Vinyl weld fix on my soft top today

[YanMa YatTai]

Before


After

[YanMa YatTai]

and more...

Before


After

[Apu]

That's not bad. Where did you go? I've got a couple of small cracks appearing that I should get fixed sooner rather than later.

[koop21]

did not know such a thing exists... not bad for a repair job, definitely looks a lot better then duct tape.

[YanMa YatTai]

Yep, asked a few restoration places. Any upholsterer that repairs plastic, vinyl, leather can do it, though I went with a car/boat specialist.

Some dodgy people offered to simply put a patch on it which would look super ugly. And its much better than my gaffer tape solution!

Went to Uticolor - http://www.uticolor.com.au/contact-nsw.html#SouthEastern
Glenn patched inside and welded outside. He re-welded the large crack you can see as it looks as though someone did a weld previously.

As the roof is extremely old and not in best condition there are no warranties. Though I am happy as it delays the need for me to purchase a new roof and stops water coming in! Relatively cheap compared to new roof.

Apu, best get your cracks welded then apply some vinyl conditioner. I might go into a boat shop and take a look. My theory is the marine stuff is made to protect vinyl that sits in the sun all day long. Going to look for this stuff - http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3M/en_US/Marine/Home/Products/Catalog/?PC_7_RJH9U5230GE3E02LECIE20S4K7000000_nid=TFB93RNFX1gsH8PTZGX97RglJN56WKHD2Vbl

[93_Clubman]

Indeed, not bad at all.

[Apu]

Thanks YMYT!

[droo]

just to add to this thread

- i had a tear expanding from the upper section of my rear glass to the softtop. When the top was up, it was stretching and tearing out each time, as well as getting nearly a cm wider each day in the heat as the soft top changed temperature. When the roof folds down, the tear was against the fold itself, rendering the use of a race tape pretty useless as it stretched and detached. By now, the tear was over 1cm wide and nearly 15cm long and i was dreading a change of weather!

I combatted it with temporarily placing duct tape on the outside of the tear, firmly rubbing the tape in to give a flush finish for inside of the cabin.
Then filling the gap with black silicon,
Handy hint -spitting my finger to smear it across neatly (something about proteins in saliva which prevents the silicon from sticking to your finger!).

I waited 5 hours for it to cure, removed the race tape from the outside
The race tape set a neat boundary for the silicon to set against, and didnt stick to the silicon on removal.
I've tidied up a smaller tear in the side of the soft top using the same method too.

Leaving the roof up, and letting it cure for 24 hours overnight and in the sun for the entire following day.

Its not noticeable from outside the vehicle, although if i turn my head inside and look out the back window i can see the silicon on the roof lining.. This isn't a permanent fix but is definitely buying me time to consider what soft top i replace it with next summer.

So far, the silicon has been flexible with the roof folded down (which has happened nearly daily since then), is waterproof and has shown no signs of separating from the fabric/glass. I check on this every week since. So far, it's been nearly a month since i've put it on, showing no signs of seperation or wear.

I would imagine if you wanted a more seamless look outside, the vinyl weld could work really well if you have a different colour soft top - again, definitely worth while to buy some time and safe up for a replacement.