As I removed the various panels it became obvious that every one of them needed at least some panel beating and for some, that was considerable. The worst seemed the roof. The original roof was torn, holed and dented in many places where spotlights had once been fitted, cargo had slipped, or people had sat and jumped on the roof. The seller had sourced another slightly better roof. Better only in the sense it wasn't torn or holed, but it did suffer multiple complex dents. I carted the roof around at least six different panel beaters and got much the same response. "Mate, I've been in the trade 30 years and you'll never get that straight. Find a new one". Well most old Land Rovers seemed to have a bent roof and new roofs weren't looming up on the internet at any price. With the benefit of Youtube I found it wasn't impossible to heat and shrink dents in Aluminium with a gas torch, wet rag, block of wood and a mallet. After a few hours careful learning, I was able to shrink many of the obvious dents but the result still wasn't acceptable. After asking around I found a car restoration shop with a device called an English Wheel. A giant G-clamp type device with rollers. After an hour with Gerard the expert, and me as offsider, wheeling the roof backwards and forwards through the rollers we had what I thought was an acceptable result for a rebuild. I was warned though, to paint the roof in a flat version of the traditional "Limestone" colour rather than a gloss version to masque the remaining defects. I also found Dave, a panel beater who had sold his premises to retire, and was taking on small jobs until settlement. He straightened both wings and painted them once I had sourced the traditional "Dove Grey" coloured two pack paint. Dave also cut out some corroded steel in the driver's footwell and welded in a suitable patch. After I removed the firewall and had it sandblasted Dave repainted it in the original dove grey. A word of warning around longevity of panel repairs is that the magnesium alloy (Burmabright) metal on the series Land Rover panels should not be hammered or filed with tools used on steel panels. Small embedded particles of steel would cause corrosion in the aluminium and so aluminium-only tools must be used. Dave duly retired, and after further searching I found a moderately priced panel shop to straighten and paint the bonnet, doors,
seatbox, back-of-cab, back window panel, the various floor panels, and after sandblasting, the wheels. Panel beating and professional painting, at around $6,000, proved to be the second most expensive component (after engine overhaul) of my rebuild project.
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