MY FIRST G-BODY

[UNGN]

In high school, we just cut the roof off cars with sawsall and made convertibles out of them. There is very little metal in that roof worth saving and nothing you can weld to. If you want to weld something with a $90 Harbor freight welder, weld the doors shut. Climb in through the windows.

 

[Longroof79]

Welcome aboard!
Nice to see you and your dad both into G-body cars. Along with the good advise you were given, I would also consider getting a donor roof...or a complete donor Lemans for that matter and cut the roof off. Considering what you said about using fiberglass...don't do it. You'll be sorry.
It also depends on the overall condition of the car. How is the frame, doors, quarters, floors, etc.? You might luck out and find a good shell that you could transfer all your parts over to it.
Good luck!

 

[UNGN]

Welcome aboard!
Nice to see you and your dad both into G-body cars. Along with the good advise you were given, I would also consider getting a donor roof...or a complete donor Lemans for that matter and cut the roof off. Considering what you said about using fiberglass...don't do it. You'll be sorry.
It also depends on the overall condition of the car. How is the frame, doors, quarters, floors, etc.? You might luck out and find a good shell that you could transfer all your parts over to it.
Good luck!

Exactly.

What does it look like under the moldy carpeting? If the floor is good, its worth saving in some form or another. With that much rust and moldy carpeting.. ugh. If the floor is bad... crusher.

Earlier this year there was a rust free, straight '80 Lemans Roller in Dallas that was on Craiglist for 3 months for $800.

'80 Lemans is a great car and a lot of us on here would love to have one, but not a lot of us would put $10K worth of Rust repair into one and that's before of body and paint work.

It sucks but sometimes you have to crunch the numbers and make a list of what you have and what you'd need and sometimes you find out its better to strip it and send it to the crusher. I had to do this with a $1,000 '70 big bad blue 360 4 speed go pack Javelin. Sure I could have fixed all the rust and had $30K and 2 years of my life in a car that would eventually be worth $30K, or I could part it out, make a little money on the parts or use them on other projects and spend the money on better cars to work with.

 

[MrSony]

Man, that thing is in rough shape. As others have said, if that is the only rust on the car, it may be worth saving. But if the frame, rockers, and or trunk are gone, I'd say it's not worth messing with. Sell it off to a guy that makes derby cars, if they'd even buy it.

 

[pagrunt]

1. Might be good tolook at a Malibu for the roof (with A, B, & C pilars) if everything else is sound. If the damage was just to the front maybe a T top conversion depending on the skill of those who can help (so you know there was never T tops in a LeMans.)

 

[TURNA]

I love the LeMans the best out of all the GBodys but that thing need a lot of work.

I would like to see it fixed but you might want to pass on it being it is your first GBody.

I just passed on 2 that were in better shape.

 

[Longroof79]

I too am a fan of the Lemans body style and uniqueness of the Pontiac G-bodys. Parts are a little harder to obtain, compared to the Malibu, Monte Carlo, or Cutlass.

Where are you located? You could try contacting Kent aka Grandamman. He might be able to help you with parts or steer you in the right direction.

 

[Lovingood99]

Wow. That's a lot of rust! When you mentioned fixing "the holes" I assumed you were talking about making the repair directly to the vinyl top. That may be what MrSony was thinking as well. Regardless, it's good that you ripped that old water trap of a top off and found the real damage. (I always distrust vinyl tops.) A lot of guys have had to fix vinyl top rot on here. If they don't chime in, you can probably find some good threads about it. AFAIK, most guys patch the roof with sheetmetal, which is probably far better than fiberglass for structural integrity. I've never done it or even researched it, so I can't weigh-in.

Also, welcome to the sight! I'm only 5 years older than you and joined when I was 3 years younger than you, so I can relate!

Sweet man! Thanks a ot for the help. Sheet metal is a good idea but I'm worried about taking the windshield out because I don' know if I could get it back in

 

[Lovingood99]

Welcome to the forum. It's good to see a younger guy getting into G Bodies. Looks like you've got a lot of rust on that LeMans. It's gonna take a lot of work to fix it right. It's a big job but it can be done at home. Check out this thread: https://gbodyforum.com/threads/project-olds-cool-updated-10-28-17-more-progress.62181/

Donovan, the owner of the car in the thread I linked, covers a lot of metal work in that thread. There are several guys on here who've done repairs similar to what your car needs. I'm sure you can find some guidance and help on here.

What are your plans for the car?

My plans are to restore it to its former glory. Show it off and fix it as I go. I want to bring it back. You.know??

 

[565bbchevy]

My plans are to restore it to its former glory. Show it off and fix it as I go. I want to bring it back. You.know??

You might be best to start off with taking some welding classes.