Looking for advice here. I have a '68 2dr. wildcat and it has factory (or aftermarket) body side moldings. the molding from the rt. rear quarter has left town in a past light sideswipe so I would like to remove them and fill the holes as they are u channel with a rubber insert held on by many maany tiny screws. Most screws still move with a correct sized Snap on phillips or bit. What is the best way to fill these holes up without causing warpage. .
Just pop each one with a MiG welder and the have the air nozzle right there to hit it immediately, no worries of warpage on such a small hole, one pop of the trigger is all it will take, if the welder is set correctly and the person using it is experienced
Thanks for the advice! I will speak to the body shop doing the repairs and ask that they do it that way.
Car is in the body shop in order to remove the front and rear glass, bead blast the openings and repaint the roof the factory white it came in. They will fix the dents on the roof likely caused by several people standing on it. Grand total to straighten and paint the roof (promised nothing more than a skim coat on the roof as he will work the dents out from inside (no headliner in), re and re the glass and repaint the metal dash top at the windshield, $2,000. CDN. I have some body work smarts, but fixing the roof is beyond my ken . It seems like a fair price, but I wouldn't mind an opinion.
Be sure to have the headliner installed while the glass is out. It will be easier and will look better.
I would have forgotten that! The new headliner happens to be in the trunk, so I can ask the bodyshop if he knows someone that can do it. I want to re-route the dome light from the ceiling to the sail panels as I have some good used lights. I plan to convert the interior to custom sport and wondered where the wiring to the ceiling originates? Does it go up the A pillar? (on a 2 dr.) or up from the back? I have to re-route it to both sail pan
Went to visit the car at the bodyshop and the roof is done and ready for paint! There was no rust around the rear glass,but there was some small perforations at the base of the windshield above the booster. They made a repair panel and welded it in place. I had asked them to also deal with the poor seams between the roof panel and the quarter panels and it looks much better than the factory attempt at hiding the seam. Also picked up all the window opening chrome and am halfway through polishing it all up and removing the small dents. Will be in painted by Monday afternoon. They will do their best to find someone local that can install the new headliner before the glass goes back in. It's tempting to get the rest of the body done, but I need to do some engine work first and don't want to hang over freshly painted fenders.
Went to see the car today and the roof is repainted. I returned the chrome after polishing it and he says that several of the retaining clips are trashed. Does anyone know a source for the retaining clips for the front and rear window chrome surrounds? Are they the same as Chev, Pontiac? How important are the rubber strips behind the window glass chrome? Several are ragged, but I don't think they will be visible once they are installed.
No real issue not having the plastic strips, Au-ve-co will have the clips they are lots that very similar so compare closely
Thanks Hugger, I checked out the website and I will forward it to the body shop as I have no clips at home to compare against.
If you decide to install the headliner yourself there is an article in HMM June 2018 that describes the proper installation procedure. It's not difficult, but, takes time.
I may have to tackle it myself as it wasn't possible to arrange with the body shop on such short notice. I have done a headliner on an old Beetle, so I hope it's similar on a larger scale. I will check the article.
Make sure the kids and or your mother aren't around when you do it,....there will be lots of profanity and flying objects,..be sure to do it in a garage with little to no airflow on a good hot day. It really makes the whole experience memorable.
It has been 36 C. (100 f.) for the past 3 days. Humidity that you can almost see. I think I'll wait a bit on the headliner
Picked up the car from the body shop today and the repaired roof looks great! Front and rear glass back in as well as the re-polished chrome. The body shop managed to find a set of new clips for the chrome and it all fits perfectly. There is now quite a contrast between the sunbaked rest of the car compared to the roof. They even managed to repair the poor factory splices where the quarters meet the roof when the car was assembled. And yes, I've decided to keep the factory Burnished saddle color after seeing a fellow members freshly painted Skylark in Burnished Saddle with a white roof.
