I have two dings in my hardtop (that I just bought used). I went to two paintless dent repair places and they quoted me $275 and $650 respectively. Both said they were unsure if they could do it at all if the hard top metal is double sided like the Lexus. The majority of the cost is to have the headliner removed. So I am looking for two things:

(1) Does anyone have any images of the inside of a hardtop without the headliner on it? I want to know if it is a single sheet of aluminum or if it is double sided with ribbing. If I have an image I can take it to the dent place and then can let me know if they can repair the dents or not before I have to have the headliner removed. I don't want them to remove the liner and then tell me they can't fix it.

(2) How hard is it to remove the headliner? Is it a job I can do myself and is it difficult or easy? My biggest concern is damaging the headliner or not getting the weather stripping seals right and water leaking into the car.

- John

 

PM krazik. His top has no liner.

 

no pictures handy, but the liner is very easy to remove (excpet un-screwing the latches is a PITA).

The middle of the top is a single layer, there is double layer ribbing on the sides.

They dent places work on aluminum?

 

Krazik, do you think you could maybe take some digital images of the top? The section where the dents are the point where the B pillar portion of the hardtop mets the top of the hardtop. I can email you some images of the exact location (I would post them but I need to become a member to do so). If you could take a digital image of the underside of that portion it would help me out a lot! Let me know if you can do that for me. I will PM you also.

Thanks,
John

 

I had a quote on my hard top....they said they would use a
glue pull method, where they use a suction cup and glue, and pull the dent out. He also said the glue was completely harmless for the paint and clear coat. If they didnt get it out using that, they would not charg me for it.

I will be taking it there when i bring my car out of storage!

Dent Doctors was the place.

 

I dunno maybe hardtop guy can offer a solution ?

 

There it is with no liner, nevermind the monkey bars.
Mike

 

monkey bars

 

Resurrecting a post from the past here...

after removing the latches, does the headliner just pop out? What about the plastic panels along the side, do those just pop out? I am looking to get some PDR work done, but as part of the deal, I need to remove the headliner myself. Any input is appreciated.

 

I think it does. A new top ships with both side panels off so remove those first then pry(pop) off the headliner. This is not for sure though, so proceed with caution. Do a search. There should be plenty of info after 10 years of producing these tops.