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Sunroof, should I patch or cut?


voltron_boi

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Why not cut and swap the roofs completely?  If it were my car, that's what I'd do.

 

Patching, unless done extremely well, will be difficult to restore the gentle curvature our rooflines have. Not saying it can't be done, but get a GOOD body guy.

 

I'd cut the non sunroof roof section, cut at the a pillar, and the lead seams in the rear, then swap.

 

That's what I believe would yield the best results, in my opinion.

 

 

 

EDIT: Haha, Blu, Jinx!

Edited by OldAndyAndTheSea
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We just did that to our '72 240 in the shop.  Our first foray into cutting an entire roof off a donor, drilling all the spotwelds, melting the lead at each pillar, cutting the welds at the corners and separating the roof skin.  Not for the faint-of-heart, but definitely do-able.  The right tools help.  And, there are some great guides by guys who paved the path.  Bone up on everything required and which side to drill spot welds on which piece.  You can have a replacement roof that almost looks like the factory installed it.

 

They're right that a "patch" is extremely difficult to get right.

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We just did that to our '72 240 in the shop.  Our first foray into cutting an entire roof off a donor, drilling all the spotwelds, melting the lead at each pillar, cutting the welds at the corners and separating the roof skin.  Not for the faint-of-heart, but definitely do-able.  The right tools help.  And, there are some great guides by guys who paved the path.  Bone up on everything required and which side to drill spot welds on which piece.  You can have a replacement roof that almost looks like the factory installed it.

 

They're right that a "patch" is extremely difficult to get right.

 

This is exactly the way I replaced my roof skin.

 

post-18988-0-46036900-1392824070_thumb.jpg

 

post-18988-0-97309800-1392824087_thumb.jpg

 

post-18988-0-21611700-1392824128_thumb.jpg

post-18988-0-05943600-1392824109_thumb.jpg

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  • 1 month later...

I patched mine and it turned out okay, not great. I still have some hammer and dolly work to do but think I will end up with an oilcan problem that may take a stiffener spot welded inside the roof to fix.

Speaking from experience, this is absolutely correct. Seeing the thickness of the steel, and amount of welding that goes in, it has shrunk certain areas and has caused oil canning behind the patch, seeing the roof flattens out somewhat in the area behind the drives head. Dolly work was needed and that took the best part of a whole day. In retrospect replacing the roof skin would have been a much better option in terms of retaining the shape. Although it would have taken longer, a cleaner result would have been far easier to archive. I am also considering a stiffener if shrinking the oil canning doesn't get the results needed.
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