Roof Skin Replacement

[six-tee-nine]

Do you have any recommendations for an epoxy primer in an aerosol can?

Yeah...... dont buy that stuff.

Buy a paint gun and a compressor and pressure reducer/water separator. No need for a fancy devillbiss paint gun of several hundereds of dollars. To apply primer you can buy alot cheaper and get nice resutls.
Buy epoxy primer and highbuild primer in large cans along with reducer and hardener. Works alot faster, alot cheaper in the end. And you can still use that stuff later on for instance on interior parts or smaller parts to get a better rattle can paint result.
You can paint smaller things alot nicer with rattle cans if the parts were prepped with primer from a spray gun. thicker coats will give you more material to smooth stuff out and will give you a better result when using thin spray can paint. And ont the large surfaces of the body it will work alot faster to shoot primer.

[charger_fan_4ever]

Do you have any recommendations for an epoxy primer in an aerosol can?

Yeah...... dont buy that stuff.

Buy a paint gun and a compressor and pressure reducer/water separator. No need for a fancy devillbiss paint gun of several hundereds of dollars. To apply primer you can buy alot cheaper and get nice resutls.
Buy epoxy primer and highbuild primer in large cans along with reducer and hardener. Works alot faster, alot cheaper in the end. And you can still use that stuff later on for instance on interior parts or smaller parts to get a better rattle can paint result.
You can paint smaller things alot nicer with rattle cans if the parts were prepped with primer from a spray gun. thicker coats will give you more material to smooth stuff out and will give you a better result when using thin spray can paint. And ont the large surfaces of the body it will work alot faster to shoot primer.

What he said. The metal prep and primers are the base that your going to put $$$$$ and hours into. You dont want the base to be no good.

[rikubot]

Damn it I had just ordered a cab from jegs... is there anywhere I can put it to make use of it? Lol

Also, I have a question about spot welding. I've got one from my buddy's shop, what kind of metal prep do I have to do to use it? My research has brought up mixed answers. Is that AMD coating ok to leave on? What about POR15? What conditions do I need to make a nice spot weld?

[Dreamcar]

Damn it I had just ordered a cab from jegs... is there anywhere I can put it to make use of it? Lol

Also, I have a question about spot welding. I've got one from my buddy's shop, what kind of metal prep do I have to do to use it? My research has brought up mixed answers. Is that AMD coating ok to leave on? What about POR15? What conditions do I need to make a nice spot weld?

For non factory welding, I'd plug weld and not sport weld, and when doing that, I use weld through primer on the metal surfaces that overlap each other (after removing AMD coating in the weld area). I also remove the primer that's in the hole that I'm filling up with weld.

[rikubot]

Thanks for the tip. That makes perfect sense. The video I watched on YouTube he did the same thing. Any preference for weld thru primers?

We ended up cutting the old roof off. The metal underneath was in really good shape except for right under the lip in the center of the windshield, but I think it's still usable without any repair other than smoothing it out for the new skin's lip. The work didn't suck too bad! I ended up storing my buddy's car and parking mine in his garage. I'll post some pics if you guys are interested in checking out the progress. I guess the next step is to wire wheel the frame and coat it with some POR15. Then prep the seams for the new metal.

[Dreamcar]

Thanks for the tip. That makes perfect sense. The video I watched on YouTube he did the same thing. Any preference for weld thru primers?

We ended up cutting the old roof off. The metal underneath was in really good shape except for right under the lip in the center of the windshield, but I think it's still usable without any repair other than smoothing it out for the new skin's lip. The work didn't suck too bad! I ended up storing my buddy's car and parking mine in his garage. I'll post some pics if you guys are interested in checking out the progress. I guess the next step is to wire wheel the frame and coat it with some POR15. Then prep the seams for the new metal.

Another tip that I do...If there's an area with light rust that will be welded on, I wire brush it with a brass wire wheel on my angle grinder and scuff it with sand paper, add a little Ospho, wait 12h, then apply weld through primer. I use the weld through I get at my local autobody store.

Ospho
http://www.ospho.com

[rikubot]

I've got a whole mess of people telling me to glue the skin down with panel bond. What are your thoughts on that?

[Dreamcar]

I've got a whole mess of people telling me to glue the skin down with panel bond. What are your thoughts on that?

If you weld the skin at the sail panels and windshield posts, they yes it would probably work. The adhesives should have instructions on where to apply and where not to. Google it if they don't. But I would not apply the adhesive for the sail panels and posts because it does expand at a different rate in the sun and could create ghost lines after the paint job.

[rikubot]

Agreed. So you would do it at the windshield and back glass, and drip rails, but only weld the A and C pillars? I read somewhere that a guy glued the drip rails only, but that almost defeats the purpose IMO.

[Dreamcar]

Agreed. So you would do it at the windshield and back glass, and drip rails, but only weld the A and C pillars? I read somewhere that a guy glued the drip rails only, but that almost defeats the purpose IMO.

You'd be better off joining an autobody forum and asking. To me the only advantage of the bonding adhesive for the roof skin would be the time saved. I plan on welding mine all the way around.

[rikubot]

The skin fits kinda strangely on the left C-Pillar. Did any of you guys experience this with your skins? The bottom edge where it meets the drip rail... The skin isn't clamped down but I don't think that will help that lip reach the drip rail any better. Id post a pic but I can't seem to figure out how to compress my photos and retain good enough quality.

[darbgnik]

The skin fits kinda strangely on the left C-Pillar. Did any of you guys experience this with your skins? The bottom edge where it meets the drip rail... The skin isn't clamped down but I don't think that will help that lip reach the drip rail any better. Id post a pic but I can't seem to figure out how to compress my photos and retain good enough quality.

A shortcut I've found to resize pics for this site while keeping them from turning miniscule, is, if you take them with your phone camera, text the pic to yourself. Then upload the received texted pic. The compression used in text is pretty impressive. The pic shows a lot of detail, yet is 200K or under. If it's still a little over 200k, you can resize it using windows paint from there, and it'll still be pretty good.

[Dreamcar]

The skin fits kinda strangely on the left C-Pillar. Did any of you guys experience this with your skins? The bottom edge where it meets the drip rail... The skin isn't clamped down but I don't think that will help that lip reach the drip rail any better. Id post a pic but I can't seem to figure out how to compress my photos and retain good enough quality.

A shortcut I've found to resize pics for this site while keeping them from turning miniscule, is, if you take them with your phone camera, text the pic to yourself. Then upload the received texted pic. The compression used in text is pretty impressive. The pic shows a lot of detail, yet is 200K or under. If it's still a little over 200k, you can resize it using windows paint from there, and it'll still be pretty good.

Same here. Resize using Paint then upload.

[rikubot]

Figured I would just host it and keep the size large. Here you can see the lower part of that rear seam pretty well. I can get more pics later.

http://unpluggedupd.com/downloads.html

[Dreamcar]

Figured I would just host it and keep the size large. Here you can see the lower part of that rear seam pretty well. I can get more pics later.

http://unpluggedupd.com/downloads.html

It will probably not fit perfect because the skin is designed to go under the quarter panel. So it's sitting a little higher than it should.  Add to that that most aftermarket pieces are not perfect. In fact, most cars weren't perfect from the factory anyway.  The flanged end of the skin is for tucking under the quarter. If your not going to tuck it under the quarter, you're likely going to have to cut the flange and but weld and/or add a backing strip behind the quarter.
http://www.autobodystore.com/door_rust.shtml

[rikubot]

Wow that is crazy. I assumed that because the factory skin went over the top of the quarter the new skin would as well. I'm definitely going to have to reevaluate. Thank you dreamcar, I'm going to have to play with it when I get off work.

[rikubot]

Do you have any close ups of your seams during your build?

[Dreamcar]

Do you have any close ups of your seams during your build?

I'm still building....my AMD quarters go on permanently soon, followed by a donor factory roof skin. So mine will go together completely different.

[Dreamcar]

I was looking at your pic again...if you can someone shove the flange from the skin under the quarter, you could punch holes in the quarter at the seam and plug weld. Test fit first though and punch the holes before installing the skin for the final time.

[rikubot]

If anyone has any pics of their roof seems, I'd sure like to see them. Dreamcar, Do you know when you'll be stickin those quartrs on? I assume you'll be documenting it right?

[Dreamcar]

If anyone has any pics of their roof seems, I'd sure like to see them. Dreamcar, Do you know when you'll be stickin those quartrs on? I assume you'll be documenting it right?

Within a month or two. Yes, I'll be documenting. Did you take pics before and while you took the skin off? Was I right that the AMD skin tucks under the factory quarter?

The picture is of the AMD quarter C pillar. The drop-down flange is where the factory roof skin goes on top off, which like I said would the opposite of what you have based on the picture you provided.

[charger_fan_4ever]

The 3m panel bond acts as a sealer at same time  
Welded a piece into the C section onto the 1/4, so that only a skim coat of filler is needed.
Welded along the front and rear window. Panel bond for the sides and cross supports. We stripped all the e coat off the amd panels and put good epoxy on.

For your everyday car id leave the e coat and just scuff and prime overtop. But on a resto not taking any chances.

[rikubot]

A few pictures I took tonight:

[rikubot]

Within a month or two. Yes, I'll be documenting. Did you take pics before and while you took the skin off? Was I right that the AMD skin tucks under the factory quarter?

The picture is of the AMD quarter C pillar. The drop-down flange is where the factory roof skin goes on top off, which like I said would the opposite of what you have based on the picture you provided.

I didn't take any pictures, but the factory roof skin went over the top. It has a slight little drop down where the seam ended but not like the new panel.

[rikubot]

The 3m panel bond acts as a sealer at same time  
Welded a piece into the C section onto the 1/4, so that only a skim coat of filler is needed.
Welded along the front and rear window. Panel bond for the sides and cross supports. We stripped all the e coat off the amd panels and put good epoxy on.

For your everyday car id leave the e coat and just scuff and prime overtop. But on a resto not taking any chances.

Did you do a new AMD roof and quarters on your car?