What happened to this roof?

[surfbus23]

My project bus is a 1972 panel van. It came entirely bone stock with only two modifications: 1) A big plexiglass roof had been installed. 2) A couple of windows had been hacked into the side. They very much hurt the value of the bus, but I kind of like them and it makes it unique. Anyway, point is that everything else I've removed so far has been stock. It also had a single paint job at some point.

I'm baffled by this strange cut and weld in the roof however. Basically, there is a very strange job of overlapping sheet metal in the roof. It's very noticeable at the spot pictured below.

So looking at this, it looks like someone did a bad job welding in a patch. Like there was a rectangle hole and their solution was rather than make a good weld they just layered another piece of metal on top and called it good. Now this breaks down as a theory because when you follow the bottom weld right you come across this.

What happened here? There really isn't any evidence of someone just putting a patch on top. I'll post a couple of overall photos, but what you can't really see here is that I was chemically stripping the car, so any areas with factory metal still retained their original phosphating. That coating is retained for the upper half of this area where you would expect it if someone had patched in a rectangular piece.

Here's another thing. This is identically done on the other side of the bus. Exactly the same. Here is the other side.

Also of note is the welds. Big circular ones. Not sure what that means, but they are on both sides, but there is only a single row of them at the bottom.

Since there is a bit hole in the roof where the plexiglass gets installed here is a cross section of the overlap and a picture of the inside. Again, hard to see, but the overlap looks awfully intentional with the metal on either side seeming to be pressed with a curved indentation rather than just laid on top of each other.

That's about as good as I can explain it. Very confusing. Can anyone shed some light on this mystery for me?

Thanks,

K

[notchboy]

Is he why as important as the fix? I ask as one is speculation the other is a path to resolution.

Where do you really want to go?

They did it because a man in a tin hat told them to. It was the best resolution to a rotten, slider roof problem.

Or the PO saw a pic of a bay window bus in an old "Any Which way You Can" move and said - Hey! I want my bus to look like that.
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[surfbus23]

I'm very interested in the fix. I figured understanding how it got this way would help me see the fix, but I'll take either piece of information or both together.

What did the slider roof look like in this area? Any pictures? I've tied to track them down but no luck.

Thanks so much!

[KentABQ]

[surfbus23]

Ok. How about this. Does anyone know what the dimple where the overlap originally came from?

I can't figure out where to make a good cut because I can only find one edge where the overlap is. Which is why I was interested if anyone had any thoughts on how this was made.

[busdaddy]

Bay roof skins have a stiffener rib pressed in ~ 1/2 way back, could that be what you are seeing?

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[TDCTDI]

It looks like someone "repaired" it, either due to rust damage or something fell on it.
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Everybody born before 1975 has a story, good, bad, or indifferent, about a VW.


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Do something, anything, to your project every day, and you will eventually complete it.

[Manfred58sc]

I have an entire good roof if you would rather go that way, its going to be tough to fix that one. PM me for details
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Fat chick owner/operator