I'm restoring my dad's 66 mustang coupe, andthe bottom part of the car is great gthe only problem is the roof. It was parked quite a few years back and during a hurricane a rather large branch landed on the roof. The actual top part of the roof is still mostly there some has rusted away, but nthe main problem is the supports for the roof that also make up the window frame. The drivers side was completely riped off the roof and the body. Any suggestions on what to do with the roof in this situation?
66 Roof Problem
- Thread starter rceleexpt
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HookandLadder
Founding Member
Find a donor car with a decent roof and start welding. Seriously. Trying to fix the roof and braces is NOT worth it.
Tony R
New Member
I agree you will need a donor. If at all possible find one that came out of the same factory as yours. I replaced the roof on my 65 and the panels did not line up at all. the donor roof was about a 1/4 inch bigger so i had to be creative to get it to work.
not sure how bad yours is but mine was pretty bad with rust (due to a vinyl cover) and I think I've fixed it. I bought a couple 65/66 fastback sail panels and used them to recreate the window frame. I would cut a small piece off my car, then find a piece on the sail panel that was close. Weld it in and repeated, until most of my rear window frame has now been replace. I finished it up with some filler and the rear window fits. I also had some bad pitting on the roof itself. I use my sandblaster to remove all the rust and then coated with epoxy. Filled in the pits with filler, and sanded it smooth. I also had some repairs to make to the frame under the roof skin on the quarter sails. I used 18 (or maybe 20) gauge sheet metal. I would cut small workable sections out and replace them. Then I put the roof skin back over it. I wish I would have had a donor roof, but couldn't find one close enough, and thought it would be to hard to do.
So if you could go back you would have rather found a donor car or gotten the roof in some way from another car... I'm not sure if getting a donor car is an option, but i emaild Cj Pony Parts if they would sell me a roof off of a car from their salvage yard but i haven't heard back. I also found automotix.net where people have gotten a roof from them, have you ever heard of them? Would you happen to have any before and after pics of your roof?
Tony R
New Member
I just replaced the skin. The framework was fine but the roof looked like it was hit with a baseball bat in a few places and I didn't want to try to fill it with bondo. If I had to do it again I would go to the bottom of the rear pillar where the original seam is from the factory instead of cutting at the top. In this pic you can see how bad my panel fit.
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