[bbnotop]

Rebuilding the top on a 64 Lemans convertible. The original fiber tack strips were stapled in. I am replacing with the rubber ones sold today. Any recommendations on adhesives to glue the strips in?

[squidtone]

I used plain old rubber cement. It's not quite strong enough so I supplemented the strength by using some oval head sheet metal screws every 6 to 8 inches or through the tack material and into the top frame channels. In the areas I did this, there are voids in the frame so you will never see the screw ends once the top is installed.

The strips have held up perfectly (i did the job 12 years ago)

I also had to get creative with stacking some of the new plastic stuff to get the right thickness for some areas. I used the same rubber cement when stacking.

Good luck!
dave

[Cammer-6]

why not contact cement?

[tjs72lemans]

You want something that will hold well. That's why the info given works. screw the tack strip in, because no one will see the fastener. It will hold better than any glue. I just did mine last fall and works well. There's quite a bit of repetitious pulling and tension time and again using top.

[Terry M. Hunt]

Just finished restoring the top frame on my 66. Also used a combination of adhesive(see photo below) and stainless truss head screws to secure the strips to the various bows.

[drewm]

Here's a good write up on this subject -


https://jefflilly.com/build-tips/convertible-top/


I recently redid the frame of my 66, however it is not installed yet. I used a similar 3m urethane adhesive that seemed to work well.

[bbnotop]

Thanks for the replies and info. Now if I could just find tacking strips that were the actual size as advertised......

[Terry M. Hunt]

X2 on the tack strip dimension issue. Ordered stuff advertised as 1/4 thick that turned out to be .18. Single layer was too thin and two layers too thick for where it was going. Even called company X to explain this had happened with company Y and to confirm company X product dimensions were accurate. “Oh yes,” says company X. “We’ve been selling this product for 30 years. Blah blah blah” Ordered their stuff which turned out to be same .18 crap I had bought from company Y. Really p….d me off. All their web sites make it clear the stuff is sold by the foot and once they cut it off the roll, it’s yours, buddy. No return/refund. The stuff is not all that expensive, but as is common today you get bent over on shipping charge. I now have an interesting collection of stuff I could not use. Rant over.

[bbnotop]

Yep, same here. Currently have quite the collection of unused tack straps, that were sold as "identical to original". Yeah, no.

[tjs72lemans]

I had to use two different sizes glued together to get size I wanted.

[bbnotop]

Just as a follow up, I did try a couple different adhesives, including a contact cement and a construction adhesive that had been suggested to me. Both did not work well. Were able to pull the strips loose. Went with the 3M fast cure urethane # 8690 as suggested on the Jeff Lilly site. Worked great, really thick stuff, glad I had a power caulk gun. It really holds. Likely could just used it, but I did supplement with screws.