Best way to attack rusted roof.
 

Okay, so I have TTops, The T bar and the front are nice solid, no rust. However the only little piece of ROOF we have is rusted out. Holes, rust, bad news bears. What is the best way to attack this? Should I find a donor and weld the whole thing in? Or would it be okay to patch it with sheet metal and welding? Any help would be great. Thanks!

Re: Best way to attack rusted roof.
 

Need some pics to tell you.
Are you sure there's no more rust? I wouldn't be sure until I had the ttop bar removed and paint sanded off. Seems very unlikely the rear of the t is rusty and the front isn't.

Re: Best way to attack rusted roof.
 

Well I replaced the ttop bar and underneath it was pristine. These are pictures from last year, but it hasn't changed much. Got a little worse.

Re: Best way to attack rusted roof.
 

More pics.

Re: Best way to attack rusted roof.
 

And more

Re: Best way to attack rusted roof.
 

Last ones

Re: Best way to attack rusted roof.
 

Yikes!
If it had been patched properly you could patch some more, but that ghetto job killed the car. That roof is toast. Notice the rot is in the inside as well, lots of water came through there. I would also look inside the b pillars, might be some bad rust in there too, esp at the bottom.
If everything else is clean, you could put a new roof in, but some of your rot is past the factory joint and into the b pillars. In any case, replacing the whole roof (yours is way beyond replacing just the top skin) is a huge job. It would be a huge job just to get a good replacement with the needed shape.
Sorry, but that sorry patch killed that car. It would have to be some super special car to warrant saving it from the crusher. It's razor blades now.

Re: Best way to attack rusted roof.
 

ouch, thats a whole lot of bad. if you got a donor section, it most likely wouldnt' be strong enough if you just welded it into place. it will take probably a couple months to fix that (if you spend every day at 8 hrs on it). in order to get the strength back for the roof you'd have to do the following (most likely, remember i'm just a guy on a message board, not a professional):
1, remove the hatch, t-top seals, interior panels, ect.
2, get a spot weld cutter, cut the t-top seal channel spot welds and remove it
3, using the same tool, remove the spot welds under the t-top seal channel, and around the door, and around the hatch, find a spot down low to cut it at (but try to find a spot that you wont notice a possible seam which you may see)
4, after that outer skin is off, then assess the inside - the main strength of the roof and b-pillar
5, if it needs repairing, then you might as well just hack it off, but staggered between the outside and inside of the main support, make sure its lined up perfect so that your hatch hinge bolts wont be off
6, start welding, make sure theyre good penetrating welds
7, once the support is back in, then attach the roof after you make a groove so that the its not just a butt-joint
8, bondo bondo bondo

this is a HUGE job that you have on your hands. if it is rusting the main supports inside, there is probably little to no integrity left and it starts to become a safety and performance concern.

check out my thread, had a nearly similar issue, just on the front section, and not as devastating of damage, took me about a month, month and a half to finally complete it, that was at 2-5 days a week working on it.

there is no way to repair that without some kind of donor.

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/show....php?p=5749209

Re: Best way to attack rusted roof.
 

also, just fyi, the bubbly rusty paint areas, thats an indication of there being no metal under there, if you want to see how significant the surface rust is, take a wire wheel on an angle grinder and work at the paint, any spot thats just rust will blow right away. thats how my front roof area looked

Re: Best way to attack rusted roof.
 

I have a donor. And he cut it down to the factory lines. Will I really not be able to get structural integrity back? I have spent so much on body work already. I feel like sending it to a crusher would be a waste at this point. I love this thing. How much would a shop charge to fix it if I gave them the donor part?

Re: Best way to attack rusted roof.
 

if you reproduced the factory construction it would be the same as factory strength, its just going to take a lot of work. there is a factory joint at either side of the roof, the overlapping unibody structure underneath gives it its strength. its doable, just that its a huge amount of hours to undo spot welds, separate panels, cut out the donor piece, undo some more spot welds, wells in replacement piece, redo some more spot welds.
definitely make sure the rest of the b pillar isn't rusted first, also the pinch welds at bottom of b pillars and frame rails.
i don't know an amount, but it would have to cost a lot to have a shop do it. if you get anything less than a jaw dropping estimate i would think its because they aren't going to do it right.
you may have done a lot of body work already, but this is going to be a whole different level. some times you have to cut your losses and move on.

Re: Best way to attack rusted roof.
 

i dont think body shops will give you an estimate, honestly. most of them want a quick turn around and dont want something in the shop for an extended period of time. if i had to guess an estimate, i'd say maybe around 3-4k. if i had brought my car to a body shop and they saw how much more rust was in it, they would have kicked it back, i can almost guarantee it.
if you have a welder, a good drill to use a spot weld cutter, a thin pry bar (i used a metal scraper on mine) and a hammer, and most importantly a lot of time, its doable. like stealth t/a said, if you can cut out the stuff at the factory portions preferably then that would be the best for structural integrity. it looks like you'll be in for A LOT of work on this project though.
i know how you feel, when i found my rust issue, all my friends told me to scrap it, but i've dumped too much money in the car and too much time to just get rid of it so i put more time into it.
if you decide to tackle this project, atleast you have people here who have tons of knowledge and are willing to help!

Re: Best way to attack rusted roof.
 

Not that i'm not up to the task, but i'd get another car and transfer everything to it.. that would be easier and may cost a lot le$$ :2cents: