As we saw in part 1 of this series, the vinyl top rapidly transitioned from curiosity to commodity between 1962 and 1966. By the late 1960s, vinyl tops had lost any of their original pretense of being simulated convertible tops and had become a styling feature in their own right. The late 60s and early 70s would be peak vinyl, as manufacturers experimented with a variety of shapes, textures, patterns, and vehicle fitments of vinyl tops.
Different Body Styles
While vinyl tops were originally limited to sedans and coupes (owing to their convertible top origins), they quickly spread to other body styles, even those typically not associated with convertibles, such as pickup trucks and station wagons.
1965 Chrysler New Yorker Wagon
Chrysler and Pontiac share the honors for the first station wagon vinyl roof in 1965. Chrysler’s was a split style vinyl roof, but rather than being split from to back like most partial vinyl roofs, this application was curiously split down the middle.
1966 Pontiac Bonneville Wagon
Pontiac also offered a Bonneville wagon with a full vinyl roof starting in 1965.
1967 Dodge D100 with simulated vinyl roof
Dodge was the first to put a vinyl roof on a pickup truck, in 1967, available in black or white. The D100 with the white top (pictured above) was actually textured paint and not vinyl, but I couldn’t find a decent picture of a 1967 D100 with a proper vinyl black roof.
1968 Chevrolet El Camino with vinyl top
The Chevrolet El Camino was also available with a vinyl top starting in 1968.
1968 Chevrolet Corvette Convertible with optional vinyl removable hardtop
Even America’s only true sports car was not immune to the vinyl roof. By 1968, the mighty Chevrolet Corvette was available with an optional vinyl top. Granted, it was only available on the optional removable hardtop for the convertible: The fixed roof Corvette was never available with a vinyl roof.
Printed Patterns
Another way to liven up your vinyl tops is with a printed pattern. We’ve already seen this idea explored in convertible tops, such as stillborn 1961 Buick Convertible Tops In Designer Fabrics, so it was only natural to apply this idea to vinyl tops as well.
1970 Plymouth Barracuda Mod Top
While Ford may have launched the vinyl roof fad in 1962, leave it to Chrysler to jump the vinyl shark. Chrysler made printed vinyl tops (complete with matching seats and door panels) available in 1969 and 1970 with their Mod Top option, available on various Plymouth and Dodge models. Technically it was only called a “Mod Top” when fitted to a Plymouth – Dodge just called it a “Floral Top.”
These were quite rare – only 2,876 were produced between 1969 and 1970, and I don’t recall ever seeing one when I was growing up.
1970 Plymouth Fury with Paisley Vinyl Top
Plymouth also had a paisley vinyl top option in 1970 and 1971, which also had a matching interior. Technically not a Mod Top, as it was not marketed as such.
1970 Mercury Cougar Houndstooth Edition
Not to be left out, in 1970 Mercury offered a Cougar with a factory houndstooth printed vinyl top and (natch) a matching houndstooth interior. While not factory-installed, the houndstooth vinyl top was also available as a dealer-installed accessory on other Ford products, and in my research, I found several period Mustangs so equipped.
Textured Vinyl
While most vinyl tops either had a diamond point pattern (similar to a nylon convertible top) or an elk or leather texture, Chrysler (of course) experimented with some other textures.
1970 Plymouth with Alligator Pattern Top
We’ve already previously seen how Kaiser used alligator textured vinyl on their 1951 Dragon. Chrysler resurrected the look in 1969 and 1970 for various Plymouth and Dodge models.
1970 Chrysler Tortoise Shell Vinyl Roof. Photo courtesy Dejan Marinkovic.
Chrysler also offered Tortoise Shell pattern top vinyl on their 1969 and 1970 C-bodies.
1970 Chrysler Newport Cordoba
Last but certainly not least, in 1970 Chrysler offered a Newport Cordoba model, long before the B-body PLC of the same name. The Newport Cordoba is quite possibly the only Aztec-themed car ever to be made, complete with Aztec-style emblems, interior fabric, and most importantly (for our purposes), an “Espanol” vinyl roof with an inset Aztec-inspired texture.
Different Shapes
The original and most common style of vinyl roof is of course the full vinyl roof, covering the entire roof including the pillars. This is the style most evocative of a convertible top, which as you will recall was the original “function” of the vinyl-covered roof.
1965 Plymouth Barracuda with canopy style vinyl roof
Starting in 1963, Chrysler experimented with a canopy-style roof, where only the front half of the roof is covered, leaving the rear pillars and trailing edge painted in body color. This look is most associated with Chrysler, as they used it well into the 1970s, but AMC, Ford, Mercury, and GM all employed the look at various times through the years.
1965 Buick Skylark with halo-style vinyl roof
There is also the Halo-style roof, where only the inner sections of the roof are covered with vinyl. The earliest example of this that I could find was the 1964 Buick Skylark.
1971 AMC Javelin AMX with split vinyl roof
Perhaps the wildest vinyl roof shape is the split roof, which is a vinyl roof bisected by a strip of metal. We already saw one example earlier in this piece, The 1965 Chrysler New Yorker wagon. The 1971 AMC AMX is a better-known example.
The Landau Roof
The style of vinyl roof that would most come to define the Personal Luxury Coupe, the landau roof in which only the rear half of the roof is covered in vinyl (and usually with a fixed glass opera window) didn’t really come into prominence until the mid-70s. Tracing the lineage of the first modern landau roof is a little tricky, and could almost be a post of its own.
1967 Imperial Crown Coupe with half-vinyl roof
It first appeared in the 1967 Imperial Crown Coupe, although Chrysler referred to it as a canopy roof, and not a landau roof. The look was not popular (or so Chrysler thought), and the option was gone by 1969.
1970 AMC Javelin SST with Landau Roof
AMC introduced the first properly named landau roof on the 1970 Javelin SST. It was a one-year-only option, replaced in 1971 by the wild split vinyl roof mentioned earlier.
1971 Hurst Pontiac Grand Prix SSJ with landau roof
It should also be mentioned that various special edition Hurst Oldsmobile and Pontiac models were available with landau roofs as early as 1971. These were extremely limited production models, and lacking opera windows, they don’t look quite right to modern eyes.
1972 Cadillac Eldorado Custom Cabriolet
Lastly, Cadillac offered an extremely limited edition Eldorado Custom Cabriolet model in 1972. While this has both the vinyl half-roof and opera windows, Cadillac curiously didn’t call it a landau roof, but rather referred to it as a “vinyl backroof.”
1973 Chevrolet Monte Carlo Landau
To me, the first car that put all the pieces together (vinyl half roof, opera windows, while actually calling it a landau roof) that was a regular production offering (not a limited or special edition) was the 1973 Chevrolet Monte Carlo Landau. This is only fitting because, as we all know, the Monte Carlo is the car that brought the PLC to the masses. This time, the look was a smashing success, and the template for the personal luxury coupe had essentially been set for the remainder of the decade. Other makers (and even other brands within GM) quickly copied the look, and by 1975 virtually every Detroit brand was offering at least one model with a landau vinyl roof and opera windows.
Postscript
By the early 1970s, virtually all of the outrageous printed and textured vinyl roofs were gone, and it seemed like the vinyl top had run its course. However, the vinyl top would actually stick around for several more decades to come. Head over to Part 3 for the exciting third and final part of this series!
Related Reading
Automotive History: Dude, Your Dodge Has A Toupee
The Most Obscure Special Editions and Forgotten Limited-Run Models: Mopar Edition, Part II
Thanks for Part 1 & 2, looking forward to the next vinyltastic episode!
First Holdens with a vinyl option were the HD series. Wheels magazine made the most of it with a cover story “Ragtop Holdens” Apart from the local version of the LTD & Landau, we were spared the full horror of padded roofs. Holden Broughams did sport a halo roof option. Much like the ’69 Camaro it came to about two inches of the drip rails.
They were dealer only installs by the late ’70s when I started at the dealership, and I’ve seen the odd early Commodore with one. Panel beaters loved them as they were a quick and easy way to cover hail damage.
Saw an XB Falcon with the mother-of-all-vinyl roofs, this monstrosity covered the roof, and a strip on the boot lid. Even ran forward below the waist line, inflicting itself on both front and back doors. Yuck!
Terrific series that shows all the wild iterations of vinyl roofs over the course of two decades. Chrysler, in particular, during the late sixties and early seventies, really seemed to have went bonkers on throwing whatever (vinyl) they could come up with at the wall to see what would stick. As it appears, not much.
But, typically, a vinyl roof simply covered the whole roof. The exceptions were, as pointed out, the 1973 Monte Carlo landau.
The other one not mentioned that was most frequently seen was the canopy style on 1970 and later Mopar A-body coupes. I vividly recall seeing those on what seemed like every other Duster/Demon/Dart Sport. IIRC, there were popular option package specials that included the canopy roof, along with a few other pieces of swag like side stripes, full wheel covers, upgraded interior vinyl, and white-wall tires.
FWIW, the biggest reason not many ‘Mod Tops’ are seen today, besides an extremely low take rate, was how quickly the printing tended to fade in the sun.
I don’t know if it’s a stepping stone to the landau, or just a dead end, but the ’65-66 Chrysler New Yorker hardtops had vinyl on the C pillars, and only on the pillars, leaving the entire horizontal roof painted metal.
I thought of that one too.
What I find interesting about vinyl roofs is how they started out mostly on sporty cars, yet by the late ’70s were considered inappropriate for non-Broughams or anything trying to look modern (like say, a 1986 Taurus). Apparently the Eldorado and Monte Carlo prompted that changeover.
In that regard, one of the most interesting applications during this timeframe was on the 1970 Plymouth Superbird ‘wingcar’. Quite an odd choice for a car specifically built for super-speedway use, but the rationale was purely financial. Chrysler’s NASCAR specials were expensive and hand-built, so to save a few pennies, when the custom, flush rear window was installed, rather than finishing it in metal (as was done with the previous year’s Dodge Daytona), Chrysler just slapped a vinyl roof on each and every Superbird.
And I don’t think using a vinyl roof to cover unfinished roof welds stopped there, either. IIRC, the same technique was used on the E-body (if not others) which significantly contributed to the metal underneath vinyl roofs rusting and bubbling as the cars aged.
IOW, although a vinyl roof was an extra-cost option, it may have been ‘more’ expensive to leave the vinyl roof off and finish and paint the metal roof.
A vinyl roof was mandatory on late-75 and 1976 Cadillac Sevilles because they used the shorter Nova roof and had a section welded on in (i think) the back, and the vinyl covered the weld. From 77-79 GM finally ponied up for a unique Seville roof, allowing the vinyl roof to move to the options list, where it should have been all along for a car designed to compete with Mercedes and other imports. Several cars from the ’80s used this technique as well when they wanted to add a thick C pillar and vertical rear window to a car that didn’t originally have it. These included the Chrysler Fifth Avenue and some versions of the Ford LTD Crown Vic/Mercury Grand Marquis.
Once the vinyl roof is removed, the car looks outrageous
When a little child, I was a grot, just one of those kids who’re naturally able to find in even, say, a minimalist Bauhaus interior, some filth, and end up wearing it.
My mum, though not German, quite understandably came up with the idea of lederhosen for her youngest, the washing burden to lessen. Unfortunately, there more of us than Let’s Knit Grandma (or whatever ’70’s hippy-dippy booklet she’d picked up with the ‘hosen pattern) allowed for, so there was no money. That meant the leder in my hosen was chemical-based, and frankly, a vinyl nightmare.
Sure, they were tough, and could be hosed – usually with me still onboard – and they did make me look like I was some cute little brown-clad alpen stein-drinker, but they were otherwise quite unsuitable as day wear. They sweated, badly, and, apart from often-enough squishing my incipient manliness from their tendency to ride up at the shoulders, the accumulated drippage meant that I had to be tipped and poured like a bucket at the end of a hard day’s play (if the hose couldn’t be found).
My point, childhood trauma apart, is this: vinyl is not suitable for any use outside of the making of records or swimming pools.The horrible cows it must have come from do not make comfortable seats in cars – let alone clothing – and the idea that their skin is also an item sensible to stretch across part of an outdoor area on a vehicle is simply risible, and always was.
Even as a child during Peak Vinyl, I thought it plain ugly to place stretched pieces of fake lederhosen over the roof a car. The idea that it made the thing underneath look like a convertible didn’t work at all – it just looked hot. And as has been pointed out, by the time of the Peak, ’70’s styling was all variations on Fuselagia, so it also meant idiotic bits of improbable chrome had to be bent across arbitrary non-gaps to demarcate the roof’s end, and also perhaps to stop the vinyl drape from eventually reaching the sills. Just awful dime-store carbuncling crap, the lot of it.
As for the half-jobs, the semi-roofs, the Partial Toupee Special Edition things so rife by the late era, they were the worst of a very nasty lot, looking for all the disgusting world like a fat guy wearing nothing but a training bra and some metallic paint thereunder. Though even they were topped by vinyl-roofed barges with a sliding steel sunroof that was also vinyl-covered.
Now those, those looked like a cheap vinyl couch that had a special sliding door for the very lazy sitter, when necessary, to take a shit, which such noun coincidentally sums up with complete accuracy my very nuanced view of vinyl roofage.
Long may it continue that whatever’s under any of them rusts speedily into oblivion.
I can actually think of one, quite minor practical benefit to a vinyl roof, and that’s that it would ‘slightly’ muffle the sound of raindrops hitting the roof.
So, in that regard, those heavily padded, brougham-tastic vinyl roofs would help make them quieter.
On the ’66 Bonneville being the first Pontiac wagon with a vinyl roof… I think that’s a year off. I clearly recall a friend’s mom having a maroon ’65 Bonneville Safari with a black vinyl roof. It was the first time I’d noticed vinyl on a wagon.
At oldcarbrochures.com I found this on pages 40-41 the full-line 1965 Pontiac brochure:
“If you’re wondering about the Cordova vinyl roof you see on the Catalina [wagon] at left, it’s new for 1965. You can get it in black or beige, whether you order the roof luggage carrier or not.”
It would seem a vinyl roof could be ordered on any Catalina or Bonneville wagon that year; we had a black one (as recently mentioned) on our ’67 Executive wagon.
Good find. I’ve updated the post accordingly.
I recall how vinyl roofs took over in an incredibly short time. They were quite uncommon in 1964 and almost universal by 1968. My grandma bought a 69 Catalina sedan that had a black painted roof on a silver car, and it was a strange sight for something that would have been really common just a few years earlier.
The different grains and textures is interesting. The early Chrysler roofs used a unique grain to the vinyl that was kind of like a strand pattern (all oriented the same direction) whereas the GM vinyl used a pebble grain. Both of them were difficult and time consuming to keep really clean and good looking.
I thought you might mention the epic vinyl roof fail from (of course) Chrysler with the 1971 Imperial with the burgundy vinyl roof. Some Einstein got the idea that they could print a burgundy dye over the gobs of leftover Mod Top vinyl to use on the Imperial. It worked great until the cars went through several months of weather exposure and the underlying pattern began to show through. Chrysler recalled them all and replaced the roofs with black or white vinyl.
The irony of the over-dyed, burgundy Mod Top Imperial is it’s probably the most rare version and finding an original one would make it one of the more valuable.
I remember reading of painted-over Mod Tops fading and annoying customers but assumed they were on cars that originally offered Mod Tops. Had no idea it was used on Imperials, but I think it looks great on it. Wonder how many are left that survived the recall (and 50 years).
That’s perfect! So much better than a dull monochromatic top.
It’s modern art,
presented by ®Chrysler® Corporation
I kinda like it like that!
It’s certainly a lot more understated than the original Mod Top.
The only remaining vestige today is the thin “vinyl wrap” covered door pillars (B-pillar on sedans, B and C pillars on SUVs and minivans) that are nearly universal. Some (Toyota Supra, Highlander, and new Tundra) even have it on the A pillar.
I don’t think Chrysler painted or even primered the roofs of their vinyl top optioned cars. Rust bubbling up from the windshield and rear window edges looks to have been a chronic issue.
See my above comment on the 1970 Plymouth Superbird. I don’t know if that’s where it started, but I can sure see someone at Chrysler thinking, “Hey, if leaving the roof unfinished for a vinyl roof worked on the Superbird, hell, we can do it with all the cars that get a vinyl roof”.
I remember in the 70’s one of the car magazines did a build on the newly downsized Thunderbird. They really really didn’t want a vinyl roof which was standard. Ford wouldn’t do a special order for one without it so they accepted one with the vinyl roof. When they had the vinyl removed what they found underneath was not suitable for paint. To get the look they were going for they had a fiberglass cap to paint to match the car. So yeah there certainly were cases where they cut costs underneath because they were going to get a vinyl roof.
About 1981 or so I peeled the disintegrating vinyl roof covering from my 71 Plymouth Scamp (which, sadly, I had just repainted the year earlier). As I recall there was primer covering the roof, but it did not appear to be a very thick coat. It has long been my understanding that primer that is not covered by paint is a moisture sponge, so that would probably not have been great under the vinyl.
The color of that lead-in Lincoln, the pattern of the 1970 Chrysler, and the whole darn 1971 AMX are quite amazing! I didn’t realize I was affected much either way by vinyl tops… but I guess I tend to like em. practicality be damned.
Oh, I remember the Plymouth Mod Top. It was on a 318 Satellite two door hardtop (bench seat, automatic) that I test drove for some reason back in 1970. Despite my slowing edging towards my glam rock self of the next half decade or so, at this point I’d decided that I was still way too macho to be seen in public in that car.
I do remember the salesman was really desperate to move that car, and I didn’t notice a second Plymouth of any type so equipped at the dealership.
Could be the smallest vinyl top. 1965-68 Chrysler New Yorker. Nicely done.
C-pillar trim only. Looks great on that car.
I don’t miss them. My mother owned a chocolate brown ’77 Monte Carlo with light tan landau top that tended to collect all manner of crud in its grain. I vividly recall using a stiff bristle brush to clean that top, then moving on to the whitewalls and those miserable polycast wheels. Properly washing that car was a miserable job.
My ’68 International 1000C short wide had a factory black fake vinyl roof. I’ve only seen these on the Dealers Special trucks.
I should have bought into the Reed-Union Corp., makers of Nu-Vinyl back in the late 60’s, would have made a fortune. Now owned by Energizer Holdings.
Who knows how many of these I saw on the roads of the day, but most are familiar from ads and publicity shots. I look forward to Part Three!
Getty Images tells us that Richard Petty took a vinyl-roofed car to Daytona in 1968—anyone know why?—airflow trickery?—but that it had some peeling problems at speed:
In “The Unfair Advantage,” Mark Donohue said that Penske installed vinyl roofs on their Trans-Am Camaros because they had acid dipped the bodies so much that the vinyl hid the flimsiness of the roof to some extent. I don’t know if that’s what was going on in the Petty camp though.
Oooo….I’d never heard that story, but this all sounds very plausible–thanks!
The number one reason the US automobile manufacturers began installing vast numbers of vinyl tops starting in the late 1960s . . .
The profit margin was the biggest of all the options. The typical full vinyl top on a sedan cost the manufacturer well under $20, parts and labor. The typical retail cost of a vinyl top varied from about $225 on cars like the Dart or Valiant, and upwards of $1,200 or more on Cadillac cars. I’ve watched videos on Ford vinyl top installs, and at the factory it took 2 men less than 2 minutes to install the fabric portion.
I went thru the Ford Vinyl top installation course and installed them on many Mustangs, Mavericks, Torinos, even Pintos. They were so cheap to install that salesmen often gave the vinyl top installation away to close the deal. But in the Ford course, it was designed so ONE man could do the job, and most payed 1.5 hours to install. That included drilling the holes for the trim strips, spraying the contact glue, [one side at a time], and rolling the vinyl material onto the cement, first one side, then the other. A few of them, like the Mustang Grande roof with the sunken rear window, paid more for the labor costs.
And I DID install the checkered houndstooth pattern from the Cougar, to multiple Mustang coupes. For a while in the fall of 1971 it was very popular. This might have been a special fall dealer incentive in 1971, I don’t know, perhaps someone more familiar with the sales aspect can chime in.
Our Ford dealer bought a few former county police cars, and I was tasked with installing black vinyl tops on them to make them more saleable, and it helped hide the holes in the top from the “bubblegum machine” red light. And no, the holes were not filled, we were instructed to ignore them!
You have to wonder about the process to separate vinyl top cars from non-vinyl top cars as they came down the assembly line. You’d think the savings would be minor compared to the logistics of deviating the cars from a complete spray booth to one that only did the body sheetmetal and omitted the roof, all just to save a few ounces of paint.
Of course, there’s also the savings of not having to finish and smooth the welds where the roof attached to the body. Still, seems like the savings would be minimal compared to all the work required.
Rudiger,
While I have heard GM scrimped on paint for the vinyl top cars, I do know from the videos I saw, that the Ford cars slated for tops were fully painted.
As for the welded seams, they still had to be finished to a high degree, because while they might be invisible, they could certainly be felt if one runs a hand across the surface. The actual vinyl top material is fairly thin, so it will allow surface defects to be felt.
In the course I went thru, we were advised that even if a fly was to get stuck on the cement prior to rolling the top onto the panel, that fly had to be removed, or it might be felt when running a hand over the new surface. And if it was to be felt, that meant the top had to be REPLACED with a new one, there was no way to simply pull the fabric back up, repair the damage, and re-glue it.
That actually sounds about right. From what I’ve seen, the roofs on old Fords that were originally covered with vinyl seem to suffer the least amount of rust. GM and Chrysler products are worse, which would make sense if the metal underneath those cars’ vinyl roofs wasn’t finished as well as the Fords.
The seams where the roofs met the quarters were typically leaded, vinyl or not but due to the sparse primer/paint applied to the panels themselves the rust would often occur around the lead and eventually under it where it would protrude into the vinyl top. It’s a really easy tell if you find a Mopar for sale the quality of the restoration, if you see a diagonal line in the C pillar vinyl it’s a big red flag the whole car is probably a bucket of bondo.
I have heard bodies were selected for vinyl tops based on how smooth the raw roof stampings were though. The surface under the vinyl needs to be smooth like Bill said but it will camoflauge a slight broad wave in the steel well enough
It depends on the standard of OEMs. Per Chrysler’s typical habit, they were very likely to cut corners like that.
Chrysler is the only OEM in my career so far to be caught by supplier’s engineer try to break the law to cut the costs ( many other OEMs do it, but they wouldn’t do it bluntly in front of external engineers, or they would have systematically conceal it ) and it is not a behavior to the individual, it is a part of corporate culture.
I agree with the profit margin part. Profit margin is all it matters, because the rest of the car doesn’t make money!
These days, for Ford, the biggest chunk of profit margin of a new car ( before the pandemic ) comes from the destination charge. It is so miserable
These days, for Ford, the biggest chunk of profit margin of a new car ( before the pandemic ) comes from the destination charge. It is so miserable
That might have been the case for a few slow selling sedans, but it is (or was) not at all the case with SUVs and trucks. Profit margins were very high on them before the pandemic, and have been for ages. A margin of some $10k was typical for the F150 and such, except for the lowest trim levels.
And now there’s an extra $5-10k profit.
It should be that way for a normal manufacturer, but Ford isn’t quite there. Profit margins were quite good for the previous generation F-150, however the current generation, even after the pandemic, they have rebates, the current profit margin isn’t as generous as the competitors. GM and Chrysler can bring 5k to 10k profit, not so for Ford. Before the launch, Jim Farley stressed to the entire company, additional assurance was made for the quality and we saw how that turned out. Basically, they knew they just killed the golden goose, and it is the elephant in the room in a usual Ford way.
In the past 15 months, there were four rounds of involuntary seperations ( per Ford speak, aka, sacking ) and money is dry in the pipeline. The future products have unbelievable functions ( not in a good way ) due to lacking of funds, and the company is desperate to grab anything from anywhere. I knew Ford is thin on money, but I didn’t know it was that bad.
GM has a even higher destination charge, sometimes double the amount than Ford, but they at least make profit from the new vehicle elsewhere. Not so for Ford. It is amazing to watch Ford these days, it is spectacular. It was alright maybe until 2018, but the turn downwards after is fantastically sharp.
I’m not going to debate this with you, as the fact that Ford’s profit on the F-Series has been well over $10k for many years is an established fact. And that this has increased in the past few years, and is now in the $15-20+K range for their better-equipped trucks.
Ford is projecting a $9-11 billion net profit for 2021. Their stock has risen rather dramatically in 2021. They’re looking quite healthy from where I stand.
Whatever they make in profit on the destination charge is icing on the cake.
Where do you get your info from anyway?
Normally, a full size pickup should be very profitable as it is the case for almost all OEMs in the past few decades. Only Ford, all of a sudden, lost the sight how to make a basic vehicle. This new generation of F-150, engineers were tasked to patch the vehicles before delivery. It is not the first time it happened, but this time it happened to the golden goose. ( CAN FD is glitchy, but GM took extra time and fixed it on production vehicles. Ford took extra time and still didn’t fix it ) It’s few thousand dollars per truck even before hitting the dealerships, and warranty cost hasn’t started. ( We saw how that turned out for Explorer )
Ford projects profit but as it happened before, there were situations a big loss was posted for the auto group while a good investment made a bigger profit to make up for a better financial report. Without a deep careful look, I’m cautious about if they are really making money from vehicles, or elsewhere. GM’s stock soared last year only to fall back to half. Ford has an even weaker business base and it is not sustainable for the stock price when they keep dismantling the core auto R&D.
Lawsuits were filed for destination charge ( for both Ford and GM ) and GM often charges much higher for that ( especially Cadillac ). It is rarely, if any, the biggest chunk of profit for GM, but it is the case for many vehicles from Ford ( after comparing how much money they made from rest of the vehicle ) I wasn’t the only one so shocked.
An interesting bit of trickery permitted by the fabric roof cover was that a roof profile could be reshaped by using fillers. Typically to get a more formal appearance, while utilizing a “cheap” roof. Usually one object was to make the backlight appear smaller, while utilizing a common standard large backlight. Of course on the inside the backlight would have to be trimmed to hide the disguise.
The Imperial seen in J P Cavanaugh’s reply above shows a factory example. When revealed, one of the biggest disappointments since the padded bra. lol
If a so equipped vehicle needed its backlight replaced it was a BIG deal to first “peel” the top and filler material.
Then, the bogus backlight usually carried a unique part number making it seem obscure. The “special” glass was often needlessly hunted, because, typically the only difference from a common backlight was an opaque band used to hide the fakery. Once a vehicle aged to basic transportation that bit of vanity usually didn’t matter.
One of my favorite vinyl top treatments was on the “Basket Handle” Fords of the late seventies… The Fairmont Futura and its big brother, the Thunderbird.
The picture below is not of my car, as mine was done up in Midnight Blue with a matching Midnight Blue split vinyl top… sadly, I don’t have a digital picture. It was an understated look with the colors matching like that, and had a similar texture to the lead in pick of the Continental Mark.
I loved the look, and always kept it looking nice with Armor All, but was happy that was the last car I would own with a vinyl top. My ’83 Aero Bird that replaced the Fairmont thankfully did not have one, and yet there were folks back then that got a vinyl top on an Aero Bird. I would always look to the sky and yell “WHY?!?!?!” when I’d see one of those.
I have a 68 Cougar XR7 that doesn’t have a vinyl roof. I bought it because it has a 428. It was the only XR7 Cougar I looked at that didn’t have a vinyl roof.
Not to bring up a whole other automotive marketing category, but I believe those ’70 Mercury Cougars with the houndtooth pattern were actually the Pauline Trigère Edition Cougars.
Aside from being quite smart looking (IMO), they are perhaps the earliest appearance of a fashion designer edition car, no?
It was years before the designer Lincolns and the Cardin or Gucci AMC cars.
Good call on the Pauline Trigère Edition Cougars. While they made a lot of them with the interior (7,544), there were considerably less with the top (488) and the latter probably should have been included in the CCs on obscure Mercury limited-editions, as well as the feature that dealt with designer cars. It would certainly qualify as one of the first designer-themed cars (if not ‘the’ first).
I never knew that the houndstooth Cougars were a designer package until now. I actually slightly copied that using houndstooth when I recovered the door and sail panel inserts in my 94 Cougar.
It is an example I saw years ago. I get it when vinyl roof is supposed to look like a convertible, and Chrysler Sebring had convertible models.
Somehow in Detroit, someone bought a Chrysler Sebring, COUPE!, and whoever put a vinyl roof on it making the car look like a convertible.
Those are the cars with vinyl roof in a hilarious way
I wonder if Chrysler’s canopy vinyl roofs were done to simulate the would-be fabric top on something like the 1964 Charger concept car where the only steel roof structure is a hoop behind the passenger compartment
Another early landau top, though not factory done or even always vinyl wrapped, was the Corvair Fitch Sprint. It seems to be done that way to blend the buttress extensions but the execution is remarkably similar to the 1970 Javelin, I wonder if this influenced them
Thanks for posting this. It´s another example of automotive design scholarship that you won´t find anywhere else.
I´d like to say that some of the early variations such as floral and texture patterns seem very daring. I am sorry that we don´t seem to have such design bravery now. I was not aware of floral or paisley patterns. And I have to say they seem quite okay to me.
The closest modern equivalent are the various flag and stripe designs available officially on Minis and aftermarket from any vinyl wrap company. There’s a Mini in my area completely covered in roses.
Should you want it a paisley vinyl wrap of your roof is quicker, cheaper, and more easily reversible than any 50s roof treatment.
Although I may be jumping the clock or the Atlantic here, the Jaguar XJ Coupe had another use for a vinyl roof, to cheaply cover up all the welded seams that would have other wise required expensive hand work to fill and smooth out. I believe this was one of the earliear vinyl roofs in Europe, after the Triumph Dolomite.
In the US there were also aftermarket vinyls like the rather unfortunate houndstooth check number Tappan Motors inflicted on a1974 Volvo 164 (we bought a steel roof one from another dealer). I also have a recollection of some US market Opel mantas with vinyl tops of some sort.
Interesting that Vinyl featured on plenty of high end cars in the USA. Not so much in Europe I’d say but I just walked past this near my house which to my eyes is a) completely unnecessary and b) looks like an instant way to cheapen what otherwise remains one of the last genuinely classy Rolls Royce models. Can’t believe Rolls did it themselves but its certainly lasted well
So my jpeg pic didn’t want to load it seems. Well, it was a royal blue Silver Shadow with a tan leather(?) – beige basically – vinyl roof…..