The Definitive Roof Skin Replacement Thread

[Pugnut 9 1 Cars]

Right, there's a bit of info on these here forums, but nothing step by step and definitive, so hopefully with a little help from those that have done it before i can put thread together with as much detail as possible.

 

So far i have sourced a decent roof from a 205 van in a scrapyard. This has set me back £40.

 

I have stripped it of roof lining and all nick nacks , leaving just metal and i'm about start drilling out the spot weld this afternoon.

 

Plan is to remove the roofskin from the van roof first as i don't want to find i've screwed the roof on the car.

 

new roof (no i havent buried a 205 in my drive):

 

 

Question, from what i can see from other pics, people have taken the strengthening bars off along with the roof which means cutting, digging out welds where the red line is shown. Or is it better to take the yellow path of removing all those spot welds?

 

 

I think there might be two options here, which is take the skin on its own, or come further down to where the door seal sits. The question i have is that the roofskin folds round which i think would make it very hard to get back on again, especially if i go the yellow route in the picture above :

 

 

these bits are easy, no question of what need grinding out here! :

 

 

couple of randon pics:

 

 

 

So from what i can see, and i'm hoping for a little bit of guidance, is that i need to go the red route to cut out the cross bars which allows the shell to flex a bit which allows the roofskin to wrap round at the sides if i go for the red route again. So red+red?

 

cheers, Al

[Pugnut 9 1 Cars]

Though it might be an idea to add my weapons of choice:

 

 

Mig welder

battery grinder c/w stainless steel cutting disc

grinder with sanding discs and various grits

dremmel with sanding barrels and cutting discs

draper spot weld cutting tool

sanding block and a selection of wet and dry

mug, to be topped up regularly , tea or coffee i'm not fussed.

[welshpug 1,621]

personally I'd leave those two bars in place and cut the ones from the shell, that's how Paintguy did his;

 

It is, along with the areas where it's brazed onto the A & C pillars.

 

As you'll see from the picture below, there's absolutely no strength left in the shell once the roof has been removed, so I'd strongly recommend welding braces in place before removing the old one!

 

 

and here's the rest of the pics form the same car;

 

No problem

 

 

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v331/ewP205/DSCF0645.jpg

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v331/ewP205/DSCF0646.jpg

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v331/ewP205/DSCF0694.jpg

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v331/ewP205/DSCF0697.jpg

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v331/ewP205/DSCF0713.jpg

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v331/ewP205/DSCF0714.jpg

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v331/ewP205/DSCF0715.jpg

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v331/ewP205/DSCF0735.jpg

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v331/ewP205/DSCF0737.jpg

 

 

guess you didn't search now did you

 

 

I would PM Andy for the higher res pictures and guidance

[Pugnut 9 1 Cars]

i searched for ages, honest

 

anyways, yes i did see that pic from front on, and did think that was the way to go, but its more the sides around the doors i'm not so sure of, and its not too clear from those pics either.

 

not worried about bracing bars, as i'm putting the cage in which has added mountings on the A and B pillars.

[welshpug 1,621]

I would imagine a cage to do the job of bracing it quite well, BUT, it will be in the way for some of the work required, some smaller bars like pictures would hold the shell sufficiently without hampering you.

 

time to ask Paintguy and Edp for help

[Pugnut 9 1 Cars]

I would imagine a cage to do the job of bracing it quite well, BUT, it will be in the way for some of the work required, some smaller bars like pictures would hold the shell sufficiently without hampering you.

 

time to ask Paintguy and Edp for help

 

 

cheers, just dug out one of the rear pillars and i'm now round to a b pillar, man that took some figuring out (its spot weld city inside the rear pillars, but once youget stuck in its easy to see where you need to go. hopefully the A pillars are easier!

 

the car is dead level on 4 axle stands. the main hoop is well away from the work, and i might just leave out the front of the cage for ease. Thing is, it looks like you need to flex the sides a bit to get the skin over the front door section.

[woo83 0]

I'd leave the front brace along the windscreen and just drill the spot welds rather than cutting it out, I did mine exactly like paintguy above but I wish I would have left the front brace in, it would have made things a lot easier.

The back brace is full of sealant and multiple spot welds some of which aren't immediately obvious It took me a while to just find them all. so i think it's better to just cut the rear brace out.

 

Heres some pics of when I did mine, hope they help.

 

John.

Edited March 13, 2010 by woo83

[Pugnut 9 1 Cars]

cheers woo, thats a help. hmmm i've already started digging out the front, so i'll go with taking off the brace, doesn't seem that bad so far. The B pillars are a nightmare though!!

 

don't car if i dont see another spot weld ever again!

 

yours looks quite neat with the spotweld. pity , its the only thing i dont have access to. Going to have to puddle weld.

 

 

I can see its going to be much easier peeling a roofskin off the car, than peeling a car off a roofskin if you catch my drift?

 

Al

[Tom Fenton 1,524]

I'd really really really recommend trying to get hold of one (a spot welder), it will make a much neater and quicker job than doing it with the MIG. I've got one (well, I own one, my mate who is doing a VW camper has it at the moment) that I bought second hand for about £100, they are out there, and can be sold on again once you've done the job.

[woo83 0]

I agree with Tom, have a look round for a spot welder. Mines nothing special, it was last inspected in 1974 and weighs more than a small moon . But it makes the job soooo much easier.

I'm not sure but i think you can hire them from HSS with all the different bars, maybe worth a phone call.

 

John.

Edited March 13, 2010 by woo83

[Pugnut 9 1 Cars]

I'd really really really recommend trying to get hold of one (a spot welder), it will make a much neater and quicker job than doing it with the MIG. I've got one (well, I own one, my mate who is doing a VW camper has it at the moment) that I bought second hand for about £100, they are out there, and can be sold on again once you've done the job.

 

 

I agree with Tom, have a look round for a spot welder. Mines nothing special, it was last inspected in 1974 and weighs more than a small moon . But it makes the job soooo much easier.

I'm not sure but i think you can hire them from HSS with all the different bars, maybe worth a phone call.

 

John.

 

spot welder it is then. HSS seem to do them for 50 bucks for a weekend, but thats more than the roof cost! At least i have a last resort; i'm quite friendly with the panel beaters down the road since i seem to put a lot of work their way ( thanks to Mrs Pugnut for that).

I'll beg them first.

 

given up for the night, must of had a solid 4 hours taking the old frame off the new roof and i'm noy quite there yet!

 

Al

[Baz 421]

The cage may not be any good as said, i know when both my 2 red ones were done the cages had to come out.

Edited March 13, 2010 by Baz

[Pugnut 9 1 Cars]

Had about 5 hours on it today, thats a total of 9 so far. I'm sure some could be finished and driving out the door by now, but i really took my time taking the old frame off the new roof. What makes it harder is that you are taking the stronger structural metal away from the flinsy roofskin. Going very gingerly round the B pillars and sussing out what is roof and what isn't is a real head scratcher. The good thing is that the golden brazing lets you know that you're almost there.

 

A bit of surface rust lingering behind the frames meat a good rub down and treatment. Also i was a bit over abitious with the spot weld remover on a few occasions, so i puddle welded and ground them back to for completeness.

 

cleared a space round the old pug in the garage which hasn't seen the light of day for a good couple of years. Off with the tailgate, roof lining etc and started removing some metal from the corners. Instantly noticeable that its sooooo much easier to remove a thin roofskin from the frames, rather than the other way round, and i know what i'm looking at and expecting to find. Surprised to see a fair bit of surface rust in there too, these phase 2's dont half get bothered with surface rust.

 

Taking note of everyones suggestions to weld in braces, i didn't go too far and left the cross braces in. Going to get soem steel from work before i go any further.

 

i'll add som e progress pics later.

 

Al

[Leet205 48]

sounds like your making good progress Al

[Pugnut 9 1 Cars]

sounds like your making good progress Al

 

 

 

Cheers Leet, and thanks for the offer of the spot welder.

 

15 hours in

 

had a good 6 hours at it today. got the old skin off and cleaned up the rust underneath. lots of surface rust and it all looks like it has come from the sunroof.

 

A trial fit of the new roof looks a total sucess. took it off again to treat the bars etc. masked off the weld areas and used some dinotrol to cure the rust patches with a coat of zinc 182 overall. Just need some weld through for the weld areas on both the car and the new skin.

 

some pics:

 

 

 

 

 

 

[jackherer 543]

I've never changed a roofskin but I did build my mates 205 into a shell that had a new roof fitted when he got it so I can tell you where you need to be particularly careful...

 

It was a very neat job and it has worked out fine in the end with a bit of tweaking but the holes for the windscreen and rear quarter windows were not perfect. The windscreen was a bit looser than it should have been vertically and the rear quarters were too tight, the polycarbonate quarters we put in ended up slightly concave once fitted.

[Pugnut 9 1 Cars]

Thanks for the heads up, it's easy to see how the front screen hole could be elongated. I've had to trim back the A pillars a bit to let the front crossmember sit down exactly where the old one came off. If you dont pay close attention there, it's easy to how you it could go wrong as mentioned (but you do have a definate location for the front crossmember). As for the 1/4 windows though i can't see how this could happen, because you dont really take it away as such, and the opening is left as it was with the inner opening still inplace. its only the outer spot welds at the top that come away.

 

if you were to simply chop a roof off and and weld on another, i could see these problems arising very easily, but that would leave a weakened shell as there's inner stiffeners that would not be possible to reweld.

[jackherer 543]

OK it may be the quarters we fitted were cut slightly oversize then, I was making an assumption after the windscreen didn't fit.