WE expected rust but got more than we bargained for, so the decision was taken that there would be NO rivets on the new skin and it would not require a 40K paint job. That pretty much left one contender, fibreglass, The front and rear cap were fibreglass anyway, although they had been sprayed with 2 pack paint that was very difficult to remove. Our local fibreglass guy does lots of horse float roofs and bodies so we cut the roof off and shipped it to him where he tried out his various profiles on it, until he came up with one that was almost made for it.. Horse floats are of course not as long as VP so the roof was made in several sections and joined in the mould. Then they put it back on the steel roof ribs and shipped it back where we fitted it up. The sides are simply flat panels, shaped around the curve as they were fitted and the roof fitted over them. Lastly the front and rear caps were put back on and joined to the roof and the sides. I was lucky to have the assistance of a guy very experienced in fibreglass so the end result was pretty good, only a couple of tiny cracks over the whole vehicle which he soon fixed up. Big deep joins are the secret when joining fibreglass, when you try and skimp, that’s when the problems start. Some vehicles have cracked by the time the owner drives them home.
It will be a big gallery of pictures.
