Replacing smooth roof skin, with cab light roof skin.

[01chevduramax]

I've got a lot of work done on my truck lately. I have the duramax in and test run. I'm about to tear it all back down for dustless blasting, and paint. The one piece missing on this truck....CAB LIGHTS!!!

I found a cab locally that is pretty wasted down low. But it has the cab lights. And they are nice. Im seriously considering a roof skin swap. Here is what I'm thinking:

1. Carefully cut the drip rails off.
2. Cut spot Welds out on roof skin.
3. Cut the cab off just behind the rear seam.
4. Cut those spot Welds out.
5. Should be nothing but a skin left!

On the existing cab:

1. Cut the roof skin off an inch or so from seams.
2. Cut spot Welds by drip rails and rear seam.
3. Either weld donor skin on, or use panel adhesive???

At that point I'd have the dustless blasting show take over.

Does anyone have any input here? A trick? Tell me DONT TRY IT!!
The truck is orange/white. 10" suspension lift. Long bed. 42" swampers. I think I'll regret painting it without doing this.

[vics stuff]

I would like to see how the dustless blasting comes out ?
Could you post some pics when that is done ?
Thanks Vic

[Shaky]

This might interest you:

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=733516

[01chevduramax]

Originally Posted by Shaky

This might interest you:

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=733516

I read through that one. I was hoping for some more tips and tricks. I've come to realize that I'm not super good at panel replacement. I always get warpage. That's why I was thinking adhesive. Adhesive around the whole thing. But I don't see a way to clamp that rear seam. At least not with the inner roof skin in place. My buddy told me to chop the pillars. But the donor cab does not have the headliner provision. I want to keep that.
I saw a guy cut across the roof skin behind the cab lights. But I know that long seam in the middle of the roof would warp. No way to hammer/dolly.

[feller]

The rear seam is the devil, on both trucks, I'll get some pics later today for you. Definitely use a spot weld cutter, not a drill bit. When I "harvested " my second roof skin I went all the way down to the rear window seam and all. I found a bunch of rot on a cab I thought was good along the way. Adhesive would be great for the rear seam if you can clamp it tight enough and in the right places.

[feller]

If you cut behind lights, you could glue it in if you got the panel plyers, put some rivets in it too. Glue all the way around would help the seam sealer do it's job better, less leakage. And I still didn't get pics for you.

[randy500]

I have a roof off right now, will be using 3m panel bond part number 8115. No need to remove the drip rails they dOnt connect to the skin. Will be using stud gun stud at back to clamp together with lacing wire while glue is setting up

[randy500]

Use a propane torch to soften up the old seam sealer. All the spot welds will be visible. On the new roof cut under the front lip to get it off, then drill the spot welds or grind the lip off to the roof, that way you don't have holes from the spot welds

I removed a nice cab light roof to replace with smooth, its in my build thread

[01chevduramax]

I got to work on this project today. It looks to me like this cab had a lot of work done some years ago. The roof skin appears to be new(ish). It was brazed instead of spot welded. First I cut off the entire drip rail right up close to the skin. Then I cut around the entire roof as close to the drip rail as possible. The roof skin came off easy after battling the A pillar to inner skin area.
I used a flap wheel to grind the edge where inner and outer roof seams met. Use a flathead to pry just a little to pop the brazed areas.
All together it took me 2 hours to get the roof skin off. No spot weld cutter holes or other damage.

I wanted to do the whole outer skin from rear seam to front. But the rear seam area was rusty. So now my plan is to spot weld a 1" wide strip of sheet metal to the underside of the cab light skin. I'll slide it in place, with the panel adhesive applied. Use Tek screws to join the new and old skins at my cut. Let it cure, then tig the seam carefully to avoid warping it.

The only problem I see it trying to weld up next to the panel adhesive.

[randy500]

The panel adhesive looses its grip when heat is applied, think it lets loose around 300 degrees

[01chevduramax]

I guess if the adhesive is going to break down, I'll just spot weld the skin all around. How terrible do you think that joint is going to warp with being able to hammer/dolly it?

[feller]

Flange your roof and use rivets with adhesive, Eastwood has a lot that's $100 or less. It has the flange plyers, adhesive, rivets, and the dimple plyers to hide the rivets.