Re: IML: Vinyl roof warning.

["jsadowski" <jsadowski@xxxxxxx>]

I have a 69 LeBaron also & those areas of rust are a little more obvious on 
my car. The vinyl at the top of the windshield is bubbling a bit with rust 
pushing up under it. I got caught in a torrential rainstorm coming back from 
a show in Vermont about 8 years ago & rain was actually running down the 
inside of the glass. I also get some water in the trunk & when I bang on the 
panel below the rear window, chunks of rust fall down. I have a new top, but 
fear this will be a costly job to have done correctly.
John
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Frederick Joslin" <fljoslin@xxxxxxxx>
To: <mailing-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, March 17, 2006 10:49 AM
Subject: IML: Vinyl roof warning.


I feel that it is appropriate to put out a warning to Imperial owners
with vinyl roofs.

My 1969 LeBaron has a vinyl roof (I know duh!). There was some obvious
rusting under the roof directly behind the windshield. Everything else as
far as I could tell was fine, no rust anywhere to the best of my
knowledge. I decided last fall to address this rust issue and pulled the
vinyl roof off. After removing the vinyl roof I discovered significant
rust under the rear window fiberglass insert all the way across the rear
deck. I also discovered rust at the top of the A pillars at a seam.
Neither of these two were obvious with the vinyl roof on. Last weekend I
started to work on repairing the roof. This involved using paint stripper
to remove the old adhesive and much of the paint on the roof. On my green
car there is a green layer of paint on top of a rust colored layer of
primer. Does anyone know if this is original? The single application of
paint stripper removed all of the remaining adhesive and usually most of
the green paint, but not the primer. The body filler in the seams at the
top of the C pillars looked in pretty good condition. Also, the body
filler continued into the seam of the fiberglass insert for about 6" on
either side covering two attachment screws on each side. It appears that
the body filler was added prior to any paint. On the edges of the filler
where it is feathered out there is a very thin layer of body filler
directly on bare steel with some surface rust present. This was removed
easily. Each seam of body filler had a crack running the entire length of
the seam. I put a filleting knife into the crack and very easily was able
to remove most of the body filler. Again, there was surface rust under
the body filler which meant that there was very little adhesion. The body
filler between the seam itself and the outer I am posting this as a
warning, because I believed that my roof was in good condition, other
than the rust directly behind the windshield. It turns out that there
was rust in three other locations, none of which were obvious with the
roof on and that the rust that was obvious will probably be the easiest
to fix.

Fred Joslin




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