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One of the criteria on my list for a potential car purchase was that the car would not have come with a vinyl top from the factory. I had just seen too many examples of rusty roof panels caused by leaking vinyl. I broke my own rule when I bought my car. Because it spent most of it's life in a covered garage in southern California, I figured it was going to be OK.....but having the car now in Kansas, I knew I would eventually need to remove it. It was a tough call because the top was the factory original top. Showing some wear but fully intact. I just couldn't stand to think there was the possibility of a rusty roof panel in my future....Besides, I prefer the body lines without a vinyl top.
I was relieved that the top peeled off a easily as it did. I was ecstatic to find near perfect sheet metal beneath. Just a very minor silver dollar size spot of surface pitting beginning to form near the back glass. This cleaned up easily with my sand blaster. I was a happy camper.
With the background info out of the way, the purpose of my post is to offer a tip on welding up the holes for the sail panel trim. The two 1/4" holes at the back are easily accessed from inside the trunk. I filled these holes by poking a #16 nail through the hole from the inside and pulling it against the skin as I spot welded to secure it in place.
The front two holes are not easy to reach. I rolled the back window down and could touch them with my finger from the window channel. To get the nail through the holes. I had to bend a 90 degree angle in the shank. With this configuration, I could fish the nail into the hole and pull it out to spot weld it in place.
The rest was straight forward. Cut the shank off and grind the welds with a cutoff wheel in my dot-co.
A little bondo and no more holes...
tc
Last edited by 4+4+2=10; August 15th, 2022 at 04:45 PM.
Do you plan to paint the entire car or only the area under the vinyl top?
Thanks for the positive feedback. I plan to just paint the top part of the car down to where the side stripe will be. I'm also replacing the trunk lid due to some edge seam swelling below the lock. I also have an factory original W25 hood now on the car in primer. The paint has been on the car since the late 80's and is old school lacquer. It is still beautiful but the odds of matching it are very slim due to the size of the metallic. The modern paints have notably larger flake size.
Last edited by 4+4+2=10; August 16th, 2022 at 07:56 AM.
August 15th, 2022, 10:44 AM
