This guy is my hero!!!
I received an email a couple of weeks ago from a customer who recently acquired a 3.8 Coupe “project car”, asking if I had a roof panel available. I replied that I did have a couple, but I’m usually not wild about selling them – I keep them on hand for coupes that come through here where it makes sense to replace the roof rather than try to straighten any bad buckling.
However, once he sent photos of his car – coupled with the fact that he seems very determined and confident, I agreed to sell him a roof and rear hatch, and crate it here so that it will make the trip to its new destination safely.
Enjoy these photos of his “project” – and the nuclear-explosion-proof crate I built to make sure he gets his replacement roof safely. This roof section is crusty in the back, and looks messy, but it’s rock solid and dead straight and smooth – and I was determined to make sure it stays that way while traveling – although I may have gone a LITTLE overboard!
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- From this angle, not so bad maybe…
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- Oh my God – I thought the roof would probably have some issues – I was certainly not ready for THIS!
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- Scary stuff – hope no-one was in here when this happened…
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- We are also sending the customer a hatch.
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- The “good” side…
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- Looks like the trans tunnel has been hogged out with a sawzall.
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- Bonnet needs LOTS of work – probably just replacement with something better. I always recommend a properly restored original over the reproductions now available – the fit is horrible…
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- Another shot of the carnage. You have to love a guy who looks at this and says, “I can fix it!”
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- Another shot. We had two roofs available right now, but he wisely chose the one that had more or the area around the rear hatch still attached.
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- This one is going to be a labor of love!
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- Here’s what we had available. Don’t let the looks fool you – it’s a good roof. There is just one small patch of filler in the back, but the flaked off piece shows that it is only 1/16″ at the deepest, so no big deal.
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- The rusty surface is deceiving – the paint is cracking and most of that rust is actually “bleed” on TOP of the white paint. This is probably from a tarp over the car for a long time… I did not cut this out of the shell – I picked this up from another shop a couple of years ago.
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- I started by building a sturdy platform, then attached the roof to it in a way that it would not move NO MATTER WHAT, but also so that it would not be pinched or damaged.
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- Here is the hatch – a leftover from another project that came in with two hatches – we usually buy all of the leftover parts from the customers after the job is completed.
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- Darkness falls, and I’m still hard at work with my little project…
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- This is now completely boxed in, and I realize it’s overkill, but my idea is that due to the shape of this crate, there is NO WAY the shipping company won’t put something on top of it, so I want to make sure that when they do, the roof is not hurt.
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- Another shot…
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- And another…
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- This was a test to make sure that if the crate was flipped up on end, the roof would not move around. It didn’t – AT ALL – Success!
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- I think this will do the job.
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- Finally done, LONG after sunset… I was able to stand on the box right in the middle with NO flex whatsoever. I’m pretty sure she’ll get there safely, and I’m excited to be a part of this project – which I will be anxious to follow along with via e-mail!
