Hi there!
Today I finished striping the roof of my capri to bare metal. A long time ago I noticed that some zones of the roof flex, will this lead to paint cracks in the future? After striping all the paint I noticed that the roof is completely dentless not even a little dent!!!!! Without the pain I can see that the roof as never been repaired, what could cause that flex in some zones of the roof?

António Costa

from Portugal

Do you mean that you can push down the roof and when you let release it pops back up? If so, this is normal on many cars. Panels are just not supported that well.

Be careful when you block sand the fill primer and you let the sandpaper do the cutting and do not press down to sand the primer or you will be blocking it in the dented position.

Now if the panel is so flimsy that it pops in and out pretty much on its own then you might need to do some shrinking on the panel to firm it up. But based on what you are saying I think you are OK.

It's that way it happens. Its good to know that its normal to happen. Thank you for the help. I was a little worried about it... but if you say that its normal. There is no reason to be worried.


António Costa
from Portugal

Some cars are better than others. Its not unusual to find some with very flat sections that will pop in and out.

Rich

CM what you are referring to is called oil canning.. it happens when the metal has stretched in that area and is secured in all corners.. Really it is best to shrink the metal. There are several different methods to doing this, torches, shrinking disk, shrinking hammers, etc.... It may be a task you wish to embark on and it may be one you wish to leave alone and work around.. It is up to you..

Matthew

BondoKing, I think that it would be a mistake to shrink the metal, for what I've noticed today the problem is that the panel is not well supported,like rrmccabe said. I don't think that shrinking the metal woul solve the problem. I remember that when the VW golf IV was released (1998) a friend of mine bought one and when he was washing it he noticed the same thing happening to the roof, so when he started to try to press with his hand the roof on others Vw Golfs that he saw parked on the street he noticed that all add the same problem, the roof is badly supported on that cars as it is on my 74' Capri.
So I must agree with rrmccabe about the panel beeeing badly supported.
Thank you all for your help and sorry for my bad english.

António Costa
from Portugal