Gonna start the body work on my 71 w/ vinyl top this spring and have been looking closely at the extent of work to be done. I noticed that the roof drip rails look pretty bad not to mention the panel behind the rear window ( I know that's toast). But what do I do if I take the vinyl top off and the roof comes with it? :eek: Thanks!

You replace the roof, that was an easy one. smile.gif Honestly, you can replace it, it is just "another project".

However, if it is only seriously pitted, you can treat it and polyester primer will fill the biggest pits you could have. So you could "save" even a pretty badly damaged roof.

That's a relief. Thanks

and the deeper you dig into the project the more you find. at least thats how my car was. it got to a point i had to sit down and give some serious thought as to the rescue of a 70 SS lS5 . the car was bought local when new and stayed in this area . this helped in my dicision to save it. just to get the total satisfaction when previous owners see it, they just grin real big and say man you got it looking good. thats what makes it worthwile for me anyolehow. good luck with yours

MARTINSR,
I've got the same problem. How do you prep it for the polyester primer? Do you need to get all the rust out of the pits? Will it last with some rust still in the pits? Sanblast? DA? then pick. How to do this job? Did you do a basics of basics on this? I missed it if you did. You can see how bad the roof is on my site in my signature, the dismantling section.


Thanks,
Marty

You'll need to remove the rust from all of the pits, It's a time consuming project but doable. Use a Kleen and strip disc from 3M, and a hand held spot blaster at low pressure. Muriatic acid will also work but is hazardous if not used with safety. Bob

if you need a new roof skier bob. i know where a couple coupes are in my area you can clip the roof. one is in progress ms. thats not far from nawlings. good luck

Turn it into a rag top?? (Joking)

Michael in Miss - thanks. It's allready a rag top 540Cutlass - that's the problem! smile.gif

There is an excellent thread over on the Hotrodders forum on the subject of rust. Click here for "The secrets of rust removal reveiled". (http://www.hotrodders.com/t55679.html) The guy who spells it all out is a MASTER metal fabricator whom I respect a lot. You can take what he says to the bank.

After you get the rust all cleaned up a coat or two of a quality epoxy primer followed with polyester primer. I don't recommend the acid ecth because of all the pits, acid can get trapped and not flash off.

But polyester primer WILL fill anything you can dish out. I have done some tests where 36 grit scratches in plastic filler will filled with one application of two coats! The stuff will bury a quarter taped to the top! smile.gif

Is it the best way to fix that car, heck no, replacing the roof with a good one would be. But if that is not an option, polyester primer is the only realistic approach in my opinion.

Hey MartinSR, thanks for posting a link to the Hotrodder's site, that is a very informative post Ferguson made about the naval jelly and I'm anxious to try this. There's always more than one way to skin a cat, but some ways are better than others.

Replacing a roof is not for the timid. I have a member in our Chevelle club doing that right now on a 67 and it is tough. You measure 3 times and cut once.

That Hotrodder forum thread was awesome. Thanks for the information and link.. I will try the procedure that is explaned there. I think that will be less work.

Marty