Dealership parts are having problems too.

We had a terrible hailstorm in Central Florida in April '22. Some body shops installed their own convertible tops on hail damaged cars. I was contacted in September 2022 by a Mustang owner who had an OEM Ford top installed in June 2022. It had already delaminated at the back window.

That OEM top only lasted for 3 months! On the rare occasion that I see a warranty issue, it is usually at least 24 months old.

I am seeing more and more of these MB tops coming in with seams over the back window delaminating. It is not our fault that Mercedes didn't stitch that seam before they heat seamed it.

I won't try to reglue it either. Most of my customers won't ante up the money for a new top on these 15 to 18 year old cars. I assume they are ending up at the auto auctions.

Std cab trucks - no removal no install - $ 165.00
Ext cab trucks - " '' '' '' 185.00
Crew cab trucks or 2 and 4 dr cars - 225.00

The key here is whatever the market will bear. A Mercedes 4 dr headliner shell is more expensive to recover than a Buick LeSabre.

Headliner work is sweet work here. Most shops don't know how to remove the sunroof slider sunshade and recover it.

Make sure you use enough adhesive and do the job like it is your own vehicle.

Good luck.
Lyle Halvorsen

Luis,
That is labor only.

Mert,

I have used tops from the manufacturers that you have listed and more.

There used to be preferred manufacturers for European cars and other ones for Domestic(USA made) cars. This tendency seems to have slowly faded away.

GAHH, Robbins, EZon and Sierra are manufacturing companies that are owned by one parent company and make great tops. The Sierra tops have become a "go to" preference to be sold online by companies like Amazon and others. They are inexpensive, but fit well and in my opinion have their place in the tops world. When you have a customer bring one in to your shop to install, you will notice a difference.

I also like to install tops from Kee Auto Tops and Electron, both family owned businesses that make tops that fit well and have great customer service.

I don't know if you have a reliable distributor in Istanbul, but I prefer to buy through distributors who have my back and can spring into action and send me another top pronto if I have a problem.

Kurt - I'm guessing somewhere around 8 hours for experienced seat cover installer. I usually charge in the $ 800 to $ 1,000 price range for a crew cab truck. Sometimes I spend too much time on the center consoles.

Good luck!

Ever since Acme became the main supplier of convertible tops to Rockauto.com, I haven't been impressed with turnaround times for headliners from them.

Bit off more than they could chew?

Have also had a hard time getting ahold of them to talk about details needed to quote jobs.

I don't enjoy doing the Mercedes CLK where the top has to slip down along the side of the reuseable rear hard glass in back.

Pad the hours that are listed in the book for most convertibles and buy high quality tops. We get very few comebacks.

Do most of you charge a higher hour rate for convertibles?

Their online convertible top website convertibletopguys.com posts convertible tops for most ragtops. I called them once when I was having a hard time locating a top in stock anywhere and asked what brand of tops they sold and was told "Auto Tops".

M & T Manufacturing has about the best quality side tension cables that I have ever used.