Today the Mrs. and I committed to replacing the soft top on Benzie.
One of the recommended vendors from the bigger thread, German Auto Tops happens to be within walking distance of my house here in North Hollywood.
My wife and I took a visit over there. I must say, these guys are absolutely old school. The entire place is HUGE. They have a bunch of guys working by hand to make each soft top brand spanking new and rolls upon rolls of different material from Twillfast to Sonnenland.
The owner John is a delightful fellow and took us around. Mrs. Beast and I really didn't want to replace our black softop with another black one and wanted to see what tan or beige looked like with some swatches against the gold paint.
Well turns out, John actually has a secret stash of Sonnenland material there that he doesn't market on the website! He showed us an off beige Sonnenland that isn't made anymore that is very popular with the restoration community here in southern California. I'm really glad I went in because it's an excellent color that looks good, won't absorb heat, and above all won't look bad when it will undoubtedly get dirty by the SoCal dust.
He's making the top now and it should be ready by next Tuesday. We have an installer planning on installing it next Friday.
I'll take pictures once it is done. If you're in Southern California, I recommend you take some time to stop by in person because his selection of materials is way more varied than what he has online. :thumbsup:
One of the recommended vendors from the bigger thread, German Auto Tops happens to be within walking distance of my house here in North Hollywood.
My wife and I took a visit over there. I must say, these guys are absolutely old school. The entire place is HUGE. They have a bunch of guys working by hand to make each soft top brand spanking new and rolls upon rolls of different material from Twillfast to Sonnenland.
The owner John is a delightful fellow and took us around. Mrs. Beast and I really didn't want to replace our black softop with another black one and wanted to see what tan or beige looked like with some swatches against the gold paint.
Well turns out, John actually has a secret stash of Sonnenland material there that he doesn't market on the website! He showed us an off beige Sonnenland that isn't made anymore that is very popular with the restoration community here in southern California. I'm really glad I went in because it's an excellent color that looks good, won't absorb heat, and above all won't look bad when it will undoubtedly get dirty by the SoCal dust.
He's making the top now and it should be ready by next Tuesday. We have an installer planning on installing it next Friday.
I'll take pictures once it is done. If you're in Southern California, I recommend you take some time to stop by in person because his selection of materials is way more varied than what he has online. :thumbsup: