New roof after hailstorm C5X7

[Bounce]

Hey guys.

Thanks for a Great group.
In the summer We visit Italy and was hit by a huge Hailstorm, which
have damaged my car. Most of the roof looks like the moon now.

Have anyone tried to chance a roof on a C5X7 station car before?

Hope to get somebody’s history! Photos and so.

I guess I will be cheaper to have this done, instead of use a lot of time on PDR-work. I’m very happy for my car, so I will do a lot to save the life of the car.

Have a great time.

Thanks.

[MattBLancs]

Gosh! Interested in seeing any pictures.

I've the big glass roof on mine so very much it would survive or smash into a billion pieces in that scenario.

Roof replacement is a pretty rare task I'd think so not sure you'll find anyone with experience to share.

In similar situation (assuming I did not have a glass roof) I think I'd be skimming over the worst with filler and sanding that before repainting - but to be honest not sure the scale of the damage you have to contend with

[bobins]

The process for replacing the roof panel does feature in the workshop manual, but not sure you'd actually be able to buy a new roof panel.
There's various steps to replacing it - here's a few for info, though as you can imagine, there's an awful lot more to this process than I've illustrated here.

Roof weld locations - PSA / Stellantis

Roof weld clean - PSA / Stellantis

Roof adhesive - PSA / Stellantis

Roof initial MAG weld - PSA / Stellantis

Roof spot weld - PSA / Stellantis

[myglaren]

One option:-

Vinyl roof cover

Rather dated though.

[wheeler]

The process for replacing the roof panel does feature in the workshop manual, but not sure you'd actually be able to buy a new roof panel.

The metal roof panel is available as a separate part but in the UK its £591 before tax.
If paying for labour & painting it would likley write the car off 4 or 5 times over.

[PaulC5]

The best thing would be to go to a car bodyshop and get them to advise on a repair and the costs. They may be able to reshape the existing roof and then paint it again. Have you considered an insurance claim ?

[Jay-Bruce]

To be completely honest with you, this sounds like a job for panel beating and body filler, it's simply not economically viable to replace the roof skin on these cars.

Start off by getting a Dual Aaction/Random Orbital sander, and the appropriate fitment, 5/16th UNC, m6, m8, m14 etc thread of flexible foam backing pad for it, maybe get two of them as there's a lot of sanding in this process. You'll also need panel beating "dollies" (metal formers to hammer against), and for best results and least frustration, a couple of different profiled hammers, such as a dome faced hammer, and a shrinking hammer. A shrinking hammer has a spiral pattern on the face and twists the metal, tightening it up, counteracting the wa the metal stretched in the dent. You'll also want a variety of flexible scrapers / spreaders to apply the fillers. I recommend getting an "onion board" for mixing up your fillers, this is a pad of waxed paper glued at both ends, mix filler on one layer, apply it, when tear off the top layer of the onion board and voila, a fresh waxed paper to mix the next batch on, etc etc. Get a stanly scraper, this takes stanley knife blades, and is awesome at scraping filler off of spreaders/applicators. Don't be greedy with your working time on fillers, it's far too easy to ruin a good pass of filler chasing the last 5% of finesse to the shape when it's on the slump (curing), only to drag stones, or smear the surface. It's genuinely better to leave it rough, sand it, and apply more and sand that to shape than trying to get it right with the applicator.

Remove the headlining, use panel beating "dollies" (metal formers to hammer against) to hammer out the craters, and also a "shrinking hammer to take out any high spots, reform the roof to something approximating smooth, don't worry about getting it perfect, you're only roughly shaping it at this point. Don't chase perfection with the hammering, stop when you feel like you're encountering deminisihing returns on your efforts.

Now ravage the roof with something course like 40 or 80 grit to remove the old paint, and any polishes it may be contaminated with, as well as giving the metal a textured "Key" for the fillers to stick to.

Then skim with a quick sanding filler, such as U-POL Easy-1, sand it with a DA (Dual Action / Random Orbital) sander and a relatively coarse disc at say 120 grit, again, don't worry about getting it perfect, you're only roughly shaping it at this point.

Next step is to repeat this process, skim the roof with an easy sanding filler and sand it, but with a finer disc at say 240 grit, don't worry about getting it perfect, but you want it to be half decent after this pass, you're still only shaping it, albeit to a closer profile at this point...

Now, to chase the smoothness, sparingly use a smoother filler such as Top-Stop to fill in any low spots, such as pinholes, sanding texture etc, but skim the entire roof with this you're being super economical with this stuff as it's a b*tch to sand, and trying to sand through unnecessarily thick coats of this could see you digging into the filler underneath, undoing earlier work.

WETsand the entire roof with a finer disc, say 400 grit.

If you're chasing perfection, super-sparingly skim the roof with "Dolphin Glaze", and I mean sparingly, you're wanting it to be little more than wetted with filler, but the good news is that IIRC Dolphin Glaze sands easier than Top Stop. Finally WETsand this coat with 400/800 grit.

Now we're moving to paint, so clean thoroughly with IsoPropalAlchohol and clean rags / tissue, and spray it with two coats of a high build primer, flatten this back with 400grit wet sanding on the DA sander. If you sand through to filler, spray it again, and sand again.

At this point you might want to wimp out, and get a bodyshop to paint it for you, probably looking at SITRO £90 to £200 for a panel getting sprayed by a shop depending where you live and who you go to. If you're going to do it all yourself, you're now ready for the appropriate coloured primer, just one coat to give the paint something to pop against.

Now move onto 2x coats of "basecoat" (colour), DO NOT SAND the base coat, or you'll ruin the metallic effect.

Top the colour/base coat with 2x coats of clear, and wet sand this back with 800 grit.

Once it's dry, clean it with cloths and IPA or alternatively use the more expensive "panel wipes".

Follow this with a 3rd coat of clear, and wet sand it with 2000 grit on a hand block.

Once it's dry, clean it with cloths and IPA or alternatively use the more expensive "panel wipes".

Now you're ready to polish it with a super fine compound and a polishing sponge on your DA.

This process is undoubtedly labourious, but it will give you a show car level finish, and the roof will likely be the best painted panel on your car. You can skip some of these stages depending on where your threshold for quality/practicality is.

Going through with the repair I've described above has got some pros and cons over changing the panel skin, one is it saves over £600 on a skin, I mean even filling it yourself, and getting a bodyshop to spray it is going to be cheaper than buying a roof skin, let alone having it fitted professionaly. You can also use the same techniques to address any other hail damage on say wings, bonnet, doors etc. Another advantage is that you don't have to completely strip the interior or go raj with fireblankets to not burn the interior trim with spatter as you run a welding torch on the inside of the car's cabin, another is that you're extremely unlikely to accidentally set the car on fire as hot weld or spatter finds a path to something flammable like seam sealer/sound deadening material etc. Filling and sanding is an easier skill to learn than welding, and wouldnt require you to buy specialist equipment such as welding machine, mask, gloves, fire blankets, angle grinder, wire wheels, cutting, grinding, and flapper discs for the grinder. no chance of burning adjacent panels as you weld, or getting grinding sparks embedded in glass of windows / windscreen. You are also less likely to disturb the body's rigidity and alignmnet simply by panelbeating filling and sanding it as you could do if you were to remove a massive structural component, like a roof.

Even when you install a new roof panel, about half the steps outlined above still need to be done to finesse it in, and paint it.

Although, it must be said that I was maybe being somewhat panglosstic about the merits of filling the roof, as it would likely be quicker to change the roof skin than do all of the above, it would also not entail half the mess that so much sanding and filling is going to create, and replacing the roof could be an opportunity to retrofit a panoramic glass roof or sunroof from a donor car in a breakers yard. depending if you have an estate or hatchback, and which you'd prefer, ssealed panoramic glass roof or an opening sunroof?

[Gibbo2286]

A common problem in Australia and the body guys fix them, not sure if they're ready for that over here but I'd look round for a competent body man myself. amazing what some can do.

[Michel]

Bit of filler to smooth it out, vinyl wrap for the entire roof in a colour of your choice. Job done, job also cheap. The dented roof isn't a structural/safety issue, it'll cost a bloody fortune to sort properly. I'm all for a bit of a bodge as long as it looks decent and you're open about it should you ever sell the car privately.