Hey all, I have been helping a buddy restore a 1962 Nova gasser and today we removed about 2 gallons of old Bondo from the roof of the car. The roof is in real bad shape and we cant begin for figure out what happened to it. My question is can a badly dented peaked and vallied roof skin be repaired or is a new roof skin the way to go? Is there a thread on the HAMB that give info on replacing a roof skin? We used the torch under the bondo to loosen it up. More then half and inch thick and 3 layers. Its hard to see the damage in the pics but it aint good!
I just tackled a similar problem on a slightly off topic car. I did a lot of hammer and dolly work. Best thing I did was buy a shrinking wheel. Wish I would have started with it. It is still going to have to be filled but at a 1/4 inch instead of one inch like you have.
Might be hard to work it out with a wheel, if the roof bracing is still in. Might look into another skin. I had to replace a skin on a 67 mustang that someone thought they needed a sunroof
I am by no means a professional bodyman, but I have repaired some pretty bad roof panels in the past, and like TooManyFords said, shrinking is the key to straightening them. The good thing is that you can get behind or under the panel easily because there is not much bracing. The bad thing is that because there is not much bracing, you have to really work at it and shrink it so you don't have that "oil can" effect. I used to hammer and dolly and then shrink areas by heating with my torch and then using a shrinking hammer ( has a kind of serrated face) on the dolly. I guess it would depend on your skill and patience. Hopefully some of the metal working wizards on here can give advice. You could also get some same gauge sheet metal and make a new panel using an english wheel to put the shape into it. It is not that hard to do, but you have to own or know somebody who has a wheel. You would still have to weld around the edges of the panel, but if you move around welding and minimize the warpage, you shouldn't need much filler. If you could find an entire roof from a donor car, you could replace the whole roof which isn't too hard, but you must make sure that you locate it exactly. After all that, I have always liked Dale Armstrong's Chevy II....
looks like its time for a donor-I hope whoever did that gets stuck with one with hidden mud in worse shape----------if possible
The easy...and best way...would be to replace it if you can find another skin in better shape. Repair is possible but not for the faint at heart. A shrinking disc will come in handy, but I'd start by working out as much as I could with a hammer and dolly. It looks like it's stretched pretty bad, though so too much hammer/dolly work will likely make matters worse without some serious torch shrinking. If your not familiar with that kind of sheet metal repair work I'd enlist the help/on-site advise of some one who has has been down that road a time or two.
Bring it to me, hang out for a couple days and I'll teach you how to fix it. Donor roofs is cheating................ No cuts, patches, welding or bondo.
Wish I could even come close to what tinman can do! I'd always have to chop the skin off, or risk having almost as much bondo as it had!
Yeah......We dont have much experience so we are going to learn the "cut off the old and weld in the new" way!
Those guys that always say, "That'll buff out." were right. I'd like to see progress shots of that, especially step #1.
Tinman makes me cuss him and I don't even know him...ha ha I believe I'm really cussing my own inabilities to fix this roof that I've been screwing with for years. This roof is my stopping point to completing this 20 year project, I find it easier to just build another car than to screw with this thing. I think I told Tinman in the past that he needs to start a mobile metal fixing service, it would be a great way for him to see the world...ha ha ha
I think that a lot of you folks are looking at these things the wrong way. "I'm afraid I'll screw it up...." Uh,,, Its already fucked up, you might make it worse but fucked up is fucked up. If your planning a donor then by all means grab a hammer, put on your big girl panties and try to fix it, if its not working then go ahead and change the roof. At least your learning what not to do....... I had a donor roof located for that Poncho but it was out in a field and it had rained or snowed just about everyday for a couple weeks and you couldn't even begin to get to the donor without a helicopter. I figured that by the time we could get to it I would either have this one fixed or so fucked up I could sell it as "modern art". "I don't know where to start...." Nobody knows where to start, pick a fight with the biggest dent and go from there. I fiddled with the roof for a while and ended up with an oil can/plip plop/gggrrrrrrrr #@$%&*@!!#@#$%$%%^ that I chased all over the place, when I finally cornered it and killed it the roof was looking good everywhere I had been. Point being,, you will never gain any experience at this by bravely running away from the problem. And I'll let you in on a secret, roofs want to go back where they were. It make take some unkindness on your part but they will go back to shape. Swade, send me more pix of your roof and I bet I can coach you thru getting the worst of it out. Sorry if I offended anyone but some tough love and some motivation might just turn you into me and then you can the overbearing egotistical @sshole showing off in other peoples threads.......
Honestly I think I got the big stuff moved back out, but my really good door gaps are non existing. I was surprised at the amount of filler the painter used, didn't think my once and only chop was that bad..ha ha
Some pics of the roof swap! The donor roof cut out. The messed up roof is removed Touching up the edges. Pre fitting
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