Quote:
Originally Posted by rustyrodknocker
Did you take any photos? I set out to do this several years ago but I just cut off the whole roof at the pillars and swapped it. Mine had the typical 70's rain roof.
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I do have pictures. I cut it off at the pillars but only to use the pillar/roof structure during transportation to the Body Shop. The Body Shop removed the spot welds around the edge (350 of them) and moved the good skin onto my truck. It was glued on; not re-welded in 350 places. That is a gross over-simplification but not nearly as daunting as it sounds. The shop was very experienced and it went surprisingly smooth.
As opposed to replacing the roof from the pillars-up, replacing the skin avoided all possibility of compromising the structure or having alignment issues with the windshield, four doors, or four windows.
The donor roof was not perfect due the fact that it was 50+ years old. It needed minor body work. To do that it had to have all the paint and headliner removed. I chose to use paint stripper because I did not want to introduce ANY new body repairs to the metal from blasting or sanding. It took a couple gallons of stripper and LOTS of steel wool and gloves. The headliner came out with a paint scraper and heat gun, followed by steel wool and mineral spirits. The headliner removal was done over head. In hind sight, the paint & headliner removal were the biggest part of the job and the nastiest phase. Once it was bare steel on both sides, I loaded in on a trailer and delivered it to the Body Shop.
I was nervous about the whole idea of replacing the roof, but it turned out to be the right thing to do. The old roof had rust, hole, and wrinkle issues. That is one BIG piece of sheet metal. Bigger than any quarter panel and bigger than any floor panel. I would like to see the stamping dies that made it.