Fabrication...who?

[Kirk]

Hey guys...me again:)

Well its looking like i will need a new roof.....with every bit of sanding i do, it looks worse, although probablly not as bad as i fear.

Anyway...got me to thinking, maybe i can get a new metal/steel roof fabricated (have been watching alooot of foxtel..hahaha).

Now im a simple person...so in my head i think...ok say they charge $70 hr for work...the job surely cant take longer than say 10-20hrs, the roof is in tact so that would help with design,layout and measurements...

Couldnt i get a roof for $700-$1400 made and fitted???

Makes sense....surely thats not un-reasonable?

ANYWAY.....that aside..i try finding places...now alot seem specific to "Hot Rod" (apparantly a "hotrod" is a Ford T...only??) or older classic shapes (holdens etc) and this left me with a search result of about 2:( Ive sent an email (they specialise in "Showcar") so im not too hopefull...

Now hundreds of job vacancies come up in the search so surely there must be more melbourne panel fabricators?? Does anyone know of any? a list maybe?

AND has anyone had this done??

Im desperate:(

Kirk.

[BusyKiwi]

try coach builders and sheet metal workers, you may have more luck (and cheaper)

[ben]

Hey kirk. Nice idea;) hope are you doing the removal of the old roof thou. Cause with my rough calculations it will take 8 hours plus just to remove the 1 roof as long as no hick ups arise. Ben

[doofhard]

I loved that post with you calcs.  Cracked me up

[ben]

What me and my calculations;) he he. Well i almost rang you up today doofhard. Need to fix beddy. Ended up driving her home broken at 60 km an hour. Still not precisely sure what is causing the play in the axel but ill check it out when i get home.

[Kirk]

try coach builders and sheet metal workers, you may have more luck (and cheaper)

A friend actually sugested sheetmetal workers as well, would they make a roof?

Ben: 8hrs to remove the roof? i could be wrong but wouldnt you just grind the welds off the ribs, and break the seal between the roof and the walls (in that lip from the inside?)

i woulda thought maybe 2-3hrs

[Bullstik]

get a lot of quotes first, i had quotes to fix the front edge of my bonnet. One guy said ten hours at a cost of $660 

[Marishka]

get a lot of quotes first, i had quotes to fix the front edge of my bonnet. One guy said ten hours at a cost of $660 

lol, was he crosseyed, hehe, musta been.
thats why it woulda took him 4x as long.
marty

[BusyKiwi]

A friend actually sugested sheetmetal workers as well, would they make a roof?

they will if you get the right one, it's like asking a panelbeater to do a roof chop, 99% would ask what it was. Depending on the tools they had I'd say it would be made in 3 bits (front, mid and rear) mainly because of the center folds and the ends would have to be wheeled, a huge full panel would just be to big to work with.

Ben: 8hrs to remove the roof? i could be wrong but wouldnt you just grind the welds off the ribs, and break the seal between the roof and the walls (in that lip from the inside?)

i woulda thought maybe 2-3hrs

the roof is spot welded and glued around the roof edge and glued across the braces

you could chiesel the roof off and grind up all the spot welds and bits, but remember the glue also needs to be removed, top sealed with etch primer/zinc or something before the new roof can go on and also any rust in the gutters etc that need fixing. quite often the inner gutters rust out in beddies, three main places, above the front seat belt mounts (back of) and the inner screen panel where the sun visors screw onto, this panel can not be got to with either removing the screen panel or roof, a good way to tell if this bit is rusty is to check your front door hinges, if there is rust above them (put hand up under dash and feel above hinge area), there will be rust up top as this is where the water comes from usually.

[Bren]

the thing to remember is that if your roof is rusted, theres almost a 100% chance that the rust is
in the joints between the roof and panels. Making a new roof is a fairly simple thing, but chasing rust around the seam is another story, and that takes alot of time. I don't think anyone would even quote you on the job unless it was blasted back to metal.

...you might find it cheaper to patch the roof, rather than replace it.