Upgrade of the upgrade handbrake lever

Getting back to the roof panel, I did some more trimming being confident the front part of the roof doesn't need to there anymore.

Some bad bare metal fire rust, all this will be sand blaster clean and treated with non wash off rust converter

Now that the donor roof is starting to blend in to the Escort roof... Or what's left of it, I have also trimmed back the rear of the Nissan roof as it's got too much of a curve so I'll be raiding the back half of the spare escort roof but not taking to much as the front half is for the van/Ute conversion later on .

I welded a support bar in to stop any change in height or angle, will do the same or more at the rear if required.
On a different note, I've finally got my 4x4 Ute on historic reg for the next 3yrs , $230 for 3yrs beats $310 per quarter, tho I can only drive it for 100 days in a given year, that's way more than I will use so I'm pleased with the outcome.

Last week I did the sandblasting of the inner pillars and around the back quarter window opening. After a couple of refills of garnet I called it a day. The next day I hoovered up the shed floor and in the car, rolling it to pull out as much garnet as possible. Then I gave all the bare metal rust treatment which made the steal go all black.

Had a day to do some more on the roof panel this weekend, I did some panel beating along the edges to keep things in line.
First off I placed the sunroof back on the Escort and pinned it with cleco locks at the front windscreen edge, this way I know it's pretty straight mounted and just nudge it into place. I did a side measure and rear, it came up within 2mm so that's where it'll be set.

Ah, your thinking, but the thickness of the extra panel will not be a good look.. all good, one got a air joggler /hole punch, what this does is step the panel down about a mm so the letting in panel will blend in smoother.
However, my joggler has been sitting a while and lost a bunch of hyd fluid and wasn't squeezing much, all I had was auto trans fluid to do the job and worked a treat

And here is the job it does, it's easy better than the manual joggler I've had for ever.
You can clearly see the step down it created without much effort at all..



Next on the list is to smooth it all out and get it blended as best I can and then it's cut the other Escort roof rear section to fit in..

This is a pic of where the new skin meets the old burnt and rusted skin. I used a length of angle to prop up the roof skin more level a bit later on

Panels plug welded together and linished smooth, I took my time doing this as it can buckle the panels from heat as much as welding can.


I haven't done the front leading edge yet , just ran out of time to tackle it, next weekend's job. I do need to look at a previous crinkle on the left rear of the sunroof corner, as there's all inner frame brackets there I don't think beating it out will be able to be done, so I'm thinking to cut out most of it and make a new piece to go in.
Here is the inside panel showing the welding penetrated plenty good..

There was some areas where I blew holes in the panel so went back and crept up on them with the welder which looks like I've tacked the edge of the new roof to the old one in the joggler groove.
Answer to the fully weld the gap is definately overkill and risky of warping the panel more, this isn't needed and the panel now is much stronger than the original 1 skin roof. I'll be lobbing a length of filler over the seam but will use sika on the inside seam.

When I started welding I began at the front and worked back plugging every 2nd hole , this also reduces the likelihood of the middle starting to lift. If the panel is going to move (from heat) it's free to do so without causing ripples... It did move about 1mm over the length cause the back cleco was almost stuck in there !!

Hello peoples, I'm back.. winter is over and so is the demon flu I had for nearly 2wks. Also September seems there's the most birthdays per capita !
Anywhat, I got a jar on enthusiasm and went in the shed to tackle the next part of the roof carnage.
This green roof is panel is from an old 4dr Rally car I chopped up over 10yrs ago, now it's going to be used (half used) .

It had a bunch of Redback spiders living in the cavities which got me checking my shoes frequently for 8 legger angrys.
Back to the roof, I first measured the cars roof for where to cut it away and then add a decent amount to the donor panel.
Here you can see the chalk string line I used to cut along.

This is the roof cut off the car ready for the new skin to be let in. Kinda looks funny with a panoramic roof hole !


Here's the green roof skin with the cut part off

nice to see some progress again.
Im sure everyone reading along also has a spare van for storage, and a a round headlight,rched Mk1 alongside it. :)
 
Would they have been steel guards or FG?

Marty good to see some progress.
It wouldn't be the first template been made that didn't quite do the job.
But like you say, you put them aside and just hope you remember where you put it.
I'm still working on the boat but will be hitting the Escort again soon.
 

Today was carefully weld the 2x panels together, this time I tacked the green skin to the sunroof skin every inch or so cause when plug welding the sheet sometimes lifts up, tacking stops this almost completely.

Bit of a mess joining all 3 panels together but it linished back just fine.

This is when I was nearly all done welding, the only part left to weld is the back window seam, this might get done during the week

And the panels all smoothed and primed


Also need to do something with that crinkle at the corner of the sunroof, it's either cut it out and flat it or make a new piece, worry about that later...