What's with my 72 SSP roof bracing?

[Dibbons]

Are these inside (adjacent to headliner) crossbraces supposed to be sagging down toward the floor. The rear brace is about an inch from the roof sheet metal and the forward brace about a half inch lower than the roof sheet metal. See fotos.

And one more thing, is the passenger side rear wire conduit bent down in the last foto, should be bent up like the front conduit, right? See last foto. Thank you.

 

[daytona71]

It almost looks like someone pulled down on the braces possibly to fit the insulation? Or the roof had something really heavy on it at one time. Unless bonded to the roof sheet metal, the roof may flex and be noisy.
The right rear wiring cover needs to be bent back upright

 

[badlite]

Someone has sit or stood on roof and bent inner braces.

 

[YY1]

I believe they are seam sealed to the roof from the factory.

 

[Ex_Birdgunner]

I just removed the headliner in my 71 Charger and I noticed the exact same thing. I'll post a pic in the next day or two.

 

[Dibbons]

Looks like an engineering oversight to me. I have some 3M Panel Bonding adhesive 08115 that I might try to use. The problem is getting that all cleaned up enough for it to stick.

 

[flypaper]

If you don't see any damage in the roof skin itself,
I would chalk it up to poor quality control.
You have me interested in this and i have 3 71 bbodies
That have the headlier removed.
So when i get a chance this weekend
I will check them all out and report back..

 

[idrivemopar]

The conduit should be up, like the one in front of the one that is bent down.

 

[72RoadrunnerGTX]

No, never left the factory looking like that. Something or somebody was on the roof at some point, the stringers are bent. A compound was used originally between the stringer and the roof skin to prevent rattling. Same as used between the various panel skins and inner structure, ie. Hood skins and inner support. Any bonding qualities it may have had, long since gone. Will be hard to repair as it appears body work is complete on the roof. Would need to push them back up, risk of denting the skin.

 

[vetteman91]

Mine were like that as the previous idiot that owned mine said he used the roof of the car as a workbench. What I did was cleaned up roof best as I could on inside and used a panel bonding eurethane of some sort( 3M has a lot of products that will work) and used a port-a-power to GENTLY push back up and let it set overnite on each brace to readhere to roof. Worked great.

 

[SureGrip]

Yeah, mine are bent down too....complete with dents and ones that are 'oil-canning'.

I'll have to do the clean/bond/brace process to to try and fix it.

 

[mtparker97]

What about welding them up to the roof? I mean if the car isn't painted that is. I had to skin my roof and replace but haven't decided if I should weld them up or not.

 

[SureGrip]

You have to make sure the brace is up in a natural position...same with the roof skin.

Once they are both where they should be (no stress on them) then you could weld them together.

I don't know if the weld would be worse in terms that of body flex, VS the original seam selare which might allow the skin to move independent of the roof braces.

 

[mtparker97]

You have to make sure the brace is up in a natural position...same with the roof skin.

Once they are both where they should be (no stress on them) then you could weld them together.

I don't know if the weld would be worse in terms that of body flex, VS the original seam selare which might allow the skin to move independent of the roof braces.

That's what my concern was, with the body flexing. Im sure seam sealer will be just fine.