There are two types of rain gutter systems on Aceca’s. The early type had an extra trim rail running above the gutter that appears to be wide enough to cover the slit shown in your pics. Based on the pics of when my father last had the car painted in 1990 (see pics below), it’s evident that the rain gutter was secured to the roof by a series screws spaced about 4” to 6” apart running the length of the gutter. The extra holes in your roof on either side of the slit appear to match up with the extents and alignment of the original gutter arrangement. Looking at the close up pic of the end of my gutter/rail it seems possible that it may have also been glued to the roof rather than welded (based on the lack of deformity of the rail that would have occurred if it was welded in place). This method of attaching the rain gutter may help explain for the bubbling paint I have running along the top edge of my rain gutter trim (see pic). If you look closely at the the bubbling, you can see what appears to be a strip of tape between the rail and the roof (apparently not the best method to close this gap - I’d like to know of a better method for when I go to paint my car again). I assume water got behind the rail and possibly into the wood during wet sanding resulting in the bubbling when the paint was drying/curing in the sun. Could this sort of issue with painting have led AC to change the style of the rain gutter in later cars?
It appears AC did away with the extra wide gutter/trim arrangement sometime in 1958 and went to a single gutter arrangement that wraps around the rear 1/4 window (see close up pic of AEX734 from a local AC owner). I approximated the changeover date based on a limited Google search of Aceca images using cars with verified chassis numbers. In this search, I discovered that at about chassis number AEX674 they did away with the old style rain gutter arrangement in favor of a single gutter. I assume they developed a better method of securing the roof without the wood. Possibly allowing them to weld the seam or wrap the roof skin around a tube of steel?? Perhaps others with later Aceca’s know how this was done. I think the repair your rebuilder is suggesting sounds reasonable. It may not be entirely correct for your year Aceca, but going back to the original system seems difficult. You should also evaluate your existing rain gutter closely, since it doesn’t appear to be OEM.
Side note:
The switch of rain gutter design by AC may have also been when they switched from the dropped (cloth) headliner on the early cars to the felt headliner that’s glued directly to the aluminum roof panel on later Aceca’s. This would make sense since they did away with the wood framing in the roof at that time.
There are a number of subtle differences in the construction of the earlier Aceca’s vs. the later ones. Just one of the things that makes owning these hand built cars more interesting.
Best Regards,
John
AEX521
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