My father owns a '73 dart with a vinyl roof. It was parked near a railway trellis underneath a cover. When I removed the cover to take some pictures for its sale, I discovered there was a large dent in the roof. The recent rains must have dislodged something heavy from above and dented the roof in. The dent is about an inch deep and very wide, almost 3/4 the width of the car, but it is not long, only about 8 inches long.

How hard would it be to remove the headliner in order to pop the dent out from inside the car?

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'73 Dodge Dart Swinger 225 904

Not hard, just time consuming. Everything's put on with easy to see screws so you'll have to take off sun visors, rear-view mirror, C -pillar covers, and anything else that gets in the way of dropping the headliner. After that it comes out real quick. The only thing is if the dents near the edges of the roof you'll be out of luck, they're supports along the sides of the roof that make it impossible to pop anything out. In any case unless you plan on re-painting you're just going to make it look better, you're not going to be able to fully fix it. Also keep in mind that if it's in the right spot it won't damage the headliner just to smack the roof right through the headliner and skip taking anything out. This was how I took 90% of a dent out of the roof of a car I was driving that the hood came up on (luckily only 20 MPH... so a cuss word, rope, and a whole lot of being glad I wasn't going faster were the only results).

What about the suction cup method.............

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Ed
64 Valiant 225 / 904 / 42:1 manual steering / 9" drum brakes

If it's primarily an oilcan dent, it might pop out OK. The problem is where the metal has been stretch or cut - quite likely in those places you won't be able to reach from the inside.
This might involve a stud welder, slide hammer, and filler.

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"When you find a big kettle of crazy, it's best not to stir it." - Pointy-haired Boss

1964 Valiant V200, 225/Pushbutton 904
BBD, CAI, HEI, LBP, AC, AM/FM/USB, EIEIO

When I had a restoration shop, we were restoring a 1 owner 70 440 6 pak Cuda. While in college the owner carried his canoe on the roof. When it came to me there were 4 distinct visible circular low areas from the roof rack suckion cups. No way to pop them out so I used the old fashioned "pick and file" Kind of time consuming but absolutely zero filler was used. The owner told me that it was just a high powered car back then!

In the end my father had me take it in to a body shop. The body man laid on his back in the back seat and using a piece of cardboard as a buffer, kicked the dent out through the headliner. Looks pretty good now; hard to tell the difference.

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'73 Dodge Dart Swinger 225 904

Us Yanks !!!!!!!

Who are you calling "Yanks"?

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"When you find a big kettle of crazy, it's best not to stir it." - Pointy-haired Boss

1964 Valiant V200, 225/Pushbutton 904
BBD, CAI, HEI, LBP, AC, AM/FM/USB, EIEIO