I'm with the doc here. Pre 74 cars are spot welded, so you can drill out the spot welds and remove the bad roof and bring in a newby. You can drill the laping flange (the bit where its welded on) in the same places as the old roof and the braze it on at the holes, just remember to clean off the brazing with deoxidine and then metho and then thinners to make sure you have removed all traces of the flux, otherwise you might get problems with the paint not sticking and then rusting again. But it will look 99% original. Other thing to remember, while the capilary action of the brazing does help with sealing, don't forget to seem seal it and don't accidently block up the gutter in the process, otherwise you'll need another roof!

Don't know if that applies to your mini though... Is it an SS? Did it have a spandex roof? Mine didn't have one when I bought it so I didn't have any rust to worry about. If its an SS I'd do what the doc is suggesting because the rooves weren't spot welded at that point. They were resistance welded.

PS, they glue alot of panels onto modern cars from the mid 1990's onward (there is the odd earlier one) pretty cool hey ? The thing is that they are designed to be glued together and they work well that what way. Minis are designed to be weld together so it might be a problem...

Just a thought. Thats all.

Mini roofs were resistance welded in the factory with a special type of resistance welding machine that did overlapping spot welds.
The common way to change a roof at home is cut carefully through all the pillars and transplant one from another car.... known as a cut and shut.

Howdy again,

your huby has a good point there about body flex. The roof plays a big roll in holding the body square. But you will find that it won't felx enough to cause problems. Its ok if it does flex around a little bit, you will find as soon as you drop the new roof on and clamp it up, it will hold it square again. When they assembled these in the factory, they only had the floor pan clamped down and it was built up from there. If memory serves they didn't need to use any sought of jigging to hold the body square by the time they reached the roof. If you like you probably can dig up a video on doco from the factory when they assembled them and see for yourself.

I don't actually have that video anymore, I lent it to some punk kid from SA and never saw it again. Don't know where abouts you live, but there is a shop In parramatta, sydney, nsw called Wheels Book Store. THe owners name is John. He has an amazing varity of books, DVD's and un-obatinium. He does post.

Ph 02 9893 7033
333 Church street Parramatta NSW 2150.

The dvd is called "The Best of the Original Mini", its a great watch. plenty of early footage.