Hey everyone, i'm finally back to working on my car again and am at the moment concerned with the body. I have been trying to find a replacement body for my 72 elky, but they are hard to come by around here, well... for a reasonable price that is. I had someone to cut out the front clip and weld a new one on, but he decided he couldn't do it afterall due to an old back injury. So now i'm looking for ways to repair as opposed to replace. Basically, there was a vinyl top on the car that wasn't maintained at all, the water got between the vinyl and the metal and just destroyed the pretty much everything under the vinyl, so when i bought the car, the roof was like swiss cheese. It's too big to fix with something like POR15 and i can't find anyone who can bend sheetmetal into the shape required, even around the windows is rusted through. Any suggestions on how to fix this little fiasco?

Are the holes small enough that you could weld them shut with a mig. You'd have to be real careful not to warp it and you'd most likely have to replace the vinyl roof to cover up the inevitable waves. Or find a roof. I thought I saw that someone was parting an elky in the member classifieds or the open ones??? can't remember where I saw it. An elky roof might be small enough to ship? I bought a roof for my 70 for $60 a few months ago. They're out there, you just have to find one.

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Rick Smith
72 Chevelle and a 70 Chevelle with a crushed roof, soon to be replaced.
ACES # 4051 MCC # 448
TC # 1549 81/70 Cruisers

There was an issue of Car Craft where they showed how to remove the toupe from the elky.

They found a donor car and cut the entire roof off the donor with a sawsall including the sail panel and halfway down the window channels. They then measured each side, lined it up and then tack welded it in place and then went back and fully welded it in. The finished result was very good and look great. I think that's your only alternative to get rid of that rust.

I have the same problem with mine, I ground down all the rust, welded the holes up and put some por15. I am now using filler to smooth out the roof.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>I bought a roof for my 70 for $60 a few months ago. They're out there, you just have to find one.

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Damn that's a steal!!! I wish I could find one for that price. Then it would be totally worth it

I can't remember who it was but some body parts manufacturer is offering a new top section for 68-72 El Caminos.

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Clint Hooper
ACES #1650
Wichita Falls,Tx
69 El Camino (prostreet soon to be protourer)
]http://dalesplace.com/misc/friends/clint_hooper.htm] (http://dalesplace.com/misc/friends/clint_hooper.htm)
91 Callaway Aerobody ZR-1
ht]http://personal.tmlp.com/scorp/vette/images/members/usazr1/purple-9.jpg]ht (http://personal.tmlp.com/scorp/vette/images/members/usazr1/purple-9.jpg)

A few years ago I bought a 72 elky that had a BIG tree branch whack the h**l out of the roof.(Got it real cheap 200.00 and drove it home with with my head stickin out the window)Went to the junk yard-found me an elky and had them torch it off at the bottom of the windsheild rails and top of quarters and plazma cut it to fit.Lots of work involved here with the interior supports,But worth it if the rest of the car is o.k.USE THE old windsheild and back glass as references.As others have said here-it can be done.Stuck a BB in it,made a few bucks, and see it runnin around all the time.

no, the holes are not small enough to be welded closed, a couple of them i can put my whole arm through. I did talk to someone about cutting the roof off and welding a new one on, but he told me that he couldn't do it because of his back, and said that if i could find someone who could do the work, he could tell them exactly how to do it, but i would need to find the tools. I have access to a tig welder and a plasma torch to cut it, but i don't have the crimping tool needed to crimp the pieces together for a solid weld.

I wouldn't crimp the parts together I'd butt weld them. Esp on the front posts you're not going to have enough room to use a lap joint. Spot weld it every 4 or 5 inches apart then go back and fill in a 1/2 inch or so at a time in-between the tack welds. At least that is what MartinSR, and others here have recommended and that is what I'm planning on doing with my 70. I used a similar process on the floors in my 72 and it worked great.

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Rick Smith
72 Chevelle and a 70 Chevelle with a crushed roof, soon to be replaced.
ACES # 4051 MCC # 448
TC # 1549 81/70 Cruisers