Morrisman
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He has, and it did.
I'd scuff the underside up a bit and put a 'glass patch under it myself.
- Thread starter Torqu-E-Cycles
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I'd scuff the underside up a bit and put a 'glass patch under it myself.
get a big lump of copper , even a copper mallet as a backer ,,, cut the patch first and shape it ,, compound curve over that size is simple ,,, then back it and tack it ,, two or three tacks ,,, hammer over dolly the tacks , let it cool , grind flat with the edge of a 1mm cutting disc along the line of the joint not across it ,, dolly a bit more , then repeat ,,, if its going well keep going till its finished ,,, if its not going so well tack a thin strip in behind the joint from the top , joining all three bits of metal , only needs a dozen spots ,, and lead the joint.
slow , slow slow is the secret ,,, its a tricky thing to stop , even old hands want to just keep going till its done , but thats where the bother starts ,,, roofs are a pain , but can be done with patience.
slow , slow slow is the secret ,,, its a tricky thing to stop , even old hands want to just keep going till its done , but thats where the bother starts ,,, roofs are a pain , but can be done with patience.
mike 109444
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Try checking out "Fitzee's fabrications" on Youtube. The cut n butt methord. He has done several videos with compound curves.
mike 109444
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ps not he uses pieces of material thatt already have some compound curve to them (old roof section form another car).
Smallfry
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Not that it helps you much, but back in the late Seventies when I did my body and paint apprenticeship, there was a guy there who could have straightened your roof with a torch and wet flannels. No one else could do it. Also brilliant on the English wheel and lead filling. Because I showed a lot of interest, we was going to teach me how to do it. He was a proper coachbuilding craftsman in his late sixties, but a chain smoker. Had a massive stroke and died before I learnt anything worthwhile 
Dont knock PU glue, a lot of panelwork is stuck on cars nowadays.
Dont knock PU glue, a lot of panelwork is stuck on cars nowadays.
Smallfry
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Magic. Yes, a great description. Sad thing was, that he was not teaching this stuff to anyone. He only offered to teach me during lunchtimes because I was genuinely fascinated and interested, so he loss stuffed me really.
By this time the apprenticeship consisted of leaning to use bodyfiller and whole panel replacement, but most of my time was spent on prep and painting. Cellulose back then, Acrylic and two pack were just coming in. I learned to hate it, and left the trade when I had finished.
By this time the apprenticeship consisted of leaning to use bodyfiller and whole panel replacement, but most of my time was spent on prep and painting. Cellulose back then, Acrylic and two pack were just coming in. I learned to hate it, and left the trade when I had finished.
Torqu-E-Cycles
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Update, a friend came over this eve with his tig, he works for a fabrication company and I've seen the work they turn out its beautiful!
After a couple of hours drinking tea and staring at it, he advised that without hours of weld stretching like all you guys have said, its never going to work.
He has tacked plates in with his tig torch and no filler wire, tacked about every half inch, the plate is 3mm bigger on each side and put in underneath. Even at that, the roof started to move! It's very good right now so I told him to stop as every tack caused more movement.
? Considering its non structural, the rest of the roof needs a skim in a few places anyway regardless, I think its best to leave it and I'll just brush some epoxy primer into everywhere I can, seal inside properly, fill and paint? The plates are definitely tacked every half inch if not closer, neat little tig tacs and certainly well attached!!
Would have been good to fully weld but its just not going to happen, maybe led load them? The roof is currently not buckled so I don't want to risk anything that may cause it to move again!
After a couple of hours drinking tea and staring at it, he advised that without hours of weld stretching like all you guys have said, its never going to work.
He has tacked plates in with his tig torch and no filler wire, tacked about every half inch, the plate is 3mm bigger on each side and put in underneath. Even at that, the roof started to move! It's very good right now so I told him to stop as every tack caused more movement.
? Considering its non structural, the rest of the roof needs a skim in a few places anyway regardless, I think its best to leave it and I'll just brush some epoxy primer into everywhere I can, seal inside properly, fill and paint? The plates are definitely tacked every half inch if not closer, neat little tig tacs and certainly well attached!!
Would have been good to fully weld but its just not going to happen, maybe led load them? The roof is currently not buckled so I don't want to risk anything that may cause it to move again!
Misterg
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There are umpteen videos on youtube on this topic, but I think it's quite well explained in the middle of this video (from about 16 minutes in):
He's using TIG (obviously!) but the principle is the same for MIG (but MIG welds end up much harder, and you'd probably want to grind them back as you go).
He's using TIG (obviously!) but the principle is the same for MIG (but MIG welds end up much harder, and you'd probably want to grind them back as you go).
Torqu-E-Cycles
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I'm scared to try welding it any more than it is currently, I know the filler will sink however the roof is going old English white on a light blue shell, so if it does sink in a year or so I'll just hit the roof again if it sinks bad. The rest of the shell is spot on so I'm not too worried, who knows, it may end up with a webasto if I find a nice electric one over the winter!
Morrisman
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As mentioned numerous times, you only need to beat on the welded area a bit to stretch it out. Don't go pounding on the dips or bulges in the panels as that will achieve nothing.
Don't worry about filler 'sinking', as modern fillers are literally bullet proof, they don't shrink or crack, or sink, like they did in the olden days.
Smallfry
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I have been out of the game a long time, and I dont know about modern plop, the the reason why filler would sink is because it was painted too quickly or the wrong ratio of hardener used. Both because of trying to speed the job up.
Apply it, leave it 24 hours. A whole 24 hours that is, NOT just overnight, before sanding it, and it will be fine.
Shox Dr
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There's your problem right there. You must add filler to the weld or it will shrink
Morris
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I wouldn't be worried about having to use a little filler. This roof has almost 12 feet of weld in it where the original fabric infill was replaced with an English wheeled panel (not by me). That doesn't include the roof chop. It didn't get like this with just hammer and dolly work.
I cant post any pics sadly, but in the blast shop at work a while back, a really nice looking mini van turned up (mini's are my thing) for stripping. I had a good look round it, decent looking shell, all looked pretty good except the floors and sills, like normal really..... imagine my surprise a couple of days later when i went past and it was all stripped, bugger me if the roof panel wasnt the back panel of some dexion racking tack welded in about 8 spots, then filled over.... dont know who did the filler work, but they were bloody good at getting the shape right, apparently 3/4" of filler in places, the blaster was not amused (filler sucks to blast off), i was just amazed at how good they had made it look!!
I have a friend who’s a wizard when it comes to filler (and fibreglass). He’s a decent welder too, but I still say I’d never buy a car off him!
