I had GREAT difficulty finding a reputable maker of convertible tops who said they could provide the correct material (inside and out) and had a good pattern for my 1957 300C convertible. When I finally found a place that said they could make me one that would fit, I gave them the go-ahead and sent money up front. It took them 6 weeks to finally send the top, which I then took to the highly reputed shop where I had previously had them rebuild springs and fresh padding under the Goers leather, which they cleaned and delivered in beautiful shape. At that time, I knew the top replacement was on the horizon, so I asked them in detail about installing a premade top, and they also showed me in person some work on recent high-end BMWs, Audis and Mercedes. I was impressed with their workmanship and attitude. They took barely two weeks to call and tell me the car was ready for delivery. When I got there, the top looked excellent, but the meticulous installer and manager showed me in detail how the top was unavoidably quite tight in a couple areas, and had also been loose in other places, which they were able to mitigate, but not entirely remediate. They demonstrated up/down operation and I had the car towed back to the restoration shop for further work.
About a week after delivering the car back to the main shop, he needed to retract the top for some reason; when he got the top about 3/4 retracted, he heard a very loud "SNAP" - the top had overstretched in one place and had instantly ripped an 18" tear in the aft quarter of the top! We towed the car back to the upholstery shop (50 miles each way), where they examined it carefully and said the top was not only too tight, but that the pinpoint vinyl material in that segment had apparently been installed incorrectly - they said the material is manufactured such that it is able to stretch in one direction but not the other, and the material had been installed crosswise, so it couldn't stretch. With the top material now torn, the inner and outer materials could be carefully examined, showing lines on the backside of the outer material to indicate the direction of stretch. I contacted the manufacturer of the top, and they pointed fingers at the the installer instead, so they were unwilling to offer a refund, but would give me a discount on a replacement of the $500 top material. I didn't trust them now and declined.
I talked with the upholstery shop and they offered to make a new top from scratch if we could find the correct material for inside and outside. It turns out that the maker of the top material only offered it in white outside with black inside, whereas the original top was supposed to have a tan interior - probably to match the universal tan of the leather seat upholstery. That supplier said they could provide the correct white/tan material, but only in a 100-yard quantity - and the material was already hideously expensive at $350/running yard (plus shipping from Germany). That was obviously out of the question, so we went with the black interior material, which was immediately available at a reasonable price.
We towed the car back to the upholstery shop and two weeks after the material was delivered, they called and said it was ready. This time the installer had used the old torn top as an initial guide, but custom-fit the new material a little longer here and a little shorter there, etc., yielding a perfectly fitted, tight, wrinkle-free new top. The said they had actuated the top several cycles, and confidently demonstrated that before I accepted the job and towed the car back to the restoration shop again. Three months of great stress, six tow-truck bills, finger-pointing and education the hard way was finally over!
Final note to a semi-happy ending: My insurance with JC Taylor covered the complete cost of the new material and installation, with a no-quibble check for $2300 after I sent them a couple photos and description of the calamity!
Based on my horror story, I would strongly suggest that you contact the best upholstery shop you can find that perhaps specializes in convertible tops, work with them to get the correct raw material, have them purchase that material and custom-make a new top for you. Now you have a single point who can make on-the-spot modifications and adjustments and will then stand behind their work.
Ray Melton 1957 300C cvt in Las Cruces, NM
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