Classic VW BuGs Convertible Top How To Install Beetle Series All In One

[Music] piggy [Music] you [Music] [Music] do [Music] [Applause] [Music] um [Music] my [Applause] [Music] me [Music] [Music] boom [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] hey [Music] [Music] hey [Music] let's hope so [Music] well a little tight right there i can see it i can see it right here what we do from this line to this line we need a little more in here because that one is that's perfect see that in the back cut the back out right this line it to this line okay [Music] so [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] hmm [Music] [Music] [Music] um [Music] hey [Music] foreign [Music] uh [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] hey [Applause] [Music] huh [Music] [Music] uh [Music] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] wow [Applause] [Music] [Music] you [Music] uh [Music] [Music] [Music] back of a popsicle stick right along this line they're actually right here so now those are coplanar and these are coplanar and that's good and we can we can knock the top off briefly with some sandpaper file or that but i wanted these edges to be good and we're pretty much that's right on the center so this is what i did to make sure i'm going to trim one of these edges but the main thing was to have these centered onto the frame but you can see how this [Music] but it'll still have to be angled in we're still quite far from the bottom you get this gap here okay but we'll just we just need like an eighth of an inch that will pop in [Music] trying to get that yep so at the right angle i'm just going to take it off nice and slow [Applause] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] see [Music] wow [Music] do [Music] so [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] do [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] so [Music] [Music] so [Music] so [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] um [Music] so basically what i did was i started from the front and i started stapling right here in the groove okay so you want to follow the center line and you want to make sure that you're all lined up perfectly i have i'm going to be putting together an extensive how-to on this more step-by-step process but in this video i just want to go over with you exactly uh you know what i did so i started attacking it here in the front and then just like the ragtop uh headliner uh dvd that i have for sale out there i just basically went from here then from this bow glued the listings down here pulled it nice and taut from side to side so you want to get this nice and straight okay so use some headliner glue that you can pick up at autozone or if you want to use the permatex stuff that's fine then i went to this bow okay and then i went to this bow and then this one and then i pretty much stopped right there and i made sure to get the straps in okay so i i started a strap here basically five inches from this end right here to the end of the tube here okay so like right here and measured five inches in okay tack that down have to drill a hole and then i tacked it right here now here's a big measurement that you got to watch out for and it is from here the center line down here so you want to go center so basically we went from center vent okay from here to here to the top of this frame 23 and a half inches okay so that basically been puts the frame direct center okay from here to here okay so from here to here and from here to here so it's five and a half inches from here to here 23 and a half inches to here so i made sure we placed okay i i need i needed to make sure 23 and a half inches i'm sorry from the wood bow to this center point right here so from here to here here 23.5 inches position this got the straps in place you need to do this because this will move you need this to be stationary so 23.5 inches to here okay and then this was uh seven and a half inches from here to here so we made sure this all worked together so i put the strap in here and then what i did was a zip tie here which is pretty close you punch a hole here punch a hole here and then you can wrap the zip tie through a strong zip tie and then you just fasten it right here stapled it here and then stapled it right down here before you staple it down here though just make sure it's nice and tight between this bow the drifter bow here the floater bow and then the wood bow here get this nice and tight this will pretty much set up where this wood bow has to be placed like i said 23 and a half inches if you have to like what we did we tied some rope from here to here to this outside facing here just nice and tight you know on the outside just to hold this in place okay and then once i had the headliner all wrapped around from here the best thing to do is then before your window's even put in you're going to pull it tight and you're going to start stapling it here to the center all the way around you have a straight uh headliner uh basically before you put that uh the back window in and then once you have this headliner taut and staple down here then get the strap and you're gonna pull this nice and tight the exit the remaining straps staple this all up here on this wood bow pull this nice and tight okay now we measured 16 and a half inches from the center line here 16 and a half inches out here basically so the outside of the strap met with this line i did see some other how-to's where they actually moved the strap to to the body line here and stapled from there i thought that that was actually a little bit too far we even tried uh the middle of the strap with this with this line that still was a little bit too far i liked it where the strap was actually coming inside you saw the strap on the inside of the frame here but what's nice about is this good amount of meat that holds this frame up so we're able to move the strap and clamp it and glue it with some adhesive this is all this window is it's just a floater really on top of this strap so we just glued this move the strap out just a little bit just to hold it in place and that really came out really nice but like i said five and a half inches from here to the top of the wood here so that seems to be the nice spot there i did go to a car show last week and they had a convertible bug there i knew it was going to be there so i took some measurements and sure enough uh that that headliner looked like it was in good shape and it was a 71 super beetle and it had five and a half inches from here to here so just a quick recap again you know i stay again i started stapling it from here i went to this bow went to this bow went to this bow just start putting the listings pulling this thing tight pulling it outwards as well to get it nice and tight and then once we got to the wood bow we stopped we put the strap on top okay then tied this in order then from there pull the headliner straight down okay tacked it all the way in and then put the strap on top of that and then you got your back window placement now after that you start using these uh we had to fish some twine in these pockets here to pull this out even further okay see how we did this we tied that here we made a slit in this pocket here to tie on this bow and i made another slit to tie on this bow now some headliners have a pocket that can come all the way up to here this headliner did not so what we did do was put some zip ties through the headliner like i kind of made it into a pocket so to speak right fold it over zip tied through and then i zipped it right here under the bow here and that kept this nice and tight so now you have a pretty straight headliner so far you know a lot of the headliners are just very wrinkly and somewhat acceptable because it's quote-unquote a convertible and i don't want that it's got to be pretty straight so and then of course around the back window once you put the back window in same techniques as like how i show you on my oval window sedan headliner you're going to use the same techniques to do the back window on the convertible so i even made it nice and straight down below the headliner as well on the bottom portion there you want that nice and straight all the way around the perimeter of the back window so [Music] do [Music] me [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] uh [Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] me [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] do [Music] do [Music] [Music] do so [Music] [Music] do [Music] do [Music] do [Music] so [Music] [Music] do [Music] so [Music] [Music] so [Music] so [Music] do [Music] do [Music] [Music] [Applause] do [Music] [Music] do [Music] do [Music] hey guys chris again from classic vwbugs.com and this is part 5 of the 1970 convertible beetle top restoration we're putting on the top cover the final stage here and so what we have is here's your your side tensioning cables that we showed you on the previous chapter that feeds through the top and i'm pulling it through i'll show you what this does you're going to want to tie this back here on this outside facing i showed you in that screw on the last video and then there's your uh your loop a little too hicky i don't know it comes in the kit with the wire uh makes that loop for you uh you want to pull that through to make a nice loop to go around that screw and then just pull that slider down and that'll keep that tight what this outside cable does is keep the top tight up against the frame when the top is closed and then even when you're going to open it it doesn't go wandering so it keeps this nice tension here and gives it a nice line so pull it tight enough to the point where you have enough tension so when you you know flip it like i was just doing you have some spring to it in it to some degree the cable just runs on the outside of the facing there and then goes up into the top and we also crimp that piece so that the wire doesn't back out of the the piece you just use a typical wire crimper now here's the cable for the rear that goes behind the rear channel on the 67 and later convertibles you want to feed this through the top there's a hole there on the the edge here that will then feed through the body there's a hole there i'll show you that there's a hole in the body down there inside by where the top mounts the top frame mounts you're going to want to feed that through and i'll show you on another angle here try to get two of these cables because they sometimes they break they're not that expensive so here's the hardware you're going to need and see we feed it through the top and it's going to go in that channel you see on the body there you go so you feed the cable through that lip there there's your hole on the body and then through that other hole inside the cabinet just like this that's how you want to set this up okay and then you want to set up the cable like we did here as you see the cable is set up in that channel the top doesn't look all right just yet but i'll show you what to do here i need to get like one of these putty blades and you start wedging it into that cable up into the channel so you don't see the cable you don't want to visualize this cable of course so and then as you're wedging that cable up you're slowly going to start to tighten inside like i'm doing here just get a pair of vice grips and start tightening that cable just go little by little though you don't want to go very very tight in the beginning so little by little come back out and check the top i forgot to mention that we also you know we set this top up on the front bow just pretty simply right now just just slide it right over the front bow there's nothing uh stapled down as of yet it's pretty self-explanatory how to line that up so you want the seam of the top to be equal with the seam on the body that goes then down to the the engine lid here see where that seam is if you're off you want to grab the top and then make sure you line up so i'm pushing outward here pushing towards the front of the car to move that seam so that seam on the top lines up with the seam on the body and so you know you're pretty much lined up and straight there so we're continuing to work this it could take some time be patient and you also want to you know massage the material upward as well so there's the cable so it needs to be worked more you might want to use a hammer my dad's just using his hand right now which is fine sometimes you might need a hammer to get that cable up and you want to continue to pull the top so this is how we just wrap the front of the top now you want to make sure this seam is you know you know down towards the car you know as you want to angle it on an angle okay because that seam is going to pull and we did start putting some staples in on the front wood bow there so have that seam i don't know uh just pretty you see how it's on an angle there angle it down because you know that top's going to pull it back once it starts getting fastened down you don't want that seam to go up and looking looking silly and then we punch the holes for the pins make sure those guide pins are lined up with the holes on the top frame above the glass so you see how i have that that seam angle down i mean it might seem extreme on some points but that's okay because it's going to pull it and then we got some clamps to we glued down the flap on the frame here we'll use some pretty strong stuff with this and again make sure the seam is all even with the frame see how that's seen here here's your seam you want that nice and even with the frame this all looks good in the end when it's all finalized you know so here we use this fiber fix extreme extreme glue for extreme jobs and uh that seemed to work really really well really really strong stuff because again that top's going to be moving back and forth so now here's the section right behind the quarter windows here's the outside facing here's the angle here you want to pull the top and the top has a corner see there's a little white dot there that i made that that's going to be used for later for a screw but basically you're going to want to pull the top up just a little bit to give you some more um fitment on this back corner here now the top is up i can fit this nice and tight okay just make sure the corner of the the material of the top equals the corner on the on the uh the facing the outside facing like i'm doing here and then that flap will then get stapled to the wood facing right there again make sure your seam is even with the edge of the facing and you see i stapled it right there you might want to do a a rough line up of the seal rubber seal goes there later on you just want to make sure the rubber seal is going to cover those staples so there's an inside flap and an outer flap the inside flap i pretty much left behind the material and i just used the outer flap to wrap over so now that we have that staple then we have the top you know stapled a little bit up front and we have the the cable in the back we have this top baking outside in the sun this is the best way to do this i mean if you're doing this job in the summertime more power to you if you're in a warmer climate it's great in the winter time you might have some more difficulty you could you need a heat gun maybe but this is a great time to let it sit now you see i started misting the top it's soaked you know just get some water in a spray bottle even and just soak the top and because that top just just did not want to close yet you see how hot it is you see the steam coming off the top there so we did this in the springtime and we had a good egg i think 70 or 80 degree day here in new york and uh slowly the top was getting closer and closer to the top window frame and this is what will happen it will sit out there and just be patient and it'll start to stretch canvas material guys i think is great material i know it wasn't original in some of these years but it just looks a hell of a lot better and it's just tougher material very very nice here's our headliner looks nice and straight i haven't cut the back window yet of course but it looks nice and straight um you know this is actually my first time doing a convertible top so we also put the roughly put the seal the front seal that goes in the front wood bow there on the top as well just to make sure everything the fitment all looks good as you notice too the wrinkle start coming out in the heat and then we were able to close the top and latch it down that's what you want to do now you want to latch down the top in order to do this back window and see your seams are all lined up so i uh just like on my other headliner videos that i have out there i have a headliner video for oval window bugs and we do a slit in the back it's basically the same procedure even with the top here so i just made a slit just be careful you might want to go on the inside first you see i did not go edge to edge of the window frame i just cut a small slit in the center and then you're going to start making cuts like this all the way around so then you can pull those tabs nice and tight and then you're going to staple this to the wood frame that go that is the back window frame and if you missed the other episodes i have we show setting up the wood on the convertible tops in my earlier chapters of this series these are the staples we use stainless steel we don't want anything to rust right so these are the staples that we used in our our staple gun and you see we start stapling just like this now sometimes not all the staples go in the way you want them to so i'll show you a technique later on which is nothing fancy to get those in but you want to pull those tabs tight and make sure the top is wrinkle free so go slow i started from the top and started working my way down the sides you see i start working my my way down on this side you might need an implement like this to hold the material in place and then have somebody else come in and staple you want to get us nice and taut tight and you start working your way down and again with it also beating in the sun helps a lot so he gets a little more stretch out of it so you see i go to each side and then i work my way to the bottom portion of the window just like you see my dad doing right now so just be patient maybe every half inch or so every inch or whatever you want to put a staple that's fine so again if the staples don't want to go in my dad used a little flat hammer uh to get them in but um after you got it all stapled in i just used the razor and i cut the excess tabs away now you have an open window so you see my dad using a hammer to get the staples into the wood better and this is uh putting the back window in i have videos on this online i'm putting windows in so it's the same procedure with a cable around and then we pop the window in and uh roll and pull the cable and then the seal goes in much easier to do on the convertible actually than on a sedan but same procedure as i got those videos on my youtube channel so if you want to see how to put in a window same procedure here and you just want to make sure that chrome junction there is equal with the the middle of the the rear deck lid so it doesn't look off now we started stapling the rest of the the front area here um and we see how we have that lined up remember the seam you want it to be pointing downward a bit and then we also got to the point where we got to put the outer seals on and so the little screws that came out of the original top they just broke uh very small screws i think they were like number fours maybe half inch fours uh so we had to drill uh some bigger holes here and but you want to do a test fit here so i saved my own the old aluminum strips like you see here this is what gets inserted into the seal you want to try to use the older aluminum strips they seem to have the holes lined up better than the aftermarket so we went with these of course and i saved them and i labeled them you know which side i took them off so here were some of the smaller screws that came out of the the frame some got stuck and broke and we had to drill them these look like i said half inch fours i think we went a little bit bigger i use new screws and there's a tapered head phillips screw this is a six and i just what i did was i i would get a drill bit just to the right size to make it see it's a little bit bigger a little bit thicker than the original screw but that's okay it's not like you're going to see them so you want to line up your seal and the seals are not sometimes they're not cut exact size so you're going to have to trim these and you're going to want to line up your seals here and just kind of get a general idea here where we're going to put them you don't want it to go past you know your sections there you're going to cut that on an angle that back seal and here's the other seal that goes over the quarter window you see it acts out a little bit further than what it should be so it should be cut got to cut that off so this is all test fitting right now and then you insert that aluminum channel and then inside you'll see the channel in the seal and that's where you can start setting up your screws so trucks convertible parts will sell these strips if you need them but i i saved mine and i labeled them like you see here left and right and just labeling when you're tearing the car down so i got my screws all set up you know these are self-tapping screws that's fine but we did pre-drill the hole a little bit bigger so that it didn't fight us and what i like to do is you know when you as i cut the edge here but what i like to do is i start from the middle of the seal and work my way outward when you're screwing them in it just goes in a lot easier and even more even you don't get any bulges same with the front seals here on the front uh window frame this seal has to get cut on an angle same with the seal at the bottom when the door closes you'll see here when i close the door you need this seal to be cut on an angle see that ang see gotta cut it on a downward angle like you need to use a razor or you know what really worked well uh was pvc pipe cutters cut the rubber really nice sometimes the razor can cut it like what i'm using here and kind of leaves a jagged not really a smooth cut but that's the angle you need to cut it on you see how my razor is that's the angle you need to cut that seal you just want it to be even with the top frame and then the same with the top part of the seal that's on the frame itself that has to meet that seal on the window frame that also has to be cut on an angle see i'm using my pencil to show you the angle because it needs to meet that and marry together if you're able to marry them together nice and flush more power to you very many times they don't meet exact i mean it was very common for the convertibles to leak so that's how your seal goes on i know it's weird how it goes on an angle when these things are uh screwed in but we went by the stock holes that were on the the top frame so we just follow that and it goes over that that flap too at the top so it helps to keep that in position as well along with your glue to hold on the flap so that's how your seals go on and uh you know we cut it off the top there and make sure it's just even with the frames you don't want anything excess hanging down or anything like that this one vertical frame here might might hang down a little bit to meet the other rubber on the body but uh it's pretty self-explanatory just do a test fit don't cut anything until you start test fitting first so make sure everything's lined up roll the windows up and down what if you have to so i see i start with the screw in the middle and then i work my way out that's the best way to get these seals on and then here's the seal for the top so i have the top down right now and i have the seal that has to get stapled into the the top frame the front wood frame you see you pull this flap up and then there's where you staple i know you could put a channel in there too i think there was on some bugs a channel that went in there uh to keep its strength uh but we seem to not have a problem there so my dad used a cutter here kind of i think it's a glass cutter to cut this front plastic piece that goes in you know the front uh bow as well the front wood frame above the windshield so when you close the top down this is the piece that you where you see the screws the with the finishing washers through it but we noticed the aftermarket piece was just too thick when we lined it up it just hung down way too far i thought and really didn't line up well with the top with a nice finish so we cut probably a good inch or so off of that piece straight across and then we're actually going to wrap this i know in the later bugs they didn't wrap this it was the white plastic that was across that front you know that front pieces this is where the uh the sun visors kind of cover this piece as well but we wanted to wrap it in the headliner material so it looked all uniform and that's what we did just with some you know again a headliner glue and wrapped it around don't worry about the back too much because you're not going to see that so if you don't want to wrap it fully and then we got some screws with finishing washers these are number eight stainless washers and then i even got some plastic bushings here and the reason why i got those plastic bushing washers because the edge of that finishing washer can sometimes cut your headliner material it's very sharp on the round edge there so i put that bushing there you can even put two if you want and then i use that screw to to fasten down this plastic piece so i also use some of these screws to finish off where the headliner's got to get its final uh attachment to the facings the wood there's that corner there that needs a screw again with a finishing washer stainless looks good you want to pull it nice and tight though you don't want to make this all look good and uniform so then when you pull it nice and tight then you start stapling it back to the piece of wood over the wheel hump area and then i glue the headliner even to the back firewall just to keep everything straight and uniform you want that wall uh where my above my hand there where i'm showing right here that wall you want that to be nice and straight as best you can so many convertibles are wrinkled and then here's another screw here that's from factory right on the corner there gets a finishing washer and a screw to hold the top uh to the body again those were like six and then i also used one up here this is the front the front little pull tab that's up front by the latch screw that down then we got the remainder to do this front piece above the windshield inside the car you usually you just see this when the car is the top is down is latched and is up so i started punching the holes already getting those screws set up you see where this is going now and you just attach it there it looks a lot nicer when it's uniform with the headline instead of a big white piece it just wouldn't have looked right so but this is pretty much where we're at guys and uh you know it's my first stab at doing a headliner or a convertible top i used to job this out and i really didn't like the way the work was coming out so i figured i've done all the other types of headliners let me try a convertible and i think it came out pretty nice pretty straight just follow my techniques and this is a five chapter series so check out those other videos and go back and re-watch and take your time and take notes and snap pictures you know for reference these are the assist straps that we're putting on and i got these uh custom made from sofine so fine is excellent uh you know if you ever need more material more headliner material to wrap up stuff that like i did in this for this top uh she'll give you extra material so a lot of this headliner material that i got i told her to give me some extra yardage so i can use it but this is how you attach these straps and that hook those holes should already be there in your top frame so but this is it guys uh basically you've made it through a convertible top 67 and later beetles if you have earlier beetles uh you could pretty much use still the same techniques i know they did not have the cable in the back uh below the back window on the the earlier beetles but they usually had a strip of chrome that went around that had to be nailed into wood so but basically this is how you do the convertible top and it could be tedious it took us a while to do this it took us a good few days just to shape the wood to get that to be to be right and um you know i showed you that in the earlier videos uh and just you know it's a good week or so we can have you've never done it before but this was the finished product this is the car that that we wrapped up and a 1970 convertible beetle found this car in my backyard pretty much a little upstate for me and sitting in a guy's uh outside his driveway for over 35 years so but um i'd love to hear your comments guys and uh if you got any other uh tips or techniques on ways to do things better with this top please i'm all ears and that's it hope all is well be sure to subscribe and uh i'll speak to you later [Music] bye

Channel: Chris Vallone

Views: 6,386

Rating: 4.8373985 out of 5

Keywords: VW Beetle, Classic VW Beetle, Classic Volkswagen Beetle, VW Bug, Volkswagen Bug, Vintage VW Beetle, Vintage Bug, VW Beetle Ragtop, VW Beetle Convertible, VW Beetle Restoration, classicvwbugs.com, VW Beetle Sedan, Chris Vallone, VW Super Beetle, Vintage Beetle, Type 1, Air-cooled, aircooled, oval window, split window, wolfsburg, super beetle, VW Restoration tip, classic vw bugs, restoration tip VW, VW resto tip, Build-A-Bug, vw convertible, top installation

Id: 30u5trAV5sY

Length: 73min 10sec (4390 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 05 2020