With the front and rear braces in place, I was able to test fit the roof and fine tune the front and rear gaps with 1/8" welding rods welded to the edges and ground down to even out the gap.
With the roof off you can see holes of the stainless spacers that I welded into the w/s frame and rear roof pillar for the latches to lock into. The back of these spacers were welded up solid so that the latch rods would bottom out in the spacers. The rods were trimmed to just the right length so when they are bottomed out, the roof would be centered in the opening front to rear, keeping the gaps even.
The inside garnish moldings painted.
With all of the metal work done, the roof was bodyworked and primed. I blocked and primed it a couple times to get it straight. The owner had a paint shop already lined up to paint the whole car but wanted us to go ahead and paint the inside of the lift off roof so it could leave fully assembled and working. I finish welded the inside braces and original side channels, then bodyworked and primed the underside. It got blocked and primed again, then painted to match the color code provided by the owner. Not shown in the photos, but we also reworked the roof rail seal/channel and shaved the factory window opening molding.
Here's the pics of top in primer. We still had to install the front and rear glass, the complete dash, and the roof rail channels and seals.
Dead even gaps front and rear.
For the underside of the roof, I sprayed the center section semigloss black, then masked the center out and painted the edges silver.
Unmasked with one of the windshield garnish moldings.
Reassembled with polished latch pins.
