We are in the process of tearing down my buddy's car to weld a new quarter panel on and we want to remove the roof panel so we can weld it underneath. It looks to be glued on. Does anyone know how it comes off without destroying it?

TIA

 

Looked it up for ya. That panel is "sheet molded compound (SMC)" and is attached with urethane adhesive. They glued our cars together. HA!

Hey John, sorry I never got back to ya. We had our baby on Christmas, and I have been kind of busy since! One of these days! Let me know if you guys need any more info. I have the shop manual for my 98, and it has most of the measurements for the body if you guys need them copied...

 

Congratulations!!!!!!

Thanks. Jim and Kenny and possibly another buddy, Mark, are coming by Saturday at least to do the intake manifold gasket and swap the rearend back to stock. Then Sunday we are working on Kenney's car right around the corner. So if you are in the area come on by. I decided to not do the cam and rockers. Right now the car is driven in traffic to and from Orlando everyday and until I find another daily driver and can let this one sit in the garage I dont want to make it so it cant be driven confortably. I was thinking about NOS or an SC maybe. Power on tap but not effecting drivability.

Anyway I would like to see that book. We talked about it tonight and were thinking about not messing with it and cutting in the quarter panel just under the sail panel.

Talk to you later
John

 

Is the car a hardtop or T top? if it's a hardtop, it's not coming off in 1 piece. If it's a t top, remove it with a piano wire tied to 2 screwdrivers. Slice it back and forth to cut through the urethane. It will take a while. If I was diong the job, and the roof was intact.. I'd just cut the new quarter to leave about a 3/4 inch gap around the roof. Then grind the welds smooth and slick it with filler.

 

That is what I thought but it is a hardtop. We kinda allready made the decision to do like you said. We were just hoping. The guy that is doing it has no car experiance. He welds that type of metal all day long though and is only charging us $150 to do it so we figured how bad could it be. He welded my SFCs on both cars and they look like part of the car so I am confident that he will do a nice job.

Thanks for the advice
John

 

This is my weekend on, so I work Fri Sat Sun 9a to 9p. Yuck. If I get a chance I will try to copy the pages in the book with the measurements and drop them by. Or I will just try to stop by. That is unless work is as busy as it has been!

Let me know how you guys do on Sunday. Take pictures if you can.

You find a place to have it painted, or are you guys thinking about spraying it yourself?

 

I'm the Jim that was planning on going to John's this Saturday. It looks like it may be delayed since his daughter caught the stomach flu.

I do have a set of '99 Helms manuals, and was planning on taking them with me. I have seen the exterior trim gap specifications before, but when I went back specifically to look for them I couldn't locate them. Good thing I'm not in a library.

If you happen to know the page numbers, I can dogtag 'em

 

This is my 98 Helms, but it is Volume 1, section 11. Measurements begin 11-29 and go from there. Section 11 is cool because it tells you how and where to drill to get the welded panels off...

Let me know if you need anything else!

Mike