Would this work to heat roof material?
 

With the cooler weather this winter even in South Mississippi, my car is held up at a shop 80 miles away waiting for the first warm weekend so my roof can be replaced on '29 Briggs Standard Fordoor. It is a pretty straight forward replacement and there are no compound curves to cover. It is a flat straight center covering.

The problem is the material needs to be warm to stretch enough to give a flat nice finished roof. I have a standard kit and tools just waiting on a warm day on a weekend so the guy can do it. That could be several weeks away and perhaps more depending on his schedule and his other projects. Naturally I want my car sooner than later.

I have done roofs replacements before and it is true a hot day and bright sun is best. I have also tried heat lamps and heat guns to warm up the material and neither was satisfactory. Both melted the material if not carefully watched.

I had a light bulb go off in my head and thought of the electric blanket I sleep under. On high I have to get out from under it.

What say all? Will an electric blanket on high heat up the material enough to make it easily stretched? It could be reapplied as you needed and another blanket over the top of the electric and the material, would serve to keep the heat in.

Re: Would this work to heat roof material?
 

Ivory,

I've never heard of using an electric blanket to warm the roof material but it sounds like a good idea. What do you have to lose? Put it on, cover with another blanket to retain the heat, heat the garage with electric heaters or one or more of those quartz halogen lights painters use.

I'd have two or three helpers to stretch evenly as you work. MS is a ways from CA or I'd volunteer. You could come out to CA. We're having a really nice warm winter and I could recruit some volunteers here.

Richard
Anaheim CA

Re: Would this work to heat roof material?
 

I have done a tudor roof but really you have to heat the air surrounding the vehical to do it with more flexibility you must have the car also as warm as the material to do a good job I left the heat on in the gararge allnight before we started , as you know heat rises to the ceiling and in the morning the garage was 90F at ceilingand about 80 at the door handles this was room temperatures You will need those temperatures for all day donot rush it take your time do you have the batten abd chicken screen underneath thr material. Be patient Gord. B by the bay

Re: Would this work to heat roof material?
 

During the winter I've done top installations in a heated spray booth. If you know anyone with a bodyshop, this could be a good option for you.

Re: Would this work to heat roof material?
 

I have done it a different, no summerson outside ? then we put the sun inside the car . That's to say 2 contruction lights inside The side's covered with plastic after 7 hrs the top reached a temp good enough to stretch the top material to the limit.

Re: Would this work to heat roof material?
 

HA! I went through just this the other week when I couldn't get the roof of my phaeton to close. It was open for months and the top was too tight to close. Electric blankets work great. A few folks told me that I should pray for a hot day and put the car in the sun. Instead, I put up the side-curtains (loosly), placed a "safe" oil filled heater in the car, and put an electric blanket on top. In about 20 minutes the formerly tight top was more than happy to close. I figure that this was the most practical and quickest way to beat the problem.