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PRIOR TO 1905 auto tops were made from many kinds of materials: leather; uncoated canvas; three-ply cloth and rubber surface-coated materials. Just as car body designs began to evolve from horse-drawn carriage designs, so too were tops evolving toward more extendible mechanisms. Canvas top materials used cotton and some wool cloth(s).
1905 TO 1915 saw extensive use of pyroxylin surface-coated material for lower priced tops. These were often referred to as “automobile leather” and “imitation leather”. Pantasote gained wide acceptance as a premium surface-coated topping. It was a four-ply variety with modified pyroxylin for the surface coating or facing. Mohair, introduced by 1907, became widely accepted as a premium version of three-ply cloth top material because of its superior cleanability.
1916 TO 1925 was a period dominated by the use of surface-coated materials, both in two and four ply constructions, for lower priced and premium tops, respectively. Technology advances in rubber coating and a textile dyestuff shortage during World War I drove this change in usage away from cloth toppings. Many producers began to compete with Pantasote in the production of four ply surface-coated materials. In this period, black tops (especially the surface-coated ones) were more ubiquitous than model T Fords!
1926 TO 1942 brought a re-emergence of three-ply cloth top materials. In addition to these rubber-combined varieties, uncoated Burbank canvas from England was used for top material on many higher priced, open and convertible cars until the mid 1930s. Advances in textile dyes enabled the use of more varied colors. Yarn-dyed cloth was popular through the mid-thirties, then giving way to solid colors. Car body styling governed the kinds of top material used. Surface-coated fabrics were used for lower priced soft tops and for covering the center deck of closed body tops. The latter application vanished with the advent of all-steel tops in the mid-1930s. For traditional black top-decking, a rubber-faced 4 ply fabric was specified by many car makers. If the top deck was to be painted (matching the car body), pyroxylin was used. Ford, and perhaps a few other makers, offered deck material featuring a print pattern on pyroxylin.
1946 TO 1955 convertible bodied cars generally used three-ply cloth top materials. The premium facing fabrics now contained synthetic fibers completely, or blended with cotton. Popular choices were cotton/rayon blends and Orlon® (a DuPont acrylic). Vinyl tops became available through the replacement top market about 1951, with Original Equipment usage growing by the mid-fifties. Some hardtop cars of the early fifties received an Original Equipment roof cover for styling enhancement. Such materials were variants of convertible top materials.
1956 TO 1976 North American factory convertible production used vinyl materials exclusively. Replacement tops were offered in two and four ply vinyls. Colors of both the vinyl facing and cotton lining fabric varied through the years, but the vinyl was usually embossed in the “Standard” (a.k.a. “diamond” or “pinpoint”) grain. As with North American practice, European car makers apparently switched from cloth to vinyl convertible topping in the fifties (we welcome more information about this). Much of the European vinyl topping seems to have been embossed with the so-called “Colonial”, “Crush” or “Monaco” grains. From the mid-1960s into the mid-1980s, vinyl landau tops were popular on many North American hardtop cars. The materials used were surface coated, materials on woven fabrics initially, later on nonwoven, “synthetic felt” to impart a padded effect. Such roof covering materials used different embossing grains than did convertible top materials.
SINCE 1977 convertibles enjoyed a resurgence inspired first by the Mercedes convertibles, and later by Mazda’s Miata in the roadster category. Vinyl top materials, favored by North American and Japanese makers, gave partial way to the new generation of three-ply cloth top materials having a solution-dyed acrylic outer fabric (such as our Haartz Sonnenland®, Stayfast® and Twillfast®). As convertible models proliferated in the 1990s, the range of cloth top materials increased, too. Newest versions offer physical and acoustical performance far superior to older materials.
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