roof cracking

[jim homick]

hi. i went to look at a 87 gn last night with my son. its a solid roof car. the roof is cracked on each side at the rear of the door glass in the usual spot. is there an effective way to repair these cracks?thanks in advance, jim

 

[mybuick]

grind the paint to bare metal and weld the crack then repaint.

 

[G NASTY]

Car was owned by a little old lady who only used it for grocery shopping right. LOL

 

[MeanBuicks]

Car was owned by a little old lady who only used it for grocery shopping right. LOL

True! And she lived only a quarter mile away from the store.

 

[UL LUZE]

Hi Jim,

Dan here.....haven't seen you around in a few years.....hope everything is good......

I'm bringing my GN in for paint this week hopefully, and the guy that is doing the job told me that he digs out all the lead on the seam (which is what cracks) and re-fills it with aluminum......said he has never had a car come back with any cracks. He does a lot of show cars, and is very fussy.

If you want his name, I can PM it to you if you like.

Dan

 

[jim homick]

hey dan, good to hear from you. thanks for replying. i would appreciate the guys name. i've got a 19 year old eager to buy a g.n.. i just want to do right by him. see you around, jim

 

[Dennis Kirban]

Roof cracking can be caused by several factors. Above advice on fixing it is correct however, once you have made the repair one helpful suggestion to keep the problem from reocuring is to install the rear seat brace kit and the front frame brace set and connecting brace. The end result is you stiffen up the body. If car already has these braces installed hey were probably installed after the cracks started to appear.

The other area cracks surface is around the door jamb area of the door striker. We and probably other places sell a reinforcement plate that stops that from getting worse.

If the car was run hard you can see other evidence of that. Usually tire shaving stuck to the rear frame rails, doors may not shut like they should. A stack of speeding tickets in the glove box would provide the written proof!

Cracks can also be caused by poor prep work when the car was assembled since morale was quite low at the plant. The Flint plant where these cars were built was shutting down after the rear wheel drive platform bit the dust.

They were not offering factory delivery like they do in Bowling Green as an option when you buy a new Corvette!


kirbanperformance.com

denniskirban@yahoo.com

Past owner of quite a number of Turbo Regals including 8 real GNXs

 

[usetaboost]

YUP! I get to do all 4 corners on my roof.

 

[bosted86]

a 19 yo with a gn. uh-oh. buy it and put it away till he 30.

 

[jim homick]

thanks to those that helped!

 

[toofastforyou]

grind the paint to bare metal and weld the crack then repaint.

X2, but install a rear seat brace to prevent it from happening again...I installed a brace (from Kenne-Bell) way back in '88 and drive and race the car every now and then and the roof never cracked...ever!

Claude :smile:

 

[usetaboost]

Never caught the 19yr old son part

I hope he's buying it himself or at least already went through "I have the fastest car in the world stage" It took me till I was 19 to actually start taking care of my vehicles and respecting them, not beating the piss out of them