Everflex is a British
fabric
Textile is an umbrella term that includes various fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, filaments, threads, different fabric types, etc. At first, the word "textiles" only referred to woven fabrics. However, weaving is not the ...
used as a roof covering on
cars
A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people instead of goods.
The year 1886 is regarded as t ...
, and is a type of
vinyl roof
Vinyl roof refers to a vinyl covering for an automobile's top.
This covering was originally designed to give the appearance of a convertible to models with a fixed roof and eventually evolved into a styling statement in its own right. Vin ...
. Everflex was used on both
hardtop
A hardtop is a rigid form of automobile roof, which for modern cars is typically constructed from metal. A hardtop roof can be either fixed (i.e. not removable), detachable for separate storing or retractable within the vehicle itself.
The ...
s and
convertible
A convertible or cabriolet () is a passenger car that can be driven with or without a roof in place. The methods of retracting and storing the roof vary among eras and manufacturers.
A convertible car's design allows an open-air driving ex ...
s.
Its usage was popular from the 1960s to the 1980s on
luxury car
A luxury car is a car that provides increased levels of comfort, equipment, amenities, quality, performance, and associated status compared to moderately priced cars.
The term is subjective and reflects both the qualities of the car and th ...
s. Though its popularity has greatly decreased for new vehicles, it is still manufactured as a material used to restore vehicles. The material is similar to the
vinyl
Vinyl may refer to:
Chemistry
* Polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a particular vinyl polymer
* Vinyl cation, a type of carbocation
* Vinyl group, a broad class of organic molecules in chemistry
* Vinyl polymer, a group of polymers derived from viny ...
used on most vehicles, but is more durable and more expensive. On hardtop vehicles, fabric is placed below the Everflex material to add weight and body, often making the car look more like a genuine convertible. On older vehicles, a fabric called "Union Cloth" was used, but it quickly deteriorated, trapping water and damaging the Everflex material and roof. The Everflex is then glued down and can be screwed in around doors and windows. Three notable car companies that use Everflex material are
Rolls-Royce
Rolls-Royce (always hyphenated) may refer to:
* Rolls-Royce Limited, a British manufacturer of cars and later aero engines, founded in 1906, now defunct
Automobiles
* Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, the current car manufacturing company incorporated ...
,
Austin-Healey
Austin-Healey was a British sports car maker established in 1952 through a joint venture between the Austin division of the British Motor Corporation (BMC) and the Donald Healey Motor Company (Healey), a renowned automotive engineering and ...
,
Morgan Motor Company
The Morgan Motor Company is a British motor car manufacturer owned by Italian investment group Investindustrial. It was founded in 1910 by Henry Frederick Stanley Morgan.
Morgan is based in Malvern Link, an area of Malvern, and employs ap ...
and
Jaguar Cars. The feature was most popular on the Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow in the early 1970s. Apart from its usage in the automotive industry, companies such as
B. F. Goodrich
The Goodrich Corporation, formerly the B.F. Goodrich Company, was an American manufacturing company based in Charlotte, North Carolina. Founded in Akron, Ohio in 1870 as Goodrich, Tew & Co. by Benjamin Goodrich, the company name was ch ...
marketed Everflex as a stronger alternative to rubber. Additionally, another unrelated wet suit material by the name of Everflex gained popularity in the early 2000s.
References
External links
Everflex on Rolls-Royce cars(German)
Automotive technology tradenames
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