Final Welding - Part 2

The front of the top has been welded up and ground down. There are a few waves but nothing too bad. The corner over the driver side did not turn out as well as I hoped it would but the passenger side turned out quite well. I still need to go back and weld up the pinholes but I will wait until all the other welding is finished before I go back and do that.

I have not welded down the passenger side yet, but you can see how well it will fit when I do. There is still some grinding to do on the front corner, but I don't think I will have time to do it today. I may try to get out to the shop tonight, but we'll see if the wife will let me.

Final Weding - Part 1

Most of the driver side has been welded up. You can see that I dug the filler out of the bullet hole above the door. I still need to cut a small patch to fill that in. I also need to do a little bit of shrinking and stretching to make the 2 inch strip right above the windshield line up correctly. All in all, it is coming along quite well. There are a few waves, but nothing I can't take care of with my new stud welder.

Final Roof Fitting

The final fitting for the new roof is done. Everything is tacked in place and fits extremely well. I still need to go back and work out two flat spots, one above the windshield on the drivers side and one just behind the trailing edge of the opening on the passenger side. Neither should require much time.

Next up is final welding. My guess is that will take the better part of a day including the grinding. I've not done a patch this big before, but what the heck, right?

I have to confess, I have never even sat in a rag top before, so I really can't wait to have this car done so I can actually drive one.

Fitting the New Roof

I started the evening by welding the supports in each of the front corners. Once they were welded, I sprayed a metal etching primer on them to protect the welds. This part of the roof will never see the light of day again so I had to spray them now to avoid rust later on. The body filler you see is a bullet hole patched by the previous owner. There are 2 or 3 more I will need to fix at some point.

Next up was to fit and tack the patches in above the supports I just welded in place. These patches took some serious work to fit correctly but the time spent will be well worth it. The next step will be to run a cutting wheel all the way around the top and tack the rest of it in place before final welding.

Here you can see how well the slider will fit. The rusty part is the front edge of the slider that will eventually be covered with a canvas top. You can't get a better fit than that from a factory installed top.

More Roof Work

I only got to work on it for an hour today, but I did get the new top trimmed to it's final size. This is a great fit! The only gaps between the new and exiting skins are where there are dents in the existing top. Most of them will be hammered out before I start welding the new skin in place. I hope to get started on that tomorrow, but we'll see if I get time to work on it at all.

Again, you can see just how well the new top fits. Across the back edge, there are a few gaps but that is just because there is nothing supporting the existing roof. So when the sag is removed, it's a perfect fit.

It's a Rag Top! Well, Almost...

I started by laying the new top skin on top of the car and marking the inside of the opening with a can of red spray paint. That way I can cut a hole in the top big enough to stand inside the car and work without having to lean over the side. I used an air chisel to make this initial opening so I had to be careful not to make the hole too big and risk warping the metal.

Next, I marked the smallest hole I could possibly cut and fit the new top down inside the hole. I then cut that hole out with a cutting wheel. Just above the windshield you can see 3 notches cut out as well. Those are there so I can weld the supports in the corners and above the mirror from the outside.

Here you can see the new top skin has been set in place. Although I have not trimmed it to it's final size yet. If you look close, you can see the holes just above where the visors will be. My guess is this top was on a Baja at some point in it's life.

Work on the Rear Apron

In order to clean up some of the dents in the "H" part of the apron, I needed to remove the forward section that has the engine seal lip welded to it. I decided to try my new spot weld cutter on it. I've never used one before but I can't ruin a peice that is already trashed right? My first few attempts did not go so well. The cutter did not want to stay in place very well at all. So the holes were not cut very clean.

So I figured if I drill a little dimple in the center of the spot weld this will help keep the cutter in the right place. Wow, what a difference. This also had the added benefit of letting me know when the weld was fully cut. The trick is to drill the dimple deep enough to go through the top piece of metal but not all the way through. That way the spring loaded tip on the cutter puts enough pressure on the back piece of metal to make a "pop" noise when the weld is cut out.

If you have not seen a spot weld cutter, here is a picture of one. They are very cheap and worth getting 5 or 6 to have around if you plan on doing any body work at all that requires removing panels. I got mine at Harbor Freight.

http://www.harborfreight.com/3-8-eighth-inch-double-sided-rotary-spot-weld-cutter-95343.html

Here is the back side of the skin. with the engine bay seal holder removed. I still need to cut the "H" out, but I will wait until I get the new apron before I do that.