@WillBilly53

Roof/Rain channel repair on a '53 Buick

WillBilly53 · 2003-08-05T13:36:54.000Z

i posted this on the BCA forum, i figured this was a broad enough subject i could post here...okay this is a bear.as i'm trying to repair the hole in the roof, near the front windshield, i discovered MANY holes and rust in the area and the rain channel. i first started removing the bondo that was there and found out that much of the rain channel in that area was basically ALL bondo. so i've cut out this area. all though when i was simply trying to get to bare metal with the 3M stripper wheel, i didn't have to do much cutting, it just came apart. there's also the area where the windows roll up into. that's all rusted pretty badly.my question is should i take my car to a body shop and pay for them to repair this? or could i repair this myself? i bought some of those steel strips from Lowes and had the "bright" idea of trying to fabricate these parts myself. but i'm just not satisfied. i worried it's gonna look like crap. and i want it done right, but the flipside (as always) is i don't want to spend a fortune to have this done especially if i can do it myself. if i should just take it to a shop does anybody have somekind of ballpark figure for this?i hope this post makes sense. any help, tips, options would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Aug 5, 2003 (edited)763 views

Replies (3)

· Aug 5, 2003

Well, I would think you should take it to a professional if you want professional results. Assuming the car is running I would trapse it around to various shops in your area paying attention to these things along the way:

How many other old cars are in the shop.

How receptive is the owner to working on your car (meaning are you going to get "financially penalized" for have an old car)

How many cans of bondo are lying around the shop

How clean is the shop

How many cars are in their "lot"-the higher the number the longer your car may lanquish there

How clean are the workers outfits

How quickly can they get to it, (if its right away not a good sign) how long do they say it will take to do it.

Are they willing to do what you want done or do they want to talk you into a complete restoration

Among other logical things like how long have they been in biz, do they have references from other old car guys, hows there BBB rating etc.

Of course get bids from those shops that pass these tests and see where you end up.

Another good place to get recommedations of good body shops (very hard to find in my area) is local Cruis-in car shows.

Top flite work is very expensive. But good work can be had reasonably.

If you want to do it yourself you may want to find someone with a brake or other metal working gear to properly bend the metal into the proper shape, so that lots of bondo isnt required. Bondo isnt an absolute no-no, but should only be used to correct minor surface variations versus constructing things.

Hope this helps

Shawn

(edited)

· Aug 5, 2003

Good luck finding a shop willing to give you a price to do the repair you described. Difficult and time consuming. Find someone you trust and pay him for the actual time to do the job then next time you need help he won't turn you away. I would bite the bullet and take it to a resto shop. Modern body shops these days usually have very little experience fabricating and welding. I've done the same repair (different cars) many times. Not fun.

(edited)

· Aug 5, 2003

thanks for the replies and tips on finding a shop.

taking it to a shop seems to be the consensus over at the Buick forum also. i guess i'll dig even deeper into my pockets...

(edited)

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