Have been thinking about doing it to my DD rat rod, which has no interior & I don't care about looks, so it's the perfect "practice" car to do it on. Have just been afraid of removing the windshield to do it, as I don't want to crack it.

Well I hit a rock on the way to work today & cracked the glass, so it's gotta come out anyway... hahaha

Have a hard top roof skin already, got from a junkyard just for doing this. Looks like it's mainly just drilling spot welds to get the skin off, & then re welding, with the exception of the B pillar. From what I've been told there's a brazed seam somewhere, anyone know where, or better yet have pics w/ the paint removed?

Just looking for some advice before I go about cutting into the thing haha

 

why not just take the sunroof panel and weld it to the roof?there is enough lip to fart around with,you could clamp it from the inside and go nuts on the welder outside.
It would save you time.

 

Wait a second!!!!
you make acrylic shift ***** right?
why not a freakin Sunroof made of acrylic?...lol!

 

No because then I'd still have a sunroof car, w/ a sunroof panel that was so obviously just welded in place lol. I'm gonna go for it, I'll update this thread as I do it.

 

I don't get it. You are going to hack off the upper portion of the car and replace it instead of simply welding a hole closed?

 

correct. haha

 

Have you ever done such an extensive/structural panel replacement before?

 

It will come out much cleaner than welding up the sunroof hole and finishing the roof with body filler.

My Turbo II had the entire panel replaced by the previous owner rather than the hole filled and it looks perfect. The only body filler used is on the B-Pillar. Since I did not do the work, I can't comment on where the B-pillar was sectioned.

 

i've seen a couple of cars with the sunroof filled, and it does not work. i think replacing the whole roof is much better.

the FC's roof has to move around a lot, so any filler between a sunroof panel, and the roof panel shows up

 

Yea I've seen the sunroof filled in person about 7 years back. it really looked bad. Bandaid fix for sure lol. You could see plain as day that it was a sunroof car, but someone just, welded it shut.

As far as structural replacement, no I've never hung a body panel or anything that requires welding. Will figure it out as I go, pretty sure the FSM outlines how to do it too. I'm replacing the skin only, the actual structural support members will still be intact, so no worries of anything buckling, etc. Just hoping someone (Or the FSM) knows where that brazed joint is lol