Conversation from the other thread:
Mate quick question.
How did you go with the roof popping out of shape once you removed the original piece of the roof.
I am doing this exact repair at the moment, exactly as you have done and the original piece of the roof will not go back in as the bulk of the roof popped up and lost its shape as soon as the piece was removed.
It has proven to be a real nightmare for me regarding the roof itself.
Sounds like it may be a symptom of structural issue Adrian, how much rust is in the rest of the car and how do you have it supported (ie. still on it's wheel or on a rotisserie, etc.)?
Sorry I can't remember but is this the car that had the sunroof removed and welded up?
HI mate. The car is on a body trolley which is fairly secure and solid, but yes it is the one with the failed welded up sunroof.
Now that you have said that it may be a symptom of the roof being under different stresses from the "warping" (I really don't think it was from heat more from the roof pulling slightly out of shape.) from the sunroof repair.
I am thinking I am going to have to do some major replacement/surgery on the roof now and I really need someone who is an expert to look at it and point me in the right direction.
I think I am going to have to remove and replace as much of the roof skin as I can. Wish I had it done properly in the first place rather than attempting it myself.
There should be no reason you can't fix it yourself with a little care, first thing you need to do is reverse the damage done with the sunroof repair, you need to release the tension / torsion, which could possibly be done by a panel beater without removing the section, but for you I'd just cut around the outside of the weld, remove the entire section and hope that everything springs back into place when it drops out.
Next I'd probably finish your repair on the hinge section first, then start again with a fresh sheet of metal on the sunroof hole. Sit it on top of the roof and trace around the hole from underneath, then turn it over and trim it to size. It will depend on the welding method as to how neat a fit it should be but if using a MIG then a gap of a millimeter or two all around won't hurt.
Next comes the tricky part, you might need someone else (with a lot of patience) to give you a hand here but you need to hold it in the right place / shape (you could even go to the trouble of making a template off another hatch so you get the shape spot on but most would just eye it up) and then tack weld and planish (with a hammer and dolly), then tack and planish, then tack and planish (ad infinitum).
The idea here is that the weld will shrink the surrounding metal but planishing the weld will flatten it out or expand it again, with a little practice the net effect of each tack weld after planishing should be zero movement.
There are any number of articles about planishing on the net, these are just a couple I found:
http://www.metalmeet...ead.php?t=12713
http://www.bangshift...shing-mig-welds
Maybe make a test piece as suggested in those articles and practice, practice, practice, it really isn't that hard, it just takes a lot of patience!
EDIT: I forgot to mention, do NOT cool the weld with a wet rag or similar or the shrinkage will be much worse.
Edited by Bigfella237, 09 September 2016 - 03:04 PM.
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