I never was interested in acquiring a targa band until very recently, for some reason. They are getting quite scarce, especially in decent enough condition to carry out a restoration. I supposed that it would go well with the louvers that I haven't put on the car for the past 10 years for a very period look. So I also wanted to modify the band so that I wouldn't have to drill holes in the car and permanantly install it.

Firstly, big thumbs up to Wohnson89 (Webster) for selling me the band and packing it so carefully, rubber bumpers all around the edge of each piece to prevent box compression damage. What a guy!!

Here are the pieces with the stainless masked off and being painted:


https://www.rx7club.com/attachment.p...1&d=1410371701

 

I was thinking the emblems would be chromed plastic like the car body emblems but they turn out to be solid metal!!!

Rather than laboriously painting the black background with brush and plastic model paint, I rubbed some candlestick wax over the letters and sprayed the whole thing black. Then I removed most of the wax and paint with a towel and finished the lettering with a brass wire wheel on a Dremel.

https://www.rx7club.com/attachment.p...1&d=1410372026


More progress to come!

 

NIce job. I'm not a fan of the targa band but the work looks very well done.

 

Paint-all-then-strip-the-top-face is also a good strategy for restoring wheel center caps.

 

Great tip for masking raised trim/lettering with candle wax.

I will pull my side fender emblems and give this a try, your trim turned out well.

 

OK,

Like I said, no hole drilling and easily removed when I don't care for the look that day!

I glued some 3.2mm thick neodymium magnets to the underside of the band. Very strong bond to the car, definitely will not come off while driving. Easily removed when going through touchless car wash.

I'll take some more beauty shots tomorrow after it stops raining.

 

Ingenuous mod and it does accent your cars color well. Deserves two thumbs!

 

Good one on the magnets!! Nice work!

 

I'd add more magnets just to be safe. That thing sits right at the part of the roof
that sees a lot of air flow.

Nice solution. I like you can remove it as needed.

 

Thanks for the kind words guys, and I did add extra magnets this morning, had to go out and buy some more since I wasn't sure if the thickness would work or not. Now it takes a satisfying effort to detach the pieces from the body.

The targa band looks better than I anticipated, doesn't really standout and it makes the louvers look better. Perhaps a more complete 911 look!

Here's full sized side view link:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...9/P9120237.JPG

 

Looks good on your car! Glad it made the trip ok, its always a little worrisome shipping out of country. Nice solution on the magnets, I'd trust it ok in town but just don't go over 150mph wit just the magnets
I'd put some kind of soft material on the side of the magnets that contacts the paint. Nothing to thick as not to lessen the magnetic force. Just my 2 cents.

Not to divert attention away from the topic at hand, but where did you get those mud gaurds on your car? kind of look like the black dragon ones.

Anyway glad to see the band went to a good home!

 

I bought these years ago and they apparently were for the model that celebrated the 10th anniversary of Mazda in North America. Best mud guards ever since they are molded to fit the body and not a universal style fits all look.