Tweet
Hi! I decided to open up my 61 roadster top mechanism for the first time in at least 30 years to see what I can do about getting it back on the car. The overall condition was ok I thought until I found significant rusted portions on the section where the back of the window edge touches the top seals. I have attached three pictures of the passenger side which is the worse one, plus one picture of the driver's side. Both sides have problems as you can see. A couple of questions would really help me out. I have never seen this top installed or even with fabric except when I was about 5 years old (so I don't remember this).
Questions:
1) Looks like there used to be a slot/groove in the parts shown. What went in the slot? In the pictures you can see a mushy wood-like material in there rotting away. Who can even say what it was originally after 60 years? Should I just scrape all this out of the groove? Do I need to put something back in the slot? Is it possible the residue is just some piece of the old top?
2) What should be done about the rusted-out portions, particularly the passenger side? I mean there is a lot of metal just gone. This is for a DRIVER grade car, not a 500k concourse-queen. A couple ideas I have thought of:
option a) Do nothing (besides sand + paint) - just try to use the remaining two holes to attach the window seal and don't drive the car in the rain to prevent more rust. I live in California and avoiding rain is easy.
option b) Find someone that can fix this the right way (easier said than done maybe) and pay them to weld in new metal or whatever to get something solid to work with.
option c) Get bondo and fill the cavity up (possibly using some sort of 'spacer' to recreate a groove if that's important??) and then screw into the bondo. Not sure you can screw into bondo as I have only worked with it one time. This seems like the kind of repair that someone later will say - what idiot did that??? But it is my car, and if it works, I might do it
option d) Other ideas?
ANY pictures you could upload showing how the top is fitted in this portion (or anywhere) are greatly appreciated. Any instructions, videos, or how-to guide you may have a link to is also very welcome. I'm trying to put together a puzzle here with no picture on the box to work from. I will make an effort to attend the local meet-ups to snap pics in the coming months, but with COVID19 currently on the loose, I won't likely get to do this for many months.
Thank you so much in advance.
Brian
Questions:
1) Looks like there used to be a slot/groove in the parts shown. What went in the slot? In the pictures you can see a mushy wood-like material in there rotting away. Who can even say what it was originally after 60 years? Should I just scrape all this out of the groove? Do I need to put something back in the slot? Is it possible the residue is just some piece of the old top?
2) What should be done about the rusted-out portions, particularly the passenger side? I mean there is a lot of metal just gone. This is for a DRIVER grade car, not a 500k concourse-queen. A couple ideas I have thought of:
option a) Do nothing (besides sand + paint) - just try to use the remaining two holes to attach the window seal and don't drive the car in the rain to prevent more rust. I live in California and avoiding rain is easy.
option b) Find someone that can fix this the right way (easier said than done maybe) and pay them to weld in new metal or whatever to get something solid to work with.
option c) Get bondo and fill the cavity up (possibly using some sort of 'spacer' to recreate a groove if that's important??) and then screw into the bondo. Not sure you can screw into bondo as I have only worked with it one time. This seems like the kind of repair that someone later will say - what idiot did that??? But it is my car, and if it works, I might do it
option d) Other ideas?
ANY pictures you could upload showing how the top is fitted in this portion (or anywhere) are greatly appreciated. Any instructions, videos, or how-to guide you may have a link to is also very welcome. I'm trying to put together a puzzle here with no picture on the box to work from. I will make an effort to attend the local meet-ups to snap pics in the coming months, but with COVID19 currently on the loose, I won't likely get to do this for many months.
Thank you so much in advance.
Brian
Comment