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Originally Posted by V8TV
How bad was the steel under the vinyl top? What did you use to repair it?
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KO/V8TV, I think you guys may laugh a little on my approach ... I accidentally deleted a lot of pictures of what I did and what it looked like once I removed paint/bondo. Below is a picture of the initial discovery (that oh-crap how bad moment). Could have been worse as it was a bunch of spot holes (about 1/4 bondo at the corners and 1/8 up the pillars) . They had pop-riveted metal underneath and then bondo’d over the larger holes; this was done on both sides. The worst part was the rounds in the corner were history and everything continued to rust towards the trunk. I removed what I could and used some left over metal from the firewall kit, did some spot welding and to get the rounds I used -industrial saw blades for a reciprocating saw (held it in my hands and bent it to the right curvature – also used them to form the base the window rests in - had to weld them together for the overall window seat). They're actually about the right height and thickness (red-neck way I know .. but its metal; a real shop would have taken the time to have metal bent/shaped so you'd have a natural 'L' that's curved; after I finished someone told me there are kits out there for this very thing). There were also rust spots at the roof seam/window's edge and along the entire pillar. What I did is/ drill/grind every hole then very patiently welded the holes I could.
A special note to any novice (not V8TV) ... On a hard-top the rear panel is a pain because it is convex length-ways and concave across the short distance and if you have very much rust the easiest thing is probably to just replace it as the body work is challenging (I was chicken, but think I'll be OK). I'd wouldn't have had to spend so much time if I had put a vinyl top back on it. A vinyl top can make minor imperfection unnoticeable.
