1957-58 Century Coronado Landau Top

Hardtop # 214

Repair and re-cover hardtop. Completed May 2005

This hardtop is being repaired and upholstered. Then we will install it on the boat. It was bought off of a basket case boat. It will be installed on a 57 Coronado that never had a hardtop before.
On this top we are using an A&A kit but we will be vinyl dying the headliner to the proper red color.

A break in the brass tubing is not uncommon when restoring one of these tops. It is necessary to braise or weld the tubes back together. All of the original joints were braised together.

The white plexiglass canopy is in good condition it just needs to be cleaned and polished.

The framework with all of the old material and tacking strips removed, it is ready to be repaired.

This and the next several photographs are doing the repairs to the tubular frame.

New tacking strip all installed on repaired tubular framework.

Spraying the headliner with vinyl dye.

Headliner edging installed.

The center section of the headliner installed.

The complete headliner installed and trimmed.

The top upright with the headliner installed. (Note the How the tacking is done.)

No chrome work is being done at this time. (The chrome is user quality) .

Canvas layer installed. This is a sub layer and is very important. This supports the fiberglass padding that will be glued to this layer in a later step. If you don't put this layer on every tube will be visible. The padding that we use is the same type of padding that Century used. It is high grade and very dense fiberglass insulation and makes a very smooth surface.
Fiberglass insulation is superior to other types of padding since it absorbs less than 5% of moisture by weight. And if submerged for some strange reason it will dry out in short order. Other types of padding often absorb water out of the moist air.

The fiberglass padding installed and almost ready for the final vinyl covering.

The vinyl installed but final trimming is yet to be done.

The vinyl is trimmed, almost finished.

The landau top finished and ready to install on the boat.

Installing the hardtop on the 1957 Coronado Hull # M57137. May 20, 2005.

Note: The paint scheme on this boat is incorrect and as purchased. It will be corrected when the boat is refinished. This is a very common problem with Coronado, Resorter 19's and early Arabians. Who ever refinished this boat did not take care to save the outline of the original white. Apparently a guess was made and it was not a very good guess, and is not close to the original pattern. If you have lost your pattern, don't guess contact us and we will try to help you with recreating it.