LANDAU/CARRIAGE TOP NIGHTMARE

[Bobbysdad]

HELP!! I just bought a 03 town car carrier with a landau top. it was completely shredded from sitting in the desert for years. we removed the vinal and hardware completely stripped down to the fiberglass shell. TONS OF RUST DAMAGE!! but the cost to recover it is so expensive. has anyone ever primed and painted the shell and trim pieces? I've got primer on it now and bought the best fiberglass paint I could afford I'm just afraid it's going to not look right or cheap looking or " look he painted the roof of his car" .I need this car to survive and wasn't counting on this let alone the high cost of just making look good. any ideas or paint tips or how to recover it with canvas for not a lot of money would be so appreciated..thank you.

 

[Action]

There is not a cheap or easy solution no matter what direction you take.

The least amount of money would be to remove all of the carriage roof and PREP & paint the metal.
Know that it will involve a lot of work because the carriage roof is glued down. Some removal of the interior headliner will be needed as well.

Painting the carriage roof piece is usually not a long term solution. And it will look odd. The carriage roof was not made to handle exposure. The cover was designed for that.

There is not a solution that does not cost a lot.
Hopefully there is no rust on the metal roof at the joints


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[Bobbysdad]

There is not a cheap or easy solution no matter what direction you take.

The least amount of money would be to remove all of the carriage roof and PREP & paint the metal.
Know that it will involve a lot of work because the carriage roof is glued down. Some removal of the interior headliner will be needed as well.

Painting the carriage roof piece is usually not a long term solution. And it will look odd. The carriage roof was not made to handle exposure. The cover was designed for that.

There is not a solution that does not cost a lot.
Hopefully there is no rust on the metal roof at the joints


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Not exactly what I wanted to hear but your right. problem also is rust at the joints front window and all along both sides of rubber door jam. I spent everything I had to buy this car last week and it runs great but never expected this. if if had it re covered vinal or canvas is the rust abatement and repair something I could do with no experience or is it only a body shop. I think I'm seriously going to get sick...or just walk away from it and loose the 3500.00 I saved for a year. any more suggestions would be appreciated. and thank you for your honesty.

 

[oktowncar]

Not exactly what I wanted to hear but your right. problem also is rust at the joints front window and all along both sides of rubber door jam. I spent everything I had to buy this car last week and it runs great but never expected this. if if had it re covered vinal or canvas is the rust abatement and repair something I could do with no experience or is it only a body shop. I think I'm seriously going to get sick...or just walk away from it and loose the 3500.00 I saved for a year. any more suggestions would be appreciated. and thank you for your honesty.

You can do all the prep work and repairs to save lots of money. There are websites online like topsonline.com that sells the materials.
Do your research by watching self-repair videos on Youtube and other sites and you can do the job yourself

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[Action]

To answer your question and tag on to the above, you can do it all your self.
Even done poorly it is all going to be covered with top material or paint.
It is the last step of the top material or color coat that requires a high level of skill to produce a pleasing result. The rest is just prep to that point.

DO fix any rust! Once the roof is covered, fixing rust is a very expensive do over.
Not sure POR15 is a good choice for this application. If it is, that coating takes out some skill level to stop rust from spreading.

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[Bobbysdad]

To answer your question and tag on to the above, you can do it all your self.
Even done poorly it is all going to be covered with top material or paint.
It is the last step of the top material or color coat that requires a high level of skill to produce a pleasing result. The rest is just prep to that point.

DO fix any rust! Once the roof is covered, fixing rust is a very expensive do over.
Not sure POR15 is a good choice for this application. If it is, that coating takes out some skill level to stop rust from spreading.

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Thank you very much , one last question does any company sell the landau top kits already precut to my car that includes all the welting etc? and what do you suggest as a under padding that's not going to be a sponge under the new top. water is going to get in there no matter what I have a feeling and keeping it dry is my only concern. and if I can't afford to do this redo project what should I do ? just remove the fiberglass completely and save it and then I have rust cancer holes ..I wish I could just go drive it back out in the desert here and walk away. I'm so depressed and discouraged and broke, all the happiness I had for the first two days is been eaten away by this cancer we call rust!!

 

[Action]

I know of no kits. The carriage roof option is not common in the world of vehicles. And Lincoln is not a high unit production vehicle.

If there is metal perforation in the roof you do have the nightmare as the entire headliner needs to come out versus just some of the edges.
Pretty sure the repair will exceed the purchase price.

Body and paint are not my area of experience. I have done small repair jobs and farmed out the paint.
This is not that.

As to what underlayment. I have seen guys in other forums do this vary kind of repair and had a discussion about material.
I think I saw that on another Lincoln Forum. Called "The Lincoln Forum". It was a big site with far more repair threads than this site. Geared at Lincolns of the 60s and 70s. The problem is the Forum owner. Due to lack of updating that forum works poorly and crashes frequently. There is only a little moderation so a lot of off topic posting. The Forum owner acknowledges the site needs updates installed however he is lacking in funds and time. He refuses to have advertisement that would fund the updates. And only collects donations. He thinks advertisement on a forum is just wrong. (It fills a need)
Anyway there is a thread there somewhere a guy took off a padded roof of a 70s Continental four door. Did roof repairs and then use a better material under the new top. However finding the thread will be a problem.


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