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A while back I placed a post looking for sheet metal around the vinyl top area, right side, above the 1/4 rear window for my 78 Cutlass. Checked out local yards, placed some calls, even went out of my area and had no success. I decided to play around in the sheet metal shop at work with a co-worker trying to replicate the piece. Although the the resultant parts were not that bad, it was going to be hard to weld and form the metal with the required compound bends of the roof line and have it look original (goal is to not use the vinyl top anymore). I decided to hold off and continue to work other parts of the roof.
Meantime, I stopped, went to New Mexico on a business trip. On my stay, I found a yard in a town called Alamogordo. My heart kept telling me that's where I would find a 78. Guess what? Stopped, asked the guy, and there it was. He had 2-3 Olds along with ancient pieces of history from the 60-70's, most in sound condition.
It turns out, the 78 he had also came with vinyl top. I could not believe my eyes that almost the entire roof panel was intact, I had to scratch heavily the paint off trying to find filler underneath. It was all good, unrusted sheetmeal. I marked the area I needed and home it came.
I since have attached the patch to the roof and obtained very good results.
It's true about the cars out west. The desert does a beautiful job of keeping them alive.
:icon14:
Meantime, I stopped, went to New Mexico on a business trip. On my stay, I found a yard in a town called Alamogordo. My heart kept telling me that's where I would find a 78. Guess what? Stopped, asked the guy, and there it was. He had 2-3 Olds along with ancient pieces of history from the 60-70's, most in sound condition.
It turns out, the 78 he had also came with vinyl top. I could not believe my eyes that almost the entire roof panel was intact, I had to scratch heavily the paint off trying to find filler underneath. It was all good, unrusted sheetmeal. I marked the area I needed and home it came.
I since have attached the patch to the roof and obtained very good results.
It's true about the cars out west. The desert does a beautiful job of keeping them alive.
:icon14:
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