Top Chop Help!!!! Need Advice

[jmlcolorado]

Okay guys........ the newby is asking for advice from the more experianced here.

Apparently i did something wrong, and i think i tacked the roof up with it a little tweaked.

Seems the driver side (where i split the front and back) has about 1 1/2" difference in height. The passenger side has about 1/2" to 3/4"

The following photos show the problem.

My question is, whats the best way to correct this problem?!

I am guessing i will need to do a number of relief cuts in a section to slowly make them meet right?

The passanger side im not super concerned about but the driver side has me very worried. I really REALLY dont want to make any cuts in the rear of the cab where the perfect dome shape is which works in my favor since i think i need to bring the front down to meet the back.

MAN this is gonna suck!

Everything else has matched up so well. I already have the door channel installed and in a good place. I really dont want to cut those again to readjust.

EVERYONES opinion is welcome here. The more the marrier

P.S. the last photo shows a head on view which shows exactly how bad this problem is. I dont like this view one bit.

I have tried leading (without lead) on my gas tank on the bike i built and it turned out very well. But its rather expensive and it would take TONS to make this LOOK right. Lead will only be an option once the major correcting is dont to get a final look.

HELP!!!!!

 

[jmlcolorado]

After checking measurements, the drivers side is only about 3/4" difference.
The passenger side is only 1/4" which is very workable.

I think part of my problem is i might have split the front and rear too far back and still have a little radius where i need to install the fill panel. I wonder if i cut about 8" forward of the origional "goof cut" and move my patch piece forward it might help correct this a little bit.

Is my thinking wrong here?

I can post more photos if you guys need a better view of something.

Thanks in advance.

 

[sneakysnake]

You may have the roof pushed the driver side a little and humping it up.I ran into the same thing because I had squeezed the A pillars a little, I had cut small reliefs in the windshield. The results was a hump in the roof when I tryed to join the back half to the front. So my solution was to make two more relief cuts to take the "hump" out of the front piece. Worked real well.

 

[jmlcolorado]

You may have the roof pushed the driver side a little and humping it up.I ran into the same thing because I had squeezed the A pillars a little, I had cut small reliefs in the windshield. The results was a hump in the roof when I tryed to join the back half to the front. So my solution was to make two more relief cuts to take the "hump" out of the front piece. Worked real well.

Thats what i was thinking i needed to do. Im affraid ill need some super long cuts and quite a few in order to get them to meet right.

I like the setup you had there. What are those clamps you are using called? Are those the things they use in avaiation applications?
Looks like you had some heavy steel underneath to support everything?

 

[cantwell.colton]

if it were me id look it over real good- tack in a strip pretty well - the heat and beat lol - but heating up metal and pounding the crap out of it makes me feel like a man - the relief cuts are probably a better idea [S

 

[sneakysnake]

The clamps are called Cleco's
http://www.daggertools.com/m5_view_item.html?m5:item=DT-FAS-1

What I did was cut a bunch of 6" angle and get small C clamps. I used them to get the top the way I needed it then drilled a small hole and swapped to a cleco to hold the angle iron so I could weld in the strip.

 

[sneakysnake]

Could you post a pic of the front driver side windshield post. I would like to see what is causing it to hump.

 

[sneakysnake]

I found your build thread. What I think happpened was in the driver rear corner when it was put back in place it was stretched a little to meet the new demensions on the back wall which caused the roof to want to flatten making the front roof way more humped. I dont have a easy fix, its liking trying to smooth a wrinkle, what you do in one place effects another.You may try clamping the roof in place to force the hump then cut both sides front to bring it down and the rear to bring it up.

 

[jmlcolorado]

I found your build thread. What I think happpened was in the driver rear corner when it was put back in place it was stretched a little to meet the new demensions on the back wall which caused the roof to want to flatten making the front roof way more humped. I dont have a easy fix, its liking trying to smooth a wrinkle, what you do in one place effects another.You may try clamping the roof in place to force the hump then cut both sides front to bring it down and the rear to bring it up.

I understand what your saying and i could see how that could have happened. These internationals, the windshield frame is bolted to the roof (weird) so one i cut the whole roof off, i built the windsheild frame first, then the front sections and bolted them up. Then moved to the drivers rear. At this point, everything lined upwell. The last section was the passengr side rear. That section i had to push and pull to make the door channel line up. I even had to take an extra 1/2" out to make that side button up.
I could see where that would make the passenger side buckel a bit bit the odd thing is, the passenger side is very close. Its the driver side thats so far off and that side i literally set the roof on and tacked it.

I think im going to make a bunch of slices in the drivers front section to bring it down to meet the back. kinda sucks since all this is reinstalled by trillions of tack welds. Lesson learned i guess.

I like the clecos ides. I have some of the corner clecos but i think im gonna go get some of the field ones to help hold everything in place.

 

[sneakysnake]

Here are a few more pics of mine to show the problems I had too.LOL It started at the front window and I had to chase that wrinkle all the way to my back window.LOL

 

[jmlcolorado]

Well, i went out to the garage on friday night to show my buddy my problem, when suddenly the motivation overpowered me. I got an idea. I grabbed the grinder and started "fixing the problem"

I think it ended up okay.

Got both sides to line up pretty well i think [cl

 

[sneakysnake]

Well I dont see a bunch of scars so I assume you persuaded it into shape.LOL

 

[jmlcolorado]

It turned out pretty well. Ended up with a "V" in the middle of the roof fro front to back but nothing i cant fix with lead. My biggest concern was the radius over the doors which i got pretty dang close.