[96 Black]

Just posting some intel as reference for another who's contemplating ripping the vinyl off. Vinyl cars get raw edge top and sides, and perhaps even raw bottom - with everything hidden by the plastic bolster framing the pad and skin.

Vinyl delete gets pre-installed and fixed exposed molding mating over to the opening. The bottom is a rubber flap to shed water into the trunk ditch, again pre-fixed to the glass. BTW the little hollow tube fillers are NLA and you'll want to weld fillets in to flush the roof seams.

There's always gonna be a way a body guy can work up something to replicate all that by just reusing the vinyl backlite with added specialized moldings and something across the bottom, but best bet will be getting a savvy JY to remove the whole thing carefully from a vinyl delete car as I did. And then get a mobile window replacement guy to install it, as I did.
You can R&R the front glass surround molding after pulling the vinyl from under it. Remember there's those holes to patch afterward around the rear opening opening, and at the sailpanel if desiring to flush them, as I did.

Parting Thought:
Vinyl-delete moonroof escutcheons are supposedly different than the vinyl style trim . I'll report back later what's up there when I remove the vinyl. The underpad adhesive will remind you of very strong two-sided foam tape. ALWAYS peel it and the skin (was easier for me to pull each separately) slow and steady, and only outside on a very warm sunny day - to get things to release in respectable sized sheets.

 

[MoSSter]

following!

 

[MWP]

I, too, would be happier without my vinyl roof. I probably will wait. though (my top is in very good shape, I guess unfortunately) because, ay yi yi, that looks like a lot of work! Hats off to ya!

 

[96 Black]

MPW: "....looks like a lot of work!"

HAHAHA Actually quite simple, and took no time at all. I just wrote a check - to a very good bodyman! lol The job was just part of an overall repaint and other mods that made up FTSS. The trick was to give him the car with as much stripping as possible, the biggest thing being the laborer's work of pulling the pad. I had never heard of anyone else on the forum remove their top, so I initially spent 2 weeks in a cold winter garage with various solvents and putty knife getting only a square inch off at a time. Then I found a hair blower helped, not worth much though. So I got a heat gun. A little better still. One nice day I pulled it out just to be in the pleasant sunshine (still nippy) and with warmed up steel the stuff was pulling off clean in much bigger sheets.

My advice is just get a boxcutter and make a couple gashes showing "commitment" and get on with it haha. The paint is perfect underneath, and you can stick the emblems back in to save some patching. With the correct backlite all that's left is holes around the opening and patching the roof ditches.