“holes are”? How many?
it’s kind of a corroded area…maybe a few dime size holes.
Nobody is going to weld on that without taking out the headliner which will add lots more cost. Plus if you try and weld a flat panel like that, you’ll likely have heat distortion galore. You can’t stop rust but you can slow it down. You can cut it out or coat it to slow it down. Cleaning it up and then using an epoxy primer will work well. Now use a fiberglass patch not body putty (Bondo is one brand). Normal body putty is like a sponge and will absorb water if not painted or coated on all sides. Fiberglass will not absorb water. So for a car that old, you clean up the rust as best you can, treat it with a rust coating, use the epoxy primer, then a fiberglass patch, then the Bondo and sand smooth, prime and paint. If you aren’t going to do it yourself, just have weekender that does body work do it. It’ll be good for a couple or more years.
@Bing
You can weld a panel like that and not have heat distortion/warping if you know what you’re doing.
Have you ever chopped a top?
Tester
Nope, never chopped a top. Still think a fiberglass patch is a lot easier though.
Fiberglass won’t stick to rust.
So if it’s going to look like hell, why not cover the holes with stainless steel tape?
This way as the holes grow bigger from the rust, you just apply a bigger piece of tape.
Tester
the top is probably so thin that any welding would probably fatigue the metal and it would soon crack. brazing might be better but as bad as the OP says the roof is id either use epoxy resin and fiberglass fabric or, my choice, urethane sealant. the kind used in marine applications and windshields, the stuff is so strong ive seen plywood pull apart and the sealants bond was still intact
You people don’t get it.
You cannot apply any sealant/epoxy/bondo/fiberglass unless the base material you’re appling it to is solid. And rust is not a solid base material.
I had a leak at the top of my windshield because of rust. And no matter what sealant was applied to stop the leak it was temporary and the windshield started leaking again because of the rust.
I finally ran a strip of stainless steel tape over the top of the windshield to stop the leak. And it hasn’t leaked in over two years.
Tester
dude, I m not talking about a dab on the holes. I m talkin a hole honking tube of urethane squirted out and spread over whole area with a squeegee. it will stick to paint and im saying spread it from good area to good area. the urethane will stay flexible and not crack and it will hold. and it will look like bleep. anyway its not that big a deal to anyone but the OP, and he may be long gone by now.
I’d rather have a small piece of stainless steel tape to cover the holes, than to have something that looks like an elephant sneezed on the top of my car.
Tester
tape won t stick to rust 
But it will stick to the good paint on top of the roof if the paint is cleaned to remove waxes and silicones.
Tester
I’ll try that. Hopefully they’ll have sand paper for the rust and all the rest. Clean. Epoxy. Fiberglass I thought that’s what bondo is. Then primer and paint. Wish I could find someone to do it for me. Hopefully they’ll have all this in the auto parts store. I may go to maaaco for a quote they said they work on rust.
I have a bare spot on the side pillar where I got hit years ago. There’s a little rust there but it doesn’t look like it’s wearing through. Just the roof is. Bird droppings did it in I think. My fault for not washing often enough.
The car drives like a dream I’d keep it forever if it’ll last.
Thanks for help.
If you’ll accept just a local touch up spray for the paint, rather than repainting the whole roof panel, I’d guess for $100-$200 a body shop would be happy to do it for you.
George
$100-$200 doesn’t even buy the paint. Along with the catalyst, hardener, fisheye preventer and the guns that have to be loaded to do this, get rattle cans.
Besides, any painter who has a reputation for good paint jobs doesn’t shoot a scab on a vehicle just so their name can be attached to it.
All the body guys I know would laugh you out the door if you asked for a $200.00 touch up job.
Tester
Point well taken Tester. I fixed a rust hole like this on the front edge of my truck’s hood with an old beer can, bondo, a little sanding, and touch up spray with a rattle can. It looked pretty good at first, but the rattle can paint I used didn’t hold up to the sun so it has faded compared to the rest of the paint so the repair, like you say, is noticeable scab. It doesn’t leak, so that’s something at least.
If it were me, I’d probably spread (like butter) some two part epoxy over the edges, lay some fiberglass cloth over it, let it dry, and then spread some two-part epoxy over the cloth. The epoxy will saturate the cloth and create a waterproof and permanent surface with enough flex to withstand vibrations and body movement.
Next, I’d overcoat the fiberglass with body putty and try to file and sand it to a reasonably close surface shape and “blend” the edges in.
If it’s coming out good, you can go over it again with “glazing compound”, which is the final “shaping” step for a car body surface, followed usually by “sandable primer” and sanding techniques that show high and low spots. When patching a body panel hole in n an old buggy, you can safely skip this step.
Finally, I’d rattle-can it with some matching touchup paint.
When you’re working with the epoxy, use rubber gloves. The cloth will slide in the epoxy, and its fibers will slide within themselves, until it sets up some, so if you try to impregnate the cloth before bonding it to the edges of the hole, it’ll fall through. It needs to be a two-step process.
It can be done on the comparative cheap with elbow grease, rattle cans, very few tools, and patience but any body work can be time consuming even with minor fixes.
Tester is correct about rust and finishing supplies prices. Rust will always reappear and it’s easy to spend well into 3 figures on supplies to use with a paint gun even on a spot repair.
Tester, I think you showed a lot of patience.
If the rust will just come back, then what’s the best way to slow it down? Right now I have duct tape over it. Maybe that is locking in moisture and making it worse. What a tragedy, such a beautiful car.