Am taking off a v-top on a 1969 Camaro . Need to treat it and fill it with something where the pits are. Do you have any good ideals as to how to repiar this without the spots coming back up ?

 

Finally one I've got a little experience with...

I had a similar problem with my '73. The first thing we tried was a fiber glass resin/bondo product call, I believe, Tiger Hair. It looked promising at first, and probably could work if the body work is good, but on mine it eventually started sinking in and pitting. It has less chance of pitting since its a fiber/bondo mix, I think. As long as the rusted areas are small, you might be ok with this. Mine, on the other hand, needed a little more work.

We ended up finding a trashed '74 that somehow had a perfect roof. Chopped it off at the pillars and below the sail panels to get as much as we could.

There's two options if you decide to go the replacement route. You can either "skin it" and just use the outer sheet metal, or cut the old roof off at the pillars and sail panels and weld the whole "new" assembly in. You better have a good body man if you use the second option, as a little miscalculation can mean glass leaking and doors not shutting straight.

I researched body shops in my area until I found one that had done similar roof work before. Originally I was going to go with just the skin replacement, but my body guy was confident he could do the complete roof swap and make the whole thing perfect. Since the windshield and backglass lips on my old roof were well rusted too, I took a chance and let him do the works to it. Its been six months so far, and I haven't had a single drop of rain leak through!

Its tough to "bondo up" the pits in a roof for various reasons; the "skeletal" understructure of the roof on a unitized-body car like the Camaro is a big one. But its similar to other body work, so if you can find a shop you're comfortable with, its worth a (low cost) try. Otherwise, depending on the extent of the rust, I think taking the roof skin off another car (assuming you can find a good one) would be a good option.

Did that give you any ideas, or at least a little hope?

 

I have decided to go with dyna-glass coats . Small areas and sand . Then glaze caot the entire area with a Sikkens product . Now I must decide to reinstall vynal top or just paint it ! Thanks

 

I am at the same point on my car. At the bottom of the rear window on both sides, I see the paint bubbling up so I know rust is under the v- top. I've been trying to find help for 5 months with no luck. It's driven me to the point to sell my 69. I want to chop the roof and put in a new one. I need new glass anyways, so I wanted to lower it an inch while i was at it. Even if i dont do that, I still cant find help with replacing the roof, so I think she's gonna go soon. How much did it end up costing you to replace your roof?
Anyone that want's mine, it's at www.angelfire.com/ca7/djtk1234
at the bottom, click on 69 camaro. 408-896-5882
Toby

 

I got a pretty good deal... just under $1200 (bodywork only... the parts car we got the roof off of cost us $200). Considering all the timing it took to do a job like that (he cut the parts car up; evened out the roof; chopped my car's roof off, got everything lined up perfectly, and welded it up so perfectly you would never know it had been done. And then he even put a nice white epoxy primer on it that pretty much matched the paint already on the car, so it won't look like a bomber in the time I have it before it goes to the paint shop), I think it was a bargin. For a custom chop job, it will probably be much more. And like I said, I wouldn't trust just any old body shop to do it; bad deal that you can't find a good one in your area. Maybe you can post on the board and ask around for one? Good luck with it, Toby.

 

If you're going to put a vinyl top back on, then you've got no worries. Just dyna glass it and go on. I took the VT off my car, originally a LeMans blue with white VT. Ground all the studs off, and now its solid black.

When you take your glass out, I bet you find some rusted out areas there, particularly around the lower corners on the back glass. I welded in some patches then dyna glassed again.

Sometimes I think about how the car would look with a black VT....