Taking roof rack off the car, - planning on welding metal inside to fill holes, anyone done this? Any problems with doing it?

My '66 wagon originally came with a roof rack but was long gone when I bought the car. Some previous owner just caulked the holes. :rolleyes:
I had considered installing another roof rack but decided I didn't really like the look.
I had the holes welded up before painting the car. You'd never know they were ever there...

i have not done that yet but should be a piece of cake. i might put wet rags around the area to keep warping down and alternate places to keep heat down.

Another possibility is to use the panel adhesive that is for gluing on body panels. No heat and no warpage. I think it is called Fusor or something like that.

Thanks for the input guys, I'll keep you up to date with the redo of the car.

Anyone have any tips on the window support inside the tail gate, mine has nerfed the window pretty bad 2" wide top to bottom right down the middle. :(

Picts would help...

I removed my rack and filled the holes by glueing filler pieces under the holes....I beveled the hole edges then used the duramix filler recomened by the glue. I did need to cut some of the inner roof structure along the edges to gain access to the holes, but no big deal as the headliner was out anyway. Used an epoxy primer/then a 2k primer over it.. so far no problems!!!
Rick

Thanks for the input guys, I'll keep you up to date with the redo of the car.

Anyone have any tips on the window support inside the tail gate, mine has nerfed the window pretty bad 2" wide top to bottom right down the middle. :(

take out the stainles sheet metal piece and glue a new piece of felt on to it.

Hey What are you guys doing with all your old roof racks?? I have one for my chevelle but one of the strips that sit on the roof was lost at the polishing shop. I also have no idea where you could get the rubber strips that go on the bottom of the strips. Let me know if you have any ideas. Erik

I have the whole thing up for sell on the classifieds here.

Greetings,
Don't do the wet rag thing under the weld area. You're going to need to use a heat sink. Ask on the body shop forum the best material to use. In the past I've use a copper pipe flattend out to look like a bent butter knife while MIG welding. I hold this under/inside the space being filled. This acts as a backstop to the weld. Nice thing, the weld did not stick to the copper.

Great Tip johnyac - I'll have to make one of those up! :thumbsup:

Greetings,
Don't do the wet rag thing under the weld area. You're going to need to use a heat sink. Ask on the body shop forum the best material to use. In the past I've use a copper pipe flattend out to look like a bent butter knife while MIG welding. I hold this under/inside the space being filled. This acts as a backstop to the weld. Nice thing, the weld did not stick to the copper.

the rag was not for holding under the hole being welded. it was for a heat sink in the sourounding area. yes there are better heat sink materials you can purchase. i think in this case we were talking about welding a piece of metal under the hole. yes you could just fill the hole with weld by using a non phosforus metal like copper to act as a back stop to give the weld a boundry.

What I did to stop the window from getting scratched. I started with a valve stem, Reason being it has a brass interior and will roll like an axel. I think you know where I am going. I made a little bracket to hold my " 1 1/2 " wide flat rubber roller. Used a 10/32 machine screw to hold it on to the bracket. Drilled out the center of the valve stem to match the O.D. of the machine screw. Now you have a little rubber roller about an inch and a half wide and chances are I will last a lifetime.
Then again, Like Pete said install a new piece of felt and get another 25-30 years of service.
Bob ACES--AACA:hurray: