MY FIRST G-BODY

[Lovingood99]

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.

The roof is the only thing that' awful. I just have to get the transmission done and suspension done and I can drive it. It' A shame that a car that once looked beautiful has been so negated and abused but I still want to drive it even if I have to replace the roof. I work at a body shop so that kinda works in my favor.

 

[Lovingood99]

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

Yeah I work at a body shop so I'll try to learn as much as I can

 

[565bbchevy]

The roof is the only thing that' awful. It's a shame that a car that once looked beautiful has been so negated and abused but I still want to drive it even if I have to replace the roof.

The problem was mainly with the vinyl top installs, many were poorly prepped and they have the tendency to retain moisture which you can see is very bad for the underlying metal. Many times the damage is already done before there are outward signs of a problem.

 

[565bbchevy]

Yeah I work at a body shop so I'll try to learn as much as I can

Hopefully there are some guys there that can mentor you and have done things like this before, that would be a big help.

 

[Lovingood99]

The problem was mainly with the vinyl top installs, many were poorly prepped and they have the tendency to retain moisture which you can see is very bad for the underlying metal. Many times the damage is already done before there are outward signs of a problem.

Very true

 

[Lovingood99]

The problem was mainly with the vinyl top installs, many were poorly prepped and they have the tendency to retain moisture which you can see is very bad for the underlying metal. Many times the damage is already done before there are outward signs of a problem.

Very true

Hopefully there are some guys there that can mentor you and have done things like this before, that would be a big help.

Yeah. I' going to try my hardest to learn..maybe they'll teach me in my car.

 

[Wageslave]

My inclination is to save it, BUT find a whole car as a donor.

If body on yours looks good other than the roof, you might be money ahead to find a similar year Malibu and steal its top or put all the Pontiac parts on the Malibu body. The top swap would probably be easier though. If you did get a donor, definitely look for a non vinyl top car so you will have all the trim to remove it permanently.

 

[Lovingood99]

My inclination is to save it, BUT find a whole car as a donor.

If body on yours looks good other than the roof, you might be money ahead to find a similar year Malibu and steal its top or put all the Pontiac parts on the Malibu body. The top swap would probably be easier though. If you did get a donor, definitely look for a non vinyl top car so you will have all the trim to remove it permanently.

Of course I want to save it. I can' really afford another donner car but if I can cut the top off one in a junkyard then that' what I'll do. It would be much easier than fixing it with sheet metal. Either way, I might have to have a professional get the job done.

 

[307 Regal]

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

As it turns out, there are windshield specialists out there these days. Some even come to your house for the job. I would try to find one and have it removed with their help, leave it out until the roof is repaired, and then call them back up.
A buddy and I tried to take the windshield out of his Mazdaspeed Protege using a guitar string to cut the seal. We cut the windshield. O_O
Luckily we were replacing it with a polycarbonate one that he made.

 

[565bbchevy]

As far as the windshield I would remove it myself and have a windshield installer come out and install a brand new one, the difference in clarity will be night and day if that is the original one.