I got some good news today as my friend Dave started working on the roof repair for BBCat. For those who may have missed the thread, BBCat was damaged on Halloween when an early snowstorm sent a large tree limb through the roof of my car trailer like a spear and straight into BBCat’s roof, buckling it significantly. Here’s a picture from that damage:
Dave was not too excited about having to deal with all the spot welds to replace the roof, as seen on the WCCC website. He also knew that BBCat is pretty much an original car that has had minimal rust repair done and didn’t like the idea of having to swap the roof. So this morning he broke out his porta-power and decided to see if he could save the roof. Here is the result of his efforts today.
He told me that, when he applied the pressure to the inside of the roof, the center section popped right back up. It was still creased just ahead of the rear window and just behind the windshield, but a hit with a rubber mallet caused those sections to spring back into the original shape. There are a couple of residual spots that will require bodywork to make them perfect again, and he will still have to replace the center cross-brace, which is bent, but he now estimates that his work today will save about a week of repair time and around $1K in actual labor costs. The long brace for the XR-7 console did not get bent, so we only have to replace the cross-brace and the headliner bows.
An unexpected benefit of the work is that there was a huge mouse nest up inside the headliner. It was probably there from when the car was in Colorado, where it was parked outside. So that will be gone now, too.
So that means there is a good roof for sale in MA, along with both the large and small XR-7 console braces.
WOW! You are one lucky guy! I am so happy for you and the car. As much as I know that they would have done a really good job, you just can’t beat the original stuff. And the mouse nest… yuck. I hate the smell of mouse pee. The whole thing is worth while to get that out of there… Hey, was all of this just a way to get the insurance company to pay for the exterminators… LOL!
One last thought. The 67 with the Dark Ivy Gold interior had a very pale green headliner. I always though it looked dingy… In '68 they switched to a much better looking )in my opinion) dark green. You can switch out (or dye) the visors and overhead console to the dark green color pretty easily. This would be a good time to do so.
Bill, I thought about doing that after you mentioned doing it to your car but in the end I opted to keep it original. I’ve already got the parchment headliner in hand.
If I had had really good original parts I probably would have left mine stock. My car looked like they had chain smoked their way through all 185,000 miles. The “protective layer” of nicotine did little for the appearance of things.
I would be so happy if that was mine, great that it almost fixed it’s self. It may have to be called Christine (from the movie) after this. It may want to take vengeance out on the tree:)
Said vengeance has been taken. The tree has been executed and several of it’s friends have lost most of their extremities. I can’t say for sure, but I think I heard a little beep of the horn from inside the trailer when the offending tree was split into firewood.
Glad to hear the repair is going good. The pictures look great so far. Thanks for not posting pictures of the mouse nest. Nasty and smelly little critters.
Steven
Looks great so far, always great when it´s repairable like this
Do you plan on putting on a new vinyl top ? since it had one originally, if so, i would urge you to wait with the top until at least 3 months after the roof has been painted, to ensure that the fumes and dilluants/thinners have had time to fully evaporate from the paint.
If you put it on too soon, it will trap in the thinners, as they can not evaporate trough the glue and the top, so then it will reside still in the paint, going inwards and slowly loosen the paint, making it peel off pretty easy, and also making irritating bubbles in the paint and top.
The plan is to cover the roof in primer, but not paint it. The vinyl top will go on over the primer. I know that paint would protect the roof better, but this car is not going to be subjected to anything approaching what it would have back in the day so I’m not sure the extra protection is meaningful at this point. That said, it will be at least 2 or 3 weeks after the roof repair is completed before the car goes to the trim shop for the vinyl roof installation.
Bill, Glad to here of your success in saving your original roof panel, also glad you took that rusty old cat out of my yard. Now if you can make a few dollars on the sale of the roof to pay for your gas and the trailer lock we destroyed all will be good.
Bill, What about washing the car from time to time, is this something you don’t plan on doing? I have heard some say, don’t wash you car dust it and if you have to wash it, use as little water as possible. What are your thoughts on this?
I don’t expect that I’ll wash this car much and, when I do, I will use minimal water. I also dry it right away by hand. Mostly, it will be dusted and periodically detailed with wax detailer. There’s always the off chance of getting caught out in the rain, of course, but if that happens once every couple of years, I’d be surprised.
Well then Bill, i will strongly suggest that you use a top brand epoxy primer, as the epoxy primer is the best one regarding waterproof.
But still, 2-3 weeks is a bit early, as it takes some time for the thinners/dilluants to evaporate from the product
I still have the trunk lid and fenders as well! And the trailer lock has been replaced. But the old one served me well for almost 6 years, so I guess I can’t complain. I’m sure that someone from the New England, NJ, or PA clubs will need these items at some point and they won’t have to have them shipped in. So, no regrets!
