Rusty's not very quiet cuda progress

[RUSTY Cuda]

Not sure what those tools actually are, I think have the spoon, I'll lay out all the metal tools I have & you can lead me in the right direction.
Time I have plenty of (unless the powers that be have other plans?)
It doesn't have to be perfect, if I can get it down to a skim coat or 2 I think I would call it a success .
There's always a new skin if I mess it up royally!!!

 

[RUSTY Cuda]

Lead removal will have to wait a few hours, they are finally taking down the tree right behind my property, that last smaller branch was hanging right over my tent & had a big knot hole in it!

 

[RUSTY Cuda]

So I go out & start to heat it up to remove the lead, now nothing is melting, I swear there was a big puddle I put the por 15 over, so I'm keeping the torch moving, still nothing melting & I get a nice big pop!
I have a pic with 2 blue circles, the top one was the low where It popped, it does not oil can any more when I lean on it, the bottom low does still oil can.
Now I know how heat can mess up a panel do I dare put the flame to the lower circle & pray that that pops too, or am I playing with fire! (literally!)
Also in the back I can get a dolly behind the ripples there's no bracing there but I would have to remove the rear window which I was trying to avoid?
What ya think?

 

[restoman]

Is that the flat of the roof? Done with lead on the flat?

Oh boy...

 

[RUSTY Cuda]

That's the weird part, I'd swear there was a layer of lead right over the passenger seat, when I went to melt it out, there was nothing, I did take out A LOT of bondo way back when.
Now that's where the heat caused it to pop up, It's not perfect still a little low in the middle but doesn't oil can any more, the other low below it does oil can when I press on it.
So do I dare to heat up the lower area.
I'm gonna cut out the bad stuff in the trunk today, so you have a couple of days to scratch your head & come up with something I can try if you would?

 

[69.5CUDA]

im with resto on the roof, but honestly now that youve had it pop out i question how bad it really is...., id even consider more head on the othe rone to see if it will get the oil can out

i think you might be in a better spot to just grab a rattle can of primer and do a quick n dirty sand to see how bad off you are now.....its one of those things that without blindly running my hands across it to "feel" whats going on its hard to see in a pic

as for the rear window..those are EASY, and ALOT harder to break than a windshield....go the top corners first...if yor overly worried about it just cut the seal and it will damn neer fall out when pushed on...the only rear glass that genuinely is scary is 50s curves and fastbacks..everything else is easy

 

[restoman]

The steel is stretched, that's why the oil-canning.
There are basically only three ways to deal with stretched steel:
1) Straighten and shrink the wrinkled/ damaged area to pull the over-load of stress out of the steel. That's the better way, most times, but it does involve a fair bit of finesse and applied skill. It also involves some heat in the right areas... and quite possibly some hammer & dolly work in conjunction with the heat. Roof skins are tricky due to their full exposure to heat and cold throughout the car's use, not to mention the heat built up from within when the sun is out and the windows are closed. You could easily spend many hours trying to fix it this way.
Many hours.
Hammer & dolly work on a roof usually means a helper is needed, unless your arms are really long...
2) Fill it full of bondo again, and hope for the best.
3) Replace the stretched part. Usually, this is the best way.

Sometimes, you can relieve the stress by some well-placed soft hammer blows from the sides, but the bow of a roof panel makes this a lot more hit-and-miss.

Can you get a couple pics across the plane of the roof, showing the highs and lows?

 

[RUSTY Cuda]

OK your agreeing with my friend, he has done some successful metal work under the tutelage of a good metal man, He seems to think I have to start in the rear section & get the ripples out & then work the big dent from the outside in towards the middle???????
He's gonna stop by & take a look this weekend.
I'll try & get some flat pics but it's really hard to see, the top one is just slightly low now, the bottom may be an 1/8" or so deep

 

[RUSTY Cuda]

So I jumped in the trunk today & cut out the bad metal, got what I could with the cut off wheel.
Then the sawsall & finally ground down the welds on the top of the spare tire holder till I could chisel out the 4 welds.
So now I have to turn the flat piece of metal & my nice shinny new bracket into what was there!
Got the patch pretty close need to tweek the bottom bend a bit more & it should be good to go!

 

[restoman]

OK your agreeing with my friend, he has done some successful metal work under the tutelage of a good metal man, He seems to think I have to start in the rear section & get the ripples out & then work the big dent from the outside in towards the middle???????
He's gonna stop by & take a look this weekend.
I'll try & get some flat pics but it's really hard to see, the top one is just slightly low now, the bottom may be an 1/8" or so deep

Yup, the oil-canning is secondary damage resulting from the wrinkled section.
I'll warn you: fixing this properly will be one of the toughest jobs on the car.

 

[RUSTY Cuda]

This is the glutton for punishment your talking to, what other idiot would strip not one but 2 cars to bare metal by hand in their backyard!

 

[RUSTY Cuda]

So life has me continuing the mr mom stuff, the wife now has fallen & hurt her wrist!!!
On top of that Mom's in the hospital again, retaining fluids pretty much everywhere, gained 23lbs & has only lost 5 or 6 & it's the 3rd day in there. Hoping she progresses faster, a short walk in the room has her wiped out!

So after 3 days of sitting around getting nothing accomplished I decided to go out back when I got home from the hospital, My friend came over & I have a game plan to make an attempt at the big roof dent & had enough time to finish bending the patch for the trunk, & clean the prime off the edges to be welded.
I can start spotting it after a touch more grinding on the bottom edge!

 

[RUSTY Cuda]

I tried to get some shots of the roof for you, now I know where they are & can barley see anything so here goes. 2 from the front...............and one from the back?

 

[RUSTY Cuda]

So with the early after noon trips to the hospital my days have been pretty much shot, today I forced myself to go out when I got home, managed to get in 2 hours before the sun took a dive on me.
Started spotting in the patch & grinding that mess down before the next round.
Not sure how I'm gonna grind in the gap my tools don't fit in there?

 

[RUSTY Cuda]

Got in a couple more hours of welding & grinding, might be at the fill the rest with JB weld, seems for every pin hole I fill, I burn a bigger hole on the next one, might lower the welder back to A (chart says B & 3.5 on the speed for this thickness metal) & see if that works before I give in?
it looks just a tad better today after a lot of effort!

 

[restoman]

It's not easy to butt weld patches into heavily-stressed stamped panels, like what you're doing.
Obviously, solid welds are better, but you wouldn't be the first guy to call it "good enough" and fill any small pinholes... and there really isn't anything wrong with doing it, as long as the majority of the welds are strong.
If it's clean before filling, it should last as long as the patch itself.

 

[69.5CUDA]

yeah heavy stress n stetched spots burn just as bad as rust, honestly that looks pretty good, me being anal about shit like that id either go another round on a few of those pinhole or skim the pin holes with all-metal (im not talking doing body work but actualy use a ridged puttyknife and scrape it flat)and then prime i n be done with it

 

[RUSTY Cuda]

I had pretty good luck with the turned down welder, hard to see in the pics but I got all the burn throughs filled & some more pinholes!
Now I will do the JB weld to smooth it out a bit!

 

[RUSTY Cuda]

So yesterday I got out a while & got the hold down bracket ready, the one I puled was welded along the outside edges in big globs, not sure if that was factory but not to my liking, so I drilled a bunch of holes in the new one for plug welds.
Knew the shape was off but when I screwed down the top it showed how bad...........So I welded in the top 6 holes & grabbed the lump hammer, it would not budge, I didn't think it would with all those bent edges.
Screwing it own got it close enough to get 2 more welds in towards the bend
Even with pulling on screw at a time the last edge popped up about an 1/8 inch, so I just welded the screw holes from both sides. put on the JB weld to smooth it out a bit & fill any pinholes I missed, I did put light behind it & saw none!!!
So today I ground off most of the JB & cleaned everything up for prime. Still a bit rough , might sand a bit more, but for where it is, it's probably fine gas tank outside & spare tire inside.

 

[RUSTY Cuda]

Started on the roof , I think I had some success , as I worked on the ripples at the extremes the big areas started to tighten up a bit & did less oil canning.
First test area.........