Well your video is about the only resource available that addresses this issue. Thanks a million for taking the time to document the process. Last weekend I spent about 6 hours melting lead and drilling out spot welds to remove the roof. It was surprisingly easy to do. I did use a cutoff wheel to cut along the drip rail to get the roof out of the way and then removed the remnants in the drip rail channel one tiny spot weld at a time. I'm going to have to wait before I install the new roof because I discovered rust issues in the drip rail channels that need to be repaired... Thanks again for showing us how it can be done!

Andrew, I'm glad to see someone younger with a genuine appreciation for these cars. It's obvious you do, most would not go through the work you have put into this car already. Good job!!

@WestCoastClassicCougar

9 жыл бұрын

Thanks for saying so! Car is still not done, but shooting for mid-2015 to be back on the road.

Great job young man. It is refreshing to see someone who does not have all the experience of a pro take on the challenge and learn some new skills. Good on you for what you have done. I hope you will take on more challenges like this in the future. I know this is a few years ago but none the less great job.

You're not an idiot. You're very capable, resourceful and achieving young man.

Gotta do this to the roof of my 70 LTD, now I have a general idea of what to do, thank you so much!

Holy rust bucket, Batman! Thats a lot of iron oxide! Glad to see the old cat get all the needed bodywork done and a fresh coat of paint to boot.

Looks good. Nice Cougar. Don't listen to the haters. They are just jealous. Getting things fixed right is the right thing to do. You will be happy you went the extra yards with the project.

@lewiscollins1045

6 жыл бұрын

That is not the way to remove the replacement roof skin, that is the a mig man in action............

Vinyl top, a great rust promoter.

@jaggass

6 жыл бұрын

Vinyl roofs was a stupid idea. They are just a great big water trap.

I have done several cars this way. Removeing the doner roof skin takes time. Last time we did it we cut most of the roof reinforcent with a plasmer cutter to access spot welds better...worked out very good. The factory puts lots of spot welds along the drip rail...thats what took the time.

I'm kinda glad both of my cats never had vinyl roofs. But I'm doing a satellite roadrunner roof skin

that donor xr7 seemed to be in pristine condition kind of a shame

Thank you so much for this video. I had no idea how to remove the drip rail without distorting or damaging it. After three minutes, half of the Passenger's side is off. This was a HUGE help!

Excellent job! I thought you were gonna cut the whole top off at the posts. That shows my level of body shop knowledge! If it was born Vinyl put it back vinyl, no problem with that, I'm sure it will be garaged and pampered from here on out. Nice to see a young guy into old cars! Excellent video!

@sparkplug1018

4 жыл бұрын

Unless the structure underneath is rotted too, its better to do it the way he did here. My T-top Camaro on the other hand the structure is beyond gone, so going to be drilling the welds on the quarter panel out and cutting the A pillars. Its a job I am and I'm not looking forward to.

FYI for future projects. There is a weld-through primer you can use on parts at the weld points (metal-to-metal) that will stop rust there. There is also a metal-based filler you could have used instead of the fiberglass. It is stronger than fiberglass, magnetic and just as easy to work with. There is also a rust encapsulating etching undercoat that would last a lot longer than the rust proofing undercoating you used. Of course, ANY undetcoating is better than what they used in 68. They only expected the cars to last 5 years, 10 at the most.

I can't believe you're using that car as a parts donor; it has one of the few straight grilles I've ever seen on a Cougar!

one of the best resto videos I've seen, congrats

Always fond of a Mercury Cougar! Very nice.

Wonderful video! Thank you so much for taking your time and contributing. Love to look at that old cat!

I loved this car design!

Im currently doing the same to my cougar, and probably do the floor pans myself also ,,, love this video easy to do yourself :)

Thanks for your video very helpful, well Werth the effort keeping your grandparents car still on the the road my sister still has my grandmother VW she bought off the lot in 1966 and hers husband had it restored back to new better than new

Great... you have done a great job...! You are not an idiot just someone without knowledge but if you get the right answer you can achieve all....So God bless you mate...Well Done!!!

This is a great video. I have NO IDEA why people give anyone lip about these video's. I mean come on. This is NOT HOLLYWOOD!!! I think it's a really great vid. Shows what most go through and goes farther than most would.. I would love to have seen all the rest of the work being done as well... Would create many more interests and people trying bigger projects... Very well done... ENCORE!!!!!

Hey awesome video. It gives me a lot of hope for my 72 LTD up here in PDX. My roof is probably worse than that one under the vinyl. I feel pretty confident about replacing the skin now, The only hard part is going to be finding one.

Nice video, very well explained I did the same roof swop on my Manta many many years ago pre youtube and I used lead as a filler as it is the best thing and still is available

Great Job! FYI.. You inspired me to do my own roof!

@WestCoastClassicCougar

9 жыл бұрын

Juanito Lopez Thanks, that's awesome!

@abbylx

8 жыл бұрын

+Juanito Lopez I wished i had a car to do this work on it! :(

@Aviator305

7 жыл бұрын

you can do my 1970 Buick Skylark

i really love this video. Thankyou for posting it. im about to do a roof transplant on my camaro and im NERVIUSE

Great video! I'll probably be stopping in to visit soon.

loving the fiberglass..

great job bro love the work u did on ur beuatiful cougar cant wait to see the finsh product

Great job! Let's see floor pan replacment and quarter panel!

Nice work!

If as you said that vinyl top is a replacement, the trim shop likely ripped the old vinyl top and instead of using special glue remover to get the adhesive off, they likely used a grinder to get the old glue off and then just covered ground down top with the new vinyl top.

Great video, only thing I do differently on these is to use a MAP gas torch to melt the lead out. Quicker and easier for sure.

The drip rail trim comes off super easy and 0 damage with and old stile two sided can opener not joking used it on my 64 impala and highly recommend I had to tweak my can opener slightly but you can get them at value village and other places such for very little hope this helps someone there is a video on here to which thankfully I watched that taught me this

Love watching different ways to get stuff done. So surprised about the way the moldings are on the Mercury. My moldings on the Bonneville are screwed in

Great job dude

How lucky, just walk out to the yard, count your blessing young man.

Great job for someone with very little experience.

Chasse saver is amazing!

Great video!!

Great video ! Thanks

good video, good info, thanks................. i liked the temp. bolts to hold it together.

very nice video. i have a 73 swamp stang is what ive been calling her(shes a mustang although i named her kitten) Shes been sitting belly deep in water for forever it seems. alot of work i want to rush through i tell myself slow down. its just so exciting

Good job and video

Great video, by the way.

Handy tip- use a big, slow revving disc sander (36 grit) to grind out lead. The coarse disc removes the lead fast, doesn't turn the lead into a fine dust, and keeps the heat down, which helps keep the disc from clogging. A knotted wire wheel on the grinder is great for the final clean up of the lead seam, digs it all out of the fine crevices.

@markkrul3429

8 жыл бұрын

I'd say an electric grinder is the wrong tool as well...unless you have an adjustable speed feature.

@TyphoonVstrom

8 жыл бұрын

I'd say it sounds like you've never done bodywork.

Great video thanks - I would have been happy with the donor car

a old school bottle opener can take the window trim pieces on the side off quickly

@williamboardman9476

6 жыл бұрын

Rain rail trim.

Nice job....

good job bro..!

Great informative video. Will need to replace my vinyl roof, so hopefully I don't have the rust issues on the roof. Would have really like to have seen the bottom and side rear roof channels up close, for I'm sure I'm going to be dealing with that!

Good stuff!

You work exactly like I do and I happen to know how things should be done, so sincere congrats : you´re not " the average idiot" imo !! ;)

great job kid

Great job sir,i

You did a great job by the way, you have to do it, to learn how to do it.

Nice car

@KennyKatt1962 Soon, hopefully! It's getting painted sometime in the next couple of weeks. It needed floors, lower quarter patches, trunk panels, dents straightened out, etc. So much for keeping it simple!

@ajathalli6782

6 жыл бұрын

West Coast Classic Cougar i3bhtuyo uyi

@ajathalli6782

6 жыл бұрын

West Coast Classic Cougar i3bhtuyo uyi

yeah vinyl top rust, Im right there with ya.

7:35 dude laughed at the top out of sadness 😂

@85fordman Mainly for originality and looks. The car will probably lead a more protected life than it has for the past 44 years. Hopefully the new paint on the roof will protect it from moisture. And I'm using a higher quality vinyl this time (OEM material rather than cheap replacement stuff) so hopefully it will be more watertight.

lots of work but well worth it

wait.....wait.....wait.... what if you dont have all the connections you have you know people. ...I don't

wow you gave me an idea

Love it!, I just brought home a rusty fastback roof to do the coupe to fastback conversion, so its a new skin for the donor roof. Why not start with a good fb roof? Well, not all of us can afford that. Fastback stuff in my area is scarce.

thank u sir

Get yourself an Eastwoods catalogue mate, they sell lead free body solder kits and top notch quality. I have no tie to them other than being a happy customer. If you going to do restoration stuff then you need their catalogue bad!

As soon as I would have seen what was under that roof, I would've called Grand ma, if she's still here, or said a prayer and apology for selling her car

I`m an average idiot, too:) Done the same on a 80 Foxbody. Greetings from Germany

We got them at Harbor Freight. Most good hardware stores should have them. Also, don't drill all the way through both layers of metal, just through the first layer.

What you guys need that would be about 100 times better , much much faster and more thorough would be "dustless grit blasting" .

you can still get body lead... tho it's no longer actually lead, it's mostly tin with a few other things. Since it's not actually lead, you can use it without a lot of precautions.

good job but to be definitively efficient, you should put grease everywhere. grease et the only thing very efficient against rust. put grease between metal and carpet, inside door, behind metallic bumper, under the vehicle, behind the repairs you can make (everywhere inside the body- hidden erea - instead of using paint), hollow areas (necessarily hidden, so no need to be aesthetic). For rear wings unreachable with a paintbrush, use an extender and poor old oil everywhere each year.Handyman Experience - 35 years. From france

@LYinKansas That's why I'm usually the one behind the camera, not in front! -Andrew

I always used a mini torch to melt the lead

Hey had a question how do you keep the back chrome? molding down once you get the roof, glass etc etc done with, can't seem to keep the middle of mine down

Just bought an xr-7, does not have interior, how much would it cost me to hunt down the gauges and dash pieces for a '67

Where can I find that weld drill bit that makes those perfect holes?? Currently doing my cougar roof replacement

They make proper tools for trim removal.

This is awesome, I need to do this on my 1966 ford fairlane 2 door hard top. Same issue vinyl top rust. Any suggestions? I cant find a place like this for fairlanes. Any reply would be greatly appreciated!

@WestCoastClassicCougar

4 жыл бұрын

Fairlanes are not what we specialize in, but I did a quick search for Fairlane specific salvage yards and did not come up with anything still in business. You might want to try something like this site: www.junkyardpartslocator.com/model.aspx?id=349

And do u drill holes all the way through the spot welds or until u see the metal underneath

I would have used All-Metal from USC for the lead seam. It will flex a bit and not crack like other fillers. It cures as hard as metal. Sort of like JB weld.

The metal prepers in the factory liked the cars with vinyl tops...they didnt have to be very particular how the lead seam was and other defects in the roof panel..

im here to chop the top off my 2001 SVT mercury cougar

Nice video... How much does a roof cost I failed to see it on your website.. Thanks

I have a 1990 Lincoln Town Car I love very much. It has that special roof on it that is they tell me a fiberglass shell then the vinyl top goes over that.. It is the same shell they use for the limousine with the very small window in the back. Though the vinyl top is still amazingly good I am starting to show rust in the rear pillar area just behind the right passenger rear door where the top ends and the body starts. Do you have a clue how to remove the fiberglass shell on these cars. (cont)

What’s cheaper fix the rust roof or make it convertible ?

1990 Lincoln Town Car (cont) I think the top will have to be removed to see if there is rust on the metal roof under the fiber glass shell. There were many Lincolns in the 90's with these custom roof on them. I think the top was put on by G&H I think that is the manufacturer but cant find any information on them. Just wondering,... were these shells bolted on or glued. Any reference would be deeply appreciated. Thanks for the great video, it was very impressive. Great job.

Just had rust repair done on a 70 XR7 . Thinking the vinyl is not going back on and the lower trim mould holes will get plug welded. Was no vinyl roof and solid color an option for the XR7 in 1970?

@WestCoastClassicCougar

6 жыл бұрын

The vinyl top option was separate from the XR-7 package, so yes you could get an XR-7 without the vinyl top. Just seems like almost everyone back in the day ordered both together.

@kanadianbacon7733

6 жыл бұрын

Thanx!

*sigh* I'm dreading having to do this to my 67 Fastback. The roof oil canned some time in it's previous life and the massive puddle of Bondo has once again cracked. Time to fix it right.

Don't ever use screwdrivers to pop off glass molding. The chances of breaking the glass is too great. Replacement can be costly. Spend $25 dollars on a molding tool. It's made to slide between the molding and the glass to release the retaining clips.

Did you have to fabricate the patch panel for the rear window or was is it from a donor?

@WestCoastClassicCougar

8 жыл бұрын

At the time, we used a donor car. However, there's now a new patch panel available: www2.cougarpartscatalog.com/678rearwindowpatch.html It doesn't go up the pillars, however, so in Andrew's case he would have still needed additional patch work.

Leads not toxic if you use it properly

Do a video on the story of your cougar and when your grandmother had it. Did she buy it brand new? I have a very similar story with my grandmothers 1970 Thunderbird.

@rogerramjet5092

8 жыл бұрын

+Ryan Richards: In the video they make it a point to say it's been in the family since it was new at lest twice. So yes they bought it new...

Good jop

If you search for "roof skin" you should be able to see them!

Great job! Why would you want to put another vinyl roof on the car? Chances are you will have the same problem in the future, as when vinyl gets brittle from the sun it absorbs moisture and rots the roof from the trapped moisture. Why not just put black (or whatever color you want) paint in place of the vinyl? That way you have the color contrasting you want, without worrying about trapped moisture....just a thought.

What did the body shop charge to weld an paint your car

10:28!