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UPDATE - Roof Skin - Replacement Ideas

ZombieK5

ZombieK5

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I have to swap out my roof on my 78' project. Does anyone have advice on how to do this. I have some donor roofs but the back edges are bad. Any fabrication ideas or photos? Any suggestions.

The roof skins that are online for the Squarebody pickups, will they partially work for the K5? Will I only have to a fab the section between the cab and back topper?

ALL IDEAS
 
I thought I was confused, but now I know it was true.
 
I have seen it done with a pickup truck skin. The pickup truck skin is longer than the K5 roof skin so you have to do some trimming. It will require some fab work to make one fit, but it can be done.
 
BIG THANK YOU for Cory over at New Boyz Square Body Rescue. He had several roofs in his yard. None were perfect in and of themselves BUT one has the rear end good enough to use. If you've never been to his yard, it's a square body oasis.

Here's what I'm faced with. I picked up the white roof today. I have drawn a line where I'm gonna cut. The blue section will be the donor for the B pillar drop down. I have a section to cut from the black roof for the B pillar drop down on the driver side. The Gray roof skin is the donor for the front 3/4's of the roof.

The front edge of the white roof is dust.
The top of the black roof is full of dents, holes and body filler.
Gray roof is great except back edge is dust.

This is gonna be a Looooong stitch weld across the two main roof skin sections.

Anyone done this??

Thoughts??

Plan is to cut section from white roof and fit it to the gray roof. Only tack weld for now. THEN move it to my Blazer tub and finish it in place.

I'm gonna remove the rust from the interior roof skin surface then I want to lay down several long strips of fiberglass cloth with epoxy resin to add rigidity. I'll paint and also clean up all the other rusty sufsces.

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ZombieK5 said:
BIG THANK YOU for Cory over at New Boyz Square Body Rescue. He had several roofs in his yard. None were perfect in and of themselves BUT one has the rear end good enough to use. If you've never been to his yard, it's a square body oasis.

Here's what I'm faced with. I picked up the white roof today. I have drawn a line where I'm gonna cut. The blue section will be the donor for the B pillar drop down. I have a section to cut from the black roof for the B pillar drop down on the driver side. The Gray roof skin is the donor for the front 3/4's of the roof.

The front edge of the white roof is dust.
The top of the black roof is full of dents, holes and body filler.
Gray roof is great except back edge is dust.

This is gonna be a Looooong stitch weld across the two main roof skin sections.

Anyone done this??

Thoughts??

Plan is to cut section from white roof and fit it to the gray roof. Only tack weld for now. THEN move it to my Blazer tub and finish it in place.

I'm gonna remove the rust from the interior roof skin surface then I want to lay down several long strips of fiberglass cloth with epoxy resin to add rigidity. I'll paint and also clean up all the other rusty sufsces.

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I need to get to his shop....
 
Are you sure there isn't a better roof out there? You could probably spend 2 days driving and it would save time. If you could get all of the welding done on the ground, it would give you the chance to finish the backside. Maybe the old roof could be used to make some plywood bracing that would hold your pieces while joining them together.
 
Blue85 said:
Are you sure there isn't a better roof out there? You could probably spend 2 days driving and it would save time. If you could get all of the welding done on the ground, it would give you the chance to finish the backside. Maybe the old roof could be used to make some plywood bracing that would hold your pieces while joining them together.
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Well, made my cut on the white roof. Gonna need some extra surgery on the driver side. Here's the lose layout. The blue piece will be cut smaller. Unless I search Arizona, I won't find anything up here. Could use it as an excuse to visit the grand canyon and Phoenix... Maybe Vegas.

Gonna do a rough spot weld on the gound. Gonna get it tacked in place then clamp it down on my tub. Will do the B pillar welds on the tub.

Good plan?? Am I screwed??

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I would not say you are screwed, but you definitely have got a lot of hours/days ahead of you. Take your time as you stitch these in and be sure to move around, use an air compressor with an air gun on the end of it to cool down the metal. I'll be impressed if you can do it all without having any warpage, but you should be able to avoid anything too major if you're patient and pay attention to how hot the pieces are getting.
 
I agree with the above, I would have it cool to the touch before doing a subsequent dot of weld. The big flat areas warp very easily. I think welding it in place is a good idea to make sure everything lines up correctly. I would only clamp the skin down, though (I used clamps along the windshield pinch weld, the drip rail, and the back edge), and not permanently attach it while you weld the skins together. This way you can remove it and grind/clean up the underside and paint it before reattaching the skin to the cab. I suspect even if you control the heat well, you may still have some warping from the welds shrinking and pulling the surround skin in. These will probably present as low areas where the roof skin no longer "bubbles" out in the original roundish shape anymore. You may have to planish the welded areas to stretch them back out. You will only be able to do this if you can remove the roof skin again after stitching it together.
 
Conner said:
I agree with the above, I would have it cool to the touch before doing a subsequent dot of weld. The big flat areas warp very easily. I think welding it in place is a good idea to make sure everything lines up correctly. I would only clamp the skin down, though (I used clamps along the windshield pinch weld, the drip rail, and the back edge), and not permanently attach it while you weld the skins together. This way you can remove it and grind/clean up the underside and paint it before reattaching the skin to the cab. I suspect even if you control the heat well, you may still have some warping from the welds shrinking and pulling the surround skin in. These will probably present as low areas where the roof skin no longer "bubbles" out in the original roundish shape anymore. You may have to planish the welded areas to stretch them back out. You will only be able to do this if you can remove the roof skin again after stitching it together.
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I need to get a slap paddle and probably 3 or 4 more clamps. What you said was my general plan. Gonna do all spot welds (stitches). Once done I'll gently grind down. Gonna try to make a shape guide from the gray roof so I can compare OEM curvature vs what I end up with. This is gonna suck.
 
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