Roof skin removal, anyone done it?

Ok, I have another one for you guys today. Anyone ever remove the roof skin on there car? If so, did you just dill out all the spot welds and it comes off or are there leaded in seems like on a fox stang? I'm going to be doing a good cage it would make life easier getting it fitted and welded properly. Oh its an 88, not sure if the early ones are different?

Thanks,

Jeff

You can do a good fitting cage without removing the roof.

If you decide to remove the roof, make sure the car is braced and perfectly level because the roof is a large part of the rigidity of the vehicle and you could cause the car to twist or sag. Not worth the headache.

Yea a cage can be done in the car

I have seen cages done in cars 3 ways. Make mounting blocks that raises the cage off the floor of the car. Remove the blocks so you can drop the cage down to weld in the halo, cut holse in the floor of the car so you can drop the cage through the floor to do the same thing. When your done lift the cage back up slide your plates under the tubes and weld it to the floor. The cleanest way to build and weld the thing in where you want it is to cut the roof off. Can it be done the first 2 ways, yes. I have time on my side and want the best possible finished product my budget and skill will allow. Also planning through the floor upper subframe connectors before I remove the roof. The car already has normal subframe connectors. It should be fine.

Ok, just to let everyone know, I'm not removing the roof skin now. So you wont see that in my build thread. I went through the rule book again and it blew up my plans. I had planned to install a chrome molly cage because you could run smaller tubes that are thinner and it would save weight. That cage would have to be TIG welded in. I don't have a TIG and would have to pay someone to do it. So removing the roof skin would let me tack the whole cage in and then let my TIG guy just show up and go to town on welding the thing together. More work for me but would have saved me a lot of money. Well NASA has of the 2014 rules update no longer give you a weight break with chrome molly. You have to run the same size tubes weather its DOM or molly. So long story short. There is no point in using molly, DOM can be mig welded witch I can do and put the cage together with the roof on. The cage is also cheaper and I don't have to pay someone else to do it. So I guess I'm better off even though the car will be heavier.

rollcagecomponents.com

done in VA, if you haven't purchased yet

I removed the skin on my AI car to get rid of the sunroof. was a lot of work, the sides are easy to just drill out the spot welds but along the frond and rear windows was a pia. anyway, I didn't think NASA ever allowed chrome molly, or at least I thought they suggested against it due to the difficulty welding

anyone have pics of an installed cage from "rollcagecomponents.com"? looking to buy a prebent cage for my '83 TC