The shell begins

After a few weeks of searching, I finally found another roof, and this one was only 20 miles from home.

Interesting patina after 35+ years and numerous resprays by the looks of things.

I got it home and could start stripping off the broken spotlights, brackets and aerials. There’s a few holes to fill, but that’s not a problem.

Off came the front door shut/seal brackets – I drilled out the rivets and tapped them through.

Next the inside was a nest of cables and wires, that was all cut out and discarded.

The strengthening brackets for the rear door were also drilled and removed.

And then I cut out the rear door shut seal ledge. This gap will be filled in later to make a completely flat seal around the base.

Now it was time to cut the roof in half! I marked out the 130mm section I wanted to remove, and slowly followed the line with a jigsaw.

I started stripping the paint and discovered the roof was originally cream coloured.

More paint stripper and mostly back to shiny aluminium now.

There are two hollow ribs running cross-ways inside the roof, these were structural bars which were obviously cut through so I could narrow the roof. I bought some 10 gauge 3/4″ aluminium box section to slide into both halves of these ribs, and I could then rivet it in place to hold both sides of the roof together.

I riveted more ally box inside the lip at the front to strengthen that area.

I needed some aluminium sheet to fill the section I cut out by the rear door frame. I used a piece taken from my practice (now: donor) roof so that I keep the same profile along the bottom edge.

The only place on the donor roof which was big enough was from the side. This was a curved piece which I needed to straighten with the help of a home made jig.