Hey guys thought i would show you what I have been up to here is the newest victim 36 Plymouth 4dr sedan needs a new roof to replace the old open top and smooth out all the fenders and body so lets get started on the roof the first step was to find out where all the radii start and stop this will be important to figure out what size the new panel will be and what I did to find all the stopping points was just using a radius gauge I put it on the car and marked the start and moved the gauge until I could see it start to change then i marked the stop Now that we know where the stop is we can find the center and the out side of the blue tape is the center of the radius and this is where i will put the new panel in I don't know is this is absolutely necessary but it has not failed me yet now with the blank cut out I marked my passes on the sheet and so in this way the center will have four times the stretch as the outer section i did a test piece 1ft wide and the same length and figured out that the passes need to be 6 and3/4 apart to get the right amount of shape and this is a good time to say that the highest part of the roof WILL NOT be centered in the sheet I explained this to the owner and he gave me a real funny look until I showed him with a contour gauge anyway notice the 1in strap vice griped to the ends of the panel they are run through the slip roller to match the side to side shape of the car also a cheap and easy way to make a big floppy panel more manageable now here is were I was about ready to have a melt down My intention was to wheel this panel and thats how the test piece was done but all of my friends are to wimpy to hold a panel for that long and our part time guy kept saying "c'mon man my fingers are numb" so this is now being done with my home made hand held planishing hammer and I have never made a panel with the planishing hammer but its coming around The shape is coming but there are some nasty transitions in the panel so its time to mark them by taking a ruler on edge and marking where it touches and that is the wash out area before the wash out after the wash out pretty smooth now here is the fit on the car and I have not done anything with the edges yet nothing so now i have a arrangement problem so i need to get ahold of the eges so i can get the thing into arrangement this is a little better I suckered my dad into helping me wash out the panel in the wheel we ran the panel front to back with low pressure and then side to side with a little more pressure and then rubbed panel with 180 on a block then ran the shrinking disk over the whole panel and this is how it came out for a hour and a half of work well what do you guys think i will do a update when i put the beads in the roof and the welding
So are you going to butt weld it or lap weld it? What kind of beads are you going to put in ? Are you going to put cross ribs to support the roof panel?
it will be butt welded and there are going to be 5 beads in the panel 5/8 in the center then 7/16 then 1/4 the roof will not need any support once its welded in its a very nice self supporting panel there are wood bows for the head liner but there will not be any more bracing put in
Very nice work. Most guys never appreciate how much work it takes to fill the top of a car that's curved in every direction.
THanks alot as i was making the panel every one that came into the shop swears that a nova has the same roof Yeah right! by the way if anyone is curious the roof is a 47.5in radius front to back
Well done. The in-progress pic of the panel looks terrible, but the finished product looks like it fits beautifully, you clearly had a plan there.
I am not a metal worker by any stretch of imagination, so I have questions...Does the panel become a smaller size than the opening after you bead roll/modify for strength? If so how much will it increase the gap? Thanks for listening to a noob
Frankie I have never noticed a panel changing in width after a bead but it probably does just a bit but when ever you put beads in a panel you need to pre stretch the panel where the beads are gonna go so that there is enough metal to bend around the beading die with out thinning the metal to much just think about when you pre stretch a panel you will have high spots where you want your beads then when you put your bead in your panel it gathers up that extra metal and makes the bead returning the panel to its original crown does that make sense?? I always have to do a test panel to make sure that i don't wreck my panel
Hey Pat, That's some great metalshaping, there! A panel of that size and shape takes some major skill and planning and some shop help come wheeling time. Thank for posting your roof panel.
That helped quite a bit...now if my brain will stop pushing out old info whenever it takes in new info
hey guys a little update got the beads in last week and here is how it came out Im really happy with how this came out so what what do you guys think?? Pat
Hey guys had some time to work on the Plymouth roof so here we go first thing I cut out the old open top center I stopped about a 1/2 in from the center of the radii so that I would have some to trim for my final fit now this is why I wanted to fit the panel to the center of the radii the side to side shape just blends from the car to the new panel now here is where your little cp saws all is the best tool in the shop with the panel clecoed to the car i made a small cut with a cut off wheel then used my cp saw to cut right next to the new panel and when the panel falls down that one material thickness the cut goes away POOF! perfect fit now with the panel welded in here is the start of the planishing getting smoother this is where I am going to stop with the planishing its pretty nice and smooth but have a few slight waves but the shrinking disk will take care of that now here is the drivers side for some reason it came out quicker than the other side but a guys has got to win one once and a while now on to the front corners here is what i came up with to get around the windshield bracing with the planishing hammer frame in the open position I drilled and tapped another hole to lock it open and trimmed and ground a leaf spring to the right radius so i could sneak under the bracing If you can't win sometimes you have to cheat haha this goofy contraption worked out pretty well its kind of goofy to use but it beats the heck out of wedging a spoon in there!! nd here is how it came out with that leaf spring hanging out there like that it does a very nice job of smoothing but will not crush a high spot but im happy with it this has been alot of fun to do hopefully I can finish up the back and sand the whole roof and get some pics of the whole roof nice and shiny so what do you guys think??