Deleting a sunroof...

Hi all, not my first post here, but close enough. I've been posting over on VCVC for a week or so. Picked a 1969 G10. First order of business was to fix up the brakes. Then, when those were sorted I took it to the car wash. BAD mistake. Time to get rid of this sunroof.

Swung by a semi-local's place. You may or may not know him as Jason "Vanfool". After a few minutes with a sawzall, I came home with this



to replace this




First step was to get rid of the old.



Then we separate the good from the bad. So, 5 minutes with the body saw and ...



And now it's got a test fitted toupee!



View from the inside shows just how warped and wrinkled the roof really was



Traced out the new skin (even though it's just rough cut) to make sure I knew just how much metal I had to work with.



Then I made a plan. I think I am going to panel bond this rather than weld it. Should prevent warping from welder heat. So I grabbed some 1.75" painter's tape and followed the body lines around the front, left, and right. Doubled them up so I'd be 3.5" from those lines. I didn't want to get into the ribs if I can avoid it. So I taped just behind the sunroof and while I still doubled it up... I figured it was easier to remove more metal later than add it back.



After that, back to the body saw! And now I have a panoramic view!




With the toupee back in place



Looks like it should work out fine. next I'll clean up the skin (hoping to find someone with a walnut shell or soda blaster) then set it in place, trace the opening. Then I'll offset it 2" or so, clean off the orange paint and panel bond then rivet it in place. After that, it's just the usual panel finishing

got the roof skin cleaned up today at the DIY blasting place a couple towns over. Also did the belly tins since I was there anyway.




Started prepping the roof this afternoon.



here's the skin in primer, prior to test fitting



Borrowed a flange tool and went around the opening



I laid the skin back up on top and lined up all the marks I made previously. Then I traced the opening with a sharpie.



Since the flange was about a half inch wide, I needed to offset the marks I made by a similar amount. here's my solution for that.




After cutting it out with the body saw, I set it back in place. I lined it up as close as possible, then taped one end. I went to wok on the other end with the flap disc and start final fitting.



That's as far as I got for tonight. Hopefully by this time tomorrow evening I'll have it permanently attached.

Nice job!

Looks like you did a Really Nice job with the blasting...Keep up the Great work. Can't wait to see it finished!

That's looking real good. Keep up the great work.

Decided to weld it after all.



And now the fun part begins!

Did I miss a post, did you weld it?

Space Truckin wrote:Did I miss a post, did you weld it?  

yep! mentioned it in the post right above yours

How did you handle the heat transfer from the welding, any warping of the metal?

Space Truckin wrote:How did you handle the heat transfer from the welding, any warping of the metal?

lots and lots and lots of little tacks like in the picture above. Jumped all over with it. I still got a little wave from heat transfer as I got kinda cocky toward the end and tried to just get it done. But up to that point it did great