2nd bow pivot arms were worn and not helping to keep the arms aligned, and most of the pivot joints were either too loose or tightened up too tightly.











Lastly, I added the trim molding across the upper inside lip of the front bow. That's where you grab the front bow to pull it down when you are latching the top down.

[MaR]

While I'm waiting for some materials I need to arrive to continue working on the top installation, I finished a few other things that were still not done. The first one was the last of horns. This car has the optional trumpet horn which gives it a total of four horns. I had already cleaned up and reinstalled the first two horns plus the trumpet horn, the last one was the one that goes on top.






And finally installed:

[MaR]

This car also has the optional auto dimming high beams. I have had the bracket for the sensor refinished for a long time but I just had never gotten around to putting it all back together. The light sensor assembly has a bracket, the sensor, a boot to control the incoming light and a few screws and springs.




The boot mounts around the bracket and the sensor mounts behind the boot using the springs and an adjuster screw.





There is a bubble level mounted to the sensor housing so you can level it out.





The assembly mounts forward of the radiator and condenser between the grill and the top of the front support.







There is a hole in the upper front support where you can look down and see the bubble level. You adjust the lower screw until the bubble is in the middle.






I was actually fairly surprised that it worked perfectly the first time I plugged in the sensor.

[MaR]

I did continue to refinish the remaining bows on the top frame. All of these remaining bows are too large to fit in any of the sandblasters I have access to but fortunately, they are not very rusty at all. I started with the 3rd bow which mostly just needed the old glue removed and a light sanding. This bow is just behind the rear quarter windows and controls the rear side of the top.





The 4th bow is just a guide bow and nothing is actually attached to it. It's purpose is to push the top of the back window up and give the top it's shape where it changes direction from the roof to the back glass curtain area. It also has a plastic cover that goes on the underside of the bow itself.





The last piece is the rear tack strip. It is a large bow that lays horizontal under the rear body opening. It's what all of the top pieces are stapled to around the sides and rear of the car. When the top is up, there is a lever section on the sides that pushes the bow up against the underside of the body to make the top fit tight to the body opening all the way around the car. This is also on the other frame that was so badly rusted and then cobbled back together. This original one just had a bit of light surface rust on the mounting bracket that I sanded and touched up. The 3rd and 4th bows bolt to the mounting bracket and the whole assembly then bolts to the actuator brackets.




Since virtually all the cloth pieces of the top staple to this part of the frame, I'm going to staple as many of the parts on before I mount this section back into the car.

[MaR]

The first part that will be stapled to the rear tack strip bow is the gutter. I'm reusing my old gutter as it's in much better condition than the one that came with the replacement top. All it really needs is to be cleaned up and new tails attached. You can see below that it cleaned up nicely.







The tails direct the water that collects in the gutter down the front of the wheel well and to the drains in the body. they were torn off of both sides on my gutter and I just made new ones from pieces of the old top that were still in useable condition.





The old tails had just torn off.

[MaR]

I also finished up a few other things on the lifter arm part of the top frame. These guide blocks keep the top frame from rubbing together when it's folded up. They mount near the latch handles.






I also mounted the upper weatherstripping for the door glass. This piece of weatherstripping mounts directly to the lifter arm and has a gutter section that helps guide water away from the door opening when it's raining.








The matching piece of weatherstripping that goes on the top of rear quarter window is mounted to the 3rd bow. It does not go on until the top material is completely attached.

[MaR]

Here is an fairly dull little part: NOS wiper blade refills. I was surprised how hard it is to find the correct blade refills anymore.





The old ones were very shot.






The new blades just popped right in.

[MaR]

My stainless steel staples arrived so I was able to start on the reassembly of the top. The first piece to go back on was the gutter. It has a notch cut in it where the center of the part is so you can line it up with the center of the frame.





After than, it's just a matter of going around the edges and stapling it all on.

[MaR]

Next is the well liner. It staples over the gutter but wraps over the top of the frame. When mounted in the car, it covers the well where the top retracts into. It has the same type of alignment notch as the gutter.




It's "lightly" stapled all the way around like the gutter was.

[MaR]

Next I scrubbed the rear curtain to get the majority of the dirt and grime off of it before I installed it.




And then I started to staple it to the rear bow. The section below the glass is two layers and they both have alignment marks to help get it centered.






I continued to staple the curtain around the sides.





Both the black parts and the white flap have guide lines printed on them to help align the top material with the bow.






With the curtain stapled all the way around the sides, I stapled the top edge of the curtain to the 3rd bow. I made an alignment mark with the center mark on the 3rd bow before I took it off the other frame.






And with all of the staples in the 3rd bow, this is how it sat.