Need some advice on some roof damage

Someone picked up this fine old Olds with a chain. It has the same damage on both sides. How difficult is this going to be to fix ?

 

Doesn't look too bad, but it will take patience to let the metal tell you what it needs. What's the worst that could happen, right?

 

How hard is it to find a donor car with a good roof? May be cheaper and less time consuming to swap a new roof onto it....

 

I was thinking of the donor car route, but I can see the project cost escalating to the unreasonable, so being able to fix this one is going to determine if I buy it. The braces on the inside and the drip rail really complicate it.

 

Yes, a lot of stuff in the way. I would cut some of it out to either straighten or replace with homemade pieces. I say cut, because I doubt there is a way to straighten and repair all the stretching in such a confined area.

I don't see a need for a donor car.

 

Im thinking along the same lines as F&J. cut whatever you can to get it straight it will be a hell of a lot easier than a donor roof. doesnt look bad at all. maybe 2-3 hours of work.

 

That doesn't look bad at all, certainly not worth cutting the roof off. You could easily fix that in a days time.

 

i'd weld a tab to the outside of the roof and pull on it with a come along hooked to something solid, or a frame pull post. pull. hammer. heat. slowly. and repeat.

 

I would weld some flat plates to it in a few dif. places and try to pull most of it out in the same direction it was put in. after you get most of it pulled you can start cutting on it.

 

Cut all the inside bracing out and straighten the roof skin(dont cut it) then either make or straighten the pieces you cut out. Not a big deal if you have any fab skills and welding sheetmetal skills.

 

Hey,

So, I gonna assume that the fit up on both of the doors to their openings isn't great,dah? You'll probably need to spread both of the cant rails out board, and straighten the door openings & drip rail, prior to straightening the roof panel. Once the door openings and drip rails are straight, and the doors realigned, straightening the top is no biggie. You could bump most of that damage out with a spoon after spring hammering the ridges above and below the damage. Too, a panel spotter could be used to pull out the damage to the roof, but only after the cant rail and door opening are straightened. I wouldn't consider this damage to be anywhere near where a roof clip would pencil out, time wise!

" Life ain't no Disney movie "

 

This is the way to go.

In fact, if you can cut the inner brace out so he could get at it a good dent (PDR) guy can get it out. Then you could weld the brace back in.

Edit: If you can get it to Austin for the Round Up my dent guy can do it. He's a freakin' genius...

 

Looks like the door won't close or it overlaps in the picture to me. You'll want to push or pull out both sides at the same time (porta-power on the inside with bracing on either side of the dent to keep the whole roof from spreading) and the roof skin should dolly out once the pillar part is straight, but the drip rails are going to be tougher, they're way stretched out at this point.

Very fixable, but I'd like to meet the magician who said they could fix that in 2-3 hours.

 

Yeah? 3 hrs, but on an Easyliner or duel pulling post with pots in the ground. Fender clamps @ each drip rail 90 degree pull with pull plates tacked in as necessary.

You see, you like, I show you

 

yeah thats kind of what I said.....

 

If both sides are pulled in then I would use a porta-power and push one side against the other outward. With pressure pushing out, hammer and dolly the wrinkles til they go back to shape.

 

At least the doors were open when they put the chain through it!

 

Thanks for all the advice. You've given me some ideas I'd never thought of. I'm going to go ahead and try to make a deal on the car, and we'll see how it goes.