Hard Top Restoration

[texas dogman]

I'm in the process of restoring the 40 hard top. Got the fiberglass cap off, rain gutter and rivets removed. My question is reinforcing the edge of the cap. Looks to me like the OEM was a single layer fiberglass cloth with resin on the bottom of the cap. Am I missing something here? Is the purpose of this is to give rivets something better to hold to once installed? Is there a better way to reinforce this?

 

[Pitter Patter]

I’m in the same process. Seems that what it lacks in structure it makes up in volume because that’s a whole lotta rivets. I don’t see any reason you couldn’t build up the fiberglass edge, drill new holes and go from there. The metal gutter is deep enough to hide any additional height added to the fiberglass edge.

Let me know if you do this, how you approach it and how it turns out. Mine is bent and doesn’t fit well. If bending it back doesn’t work then I will need to build out that edge to get rivets where they should be so I’d love the advice.