I mentioned before that my beloved mid-life crisis mobile was the victim of a hail storm recently. I got the estimate today… $3,295 in damage. Every single panel on my car had damage (and this is a car I babied for years). I’m going to get it repaired because I’ve always planned to drive this car until I can’t and then hand it down to one of my kids.
Anyway, it is a convertible and there is one tiny tear on the top. Picture a very sharp pencil pushing down at an angle to make a slit maybe a quarter inch long. They don’t repair these, they replace the whole top. This is around $1k of the damage.
I found out today that convertible tops are depreciate-able since they will wear out eventually. The adjuster was amazed with the shape it was in and only took the minimum 10% depreciation off… $93 out of my pocket.
So, no shop will repair the damage since they won’t warranty it. They will either replace the whole thing and charge me $93, or they will give me an “appearance allowance” of $400 to keep it as it is (based on the percentage of the part of the top that is actually damaged).
So, option 1 is to Pay my deductible plus $93 and get everything fixed and get a whole new soft top (replacing 7 year old one) including glass rear window and defroster, or option 2 where I pay my deductible less $400 and fix everything but the top… with the understanding that if it rips further I pay the $1k to replace it later.
So, after this way too long set up, the question is if anyone has any experience with repairing the tiny hole and if you think it is worth the risk or if I’m better off paying the price and getting things up to almost brand new status. I assume repair would be similar to those ads they show on TV to fix couches etc. where you apply some kind of plastic, smooth it out and maybe apply a texture thing. May or may not exactly match the color but again it is a tiny spot.
Is the top fabric or vinyl ?
My guess is that an upholstery shop can make a repair on the underside of the top that is almost invisible. You probably need more than just a blob of plastic, you need some type of patch that can take the stress of folding and unfolding the top.
Why do people that ask car repair related questions frequently do not mention the type of car in the OP ?
$93? Replace it.
There are probably a million opinions, but for something that takes as much wear as a soft-top on a convertible, I’d rather have it whole, instead of ‘with hole’.
I’ve repaired (and seen repairs done on) several Bimini tops for boats… Small holes only get larger. For any hope of a lasting repair, you need to put a double stitched patch on the top and bottom, preferably a box-x stitch, which would be very visible on a car (but isn’t so much of an issue on a boat).
Convertible tops are also under a lot of stress, so unless the patch is done under the same stress, it will only end up weakening the fabric, and I don’t know how I’d get my sewing machine in-place to make a proper patch under stress.
$93 for a new roof is a bargain, but he’s effectively paying $493 for it. I’d probably get the new roof, since it’s seven years old already, but it’s not that clear cut.
Ditto. Once a top is damaged it won’t hold up under the stress of opening and closing.
On the other hand if you plan to sell this thing soon, just put a blob of goop in the hole and take the 400 bucks.
If this is a vinyl top, and you want to keep the car you should throw in the extra cash to get a fabric top. I’ve been lucky with my Celica, it will turn 30 in 2 years, and I’m only on the second top, which is in better shape than most of the rest of the car. Vinyl wouldn’t have help up that long.
I have seen small holes and short rips in fabric convertible tops that were patched and held up for over a year. I don’t know how it was done, but it appeared from the outside to be a high grade silicone rubber from a tube. There may have been some reinforcement (duct tape?) on the inside. I have to assume that either the tops were left up all the time (yes, some people do that) or the repaired area had minimal stress and wasn’t in a fold when the top was lowered.
So it can be done, and may last for quite a while depending upon just where the hole is. Assuming it holds you would then have an X-year old top for a savings of $493, as compared to a new top for a savings of $0. As I see it, it comes down to whether you’d like a new top now for about 500, or probably a new top several years from now for about 1000.
I have a $1k deductible (hey, I’ve got 4 cars and 2 teen drivers) so I’m looking at dropping $1,093 or $600. The top as I said looks brand new other than this tiny hole, so I’ll be high fiving myself if 5 years from now I’m still driving with a nice top, or kicking myself if six months from now I’m driving with part of it flapping in the wind.
It is vinyl by the way… glass rear window with defroster (sorry should have mentioned that in the first place). 2006 Mustang GT. The hole is just above the drivers window midway between the two ribs so it doesn’t appear to have tons of stress in this location. I am NOT one who keeps the top up all the time (that would be your typical Seibring owner).
I’m leaning to getting a new top… my wife feels strongly we can repair it and save some money.
I’d go to an auto upholstery shop and see if I could get someone to talk turkey to me about patching it. No guarantee, of course, because it’s a non-standard repair, but I bet some of those folks know if it’s a feasible option in the real world (e.g., they’ve done it to their own car and it lasted X years).
ETA: And vinyl can probably be heat-welded, melted together with a vinyl patch that may be rather strong.