2010 Dodge Charger Concept (update 10/03/09)

[Modellpularn]

Wow, that's some work you put into it!! The purple paint looks cool.

[made007]

why the roof is white?

[caine440]

This is incredible, I am reading and looking at your photos and I still can not believe how great this is turning out. You have no fear and boy is it paying off.

Keep posting!

Thanks!

[Trans Am Erik]

She's lookin real good Peter! I like the color choice. Good job on the grille and tail lights too.

[Peter Lombardo]

So I am wondering, how many of you have installed a vinyl roof on one of your models? Up until today, I have never installed one. I purchased a black vinyl top kit from The Model Car Garage kit number MCG-713 a number of years ago thinking that I would put one on a 1966 GTO or a 1968 /69 Dodge Charger but I never got around to doing it. Now I am in the middle of this current day Charger Concept and thought I would finally have a car I could install a roof on. The drawings of the concept car have a black roof and it looks from the rendering that it is a painted roof, not a vinyl covered roof, but since vinyl roofs were all the rage back in the “hey day†of the Charger that this concept was inspired by, I thought a vinyl roof would look better. So I dragged out the old vinyl material and low and behold, it is shot. The backing has stuck to the top and not hot soapy water or a blow dryer was going to tear apart this union, so I had to order another kit. It came in today and I couldn’t wait to dig into it.

The first thing I did paint all of the edges flat black around the roof at the outer edge of where the vinyl roof was to sit as some added insurance in case I came up a little short on the installation….hopefully this will not be needed but an ounce of prevention……. The next thing I did was scribe (draw) the two seam lines down the out sides of the top.

I actually eyeballed the placement of one side as to where I thought the seam would look right and then measured that location in reference to the outer edge of the top so I could replicate the same location on the other side.

Then I measured in 1/32nd of an inch on both sides and drew a second line. You can see the two lines side by side. I then measures the distance between the two outer lines (closest to the outer edge of the roof) so I would have the measurement of the inner piece of the vinyl top. Real vinyl tops have an overlap where the two pieces come together so you must overlap the kit vinyl to replicate that seam

Than I made a template out of paper for the two side pieces of the vinyl top. Once I had that I cut the vinyl material to fit the template making sure that both pieces were correct for each side.

You must do one in a mirror image of the other so as to have a left and a right side. Overlay the piece on the roof and make sure it fits correctly, than you must cut a straight edge along the top edge so that it will follow one of the lines drawn on the roof.

Then I measured and cut out the center piece taking extra care to make sure all sides were straight and true. I cut the length to be 5 millimeters longer on the front and back to be sure I had ample room for overhang.

Next came the hardest part of the whole job. Removing the backing material from the vinyl material. That stuff is really stuck on and great care must be taken so as to not damage the material. I used the tip of my number 11 blade to carefully work up the vinyl material. It was slow going and make sure you work on a section of the vinyl that is in the overhang and will later be cut off because the vinyl can take a beating before the two parts begin to separate. Ok, once one of the side pieces is free of the backing, line up the straight edge of the side piece to the inner most of the two lines you drew on the roof.

The outside section of the vinyl material must be matched up to the inner most line so that the center section, which is measured to the outer most line will have a 1/16th inch overlap once the center section is installed.. Now use a cotton swab or your favorite burnishing tool to smooth out the vinyl roof.

Than, with a brand new blade in your knife, cut little “flaps†in the material that overhangs the roof on the sides so that you can push it up to the inside of the roof in the interior. Next I cut the roof vinyl material at the top of the pillar and began working around the molding strip at the sail pillar in the back. I cut the vinyl just at the top edge of the molding which will later be covered with bare metal foil.

Once the side pieces are set, I moved on to the center piece of vinyl. I carefully removed it from the backing being careful not to damage the straight edges on the sides.

This piece was cut to fit between the two outer most lines on the roof so that it overlapped the edges of the side pieces to replicate the seam on a real vinyl roof. I carefully placed the cent piece down and burnished it down so it was nice and smooth. Than I pressed the front and back edges down into the grooves for the window tracks at the top. I than cut the excess off leaving the vinyl roof material to stop where the “window glass†will begin when I install that next.

Once that was done, I used bare metal foil in a satin aluminum finish to cover the molding at the bottom of the vinyl roof and around the lower edge of the rear window.

And that is that….now I will install the “glass†tomorrow and after that I can begin final assembly of the car.

[charlie8575]

I have a couple of cars I'd like to try a vinyl top on. This stuff looks like the solution, as I'm not so sure about painting it on or masking tape. Does it come in white by chance?

Looks great, I love the concept.

Charlie Larkin

[Peter Lombardo]

Yes, it comes in black or white. It really is easy to use, but the one hang up is the difficulty of removing the backing material from the vinyl...be careful when doing it.

[vizio93]

nice job on that top man. you have done some really good lookin' work on that dodge. can't wait to see it all rapped up.

[FujimiLover]

Really nice job there! But to me it look's like it has the texture of masking tape?

I didn't realize somebody had made a scale vinyl material. Is it stick on?