Roof Repair

[bnorth]

Hello, I am new to this site and am glad I found it. I have a 70 Challenger that I am slowly putting back together.
The roof had some issues with some rust through spots and thin metal as well as some valleys and dents. I looked all last year for a donor roof but had no luck so over the summer I went ahead and fiberglassed it. I took my time and built it up in layers. It came out looking great and I am going to putting on avinyl top anyway.
My question is has anyone else here repaired a roof with fiberglass and will it hold up. Actually I may have a line on a donor roof now, I will find out tomorrow for sure.
If the fiberglass is going to be good enough I would rather keep going on the rest of the car.

I will post some pics tomorrow
thoughts ?
Ben

[AAR71]

 
               Hello and welcome to the site; I just finished working on my roof ( both drip rail sections and sail panels) what I did was find the sections from a donor car measured and remeasured before I cut the old sections out then I welded the new sections in; I guess what i'm trying to say is fiberglass will work but the real question is for how long because rusted metal usually is more extensive than what you see on the exterior; if you know how to weld I would put sheetmetal in, that way you know you should'nt have any problems for a while; that's just my 
Good Luck!!!!

[Bullitt-]

Welcome Ben, not much help in the repair dept. but seems that most here are welding metal.
Hang around & I'm sure some very experienced folks will chime in with some good info.

[Challenger6pak]

Make sure you treat your roof with POR15 or an equivalent product before you get the top on.  The metal in your roof will expand and contract at different rates of speed than your fiberglass during a normal day.  These different rates can cause almost microscopic cracks that will allow moisture to get trapped under the fiberglass.  With time that can cause a real problem. It is best to use the treatment before the fiberglass.  Treat your repaired spot from the backside if you can reach them.  You should be ok as long as everything stays sealed. Rust can't happen unless oxygen is present.

[bnorth]

Thanks for the feedback,
                                    I did find out that I now have a Donor roof off of a 73 that is in pretty good shape.
I am trying to decide if I want to undo all the fiberglass work I did or not. I did seal up the roof with POR 15 paint and putty patches before glassing it and I am sealing the bottom as well. I may just run with that for now and put the donor roof under the house for later.

I need to get this car done and out of the garage or I will have to get rid of it. I actually have two 70 Challengers (the 2nd one may get the donor roof)and the wife is being very patient.

 If I use the donor roof that I just scored I will have to use it as a skin as the sail panels are pretty rough.

I am going to post pics soon, and again thanks for the feedback !

Ben


Ben

[360 'CUDA]

At this point it might be best to cut off the fiberglass roof near the factory seems and weld the new roof on in it's place.  If you sell the fiberglass roof car to someone else it's gonna be their problem.

I bought a car like that years ago and wasn't very happy when the body started peeling off

[torredcuda]

The correct way of doing it would be to weld in new metal or swap on the other skin.Fiberglass is great stuff and has it`s uses but I wouldn`t use it on an area such as the outer roof.Fiberglass may last for a while but metal is the permanent solution.

[bnorth]

Thanks,
         I mainly want to know if anyone else has used fiberglass for this repair and how long ago. With donor roofs scarce I gotta do what I gotta do.
I want to get the car done and out of the garage so that I can keep it. If I have to change the roof later so be it.
If I do ever have to sell the car the next owner will know exactly what the deal is.

Ben

[Challenger6pak]

The car should last 2 - 5 years with the glass if it is done right.  If you have to get the car together or lose it, then use it the way it is.  Worse case senario is that it will need a roof in a couple of years.  Since you have the roof you will be able to plan the job out.