Hi, I just bought a 65 skylark Gran sport the other day. It's definitely a full on project. The toughest part is going to be the roof, it was originally a vinyl top car and the roof has plenty of rot in the at top of front and rear windows and sail panels. The car came with a complete top in very good shape. The structure of the bad roof seems fine so I'm learning towards swapping skins. My question is can the roof skin and sail panel be removed and transplanted as one or would I have to melt away the old lead and seperate them, really hoping not. Curious if one or both are welded to inner structure under all the lead.
I'm not a body man so Ethan (& others) may disagree but I have cut these cars apart & put them back together. I'd personally cut/join it all where the factory did which yes, means getting rid of the lead but there's no need to put lead back in it unless you want to. There are modern fillers up to the task (I'd be curious on what the professionals would currently recommend). Congrats on your new acquisition too. Having always been into '70-72's I commend your willingness to take on a '65 project. I'd love to have one someday, but I think it'd have to be a superb example of a survivor or a done car by a known entiry.
