71 dart swinger hardtop restoration

I pulled mine off my '71 Dart GT and you can see the rust we faced afterwards. Fortunately, it was treatable and I made the decision to replace it with another vinyl top; I just like the original look of them. We cleaned it down to bare metal, POR15'ed it and then primered it before glueing on the new top.
Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

http://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/showthread.php?t=62144