This was the NAUGHTY CORNER

Phil, is Jim going to RR Goodwood? I;ve asked him a few times but he never comes back and sees the question. I know you're not because I already asked... but do you know whether Jim is planning on going?

TinTin, Haddock and the Thompson Twins need a pre-Malta meeting so here would be ideal and to cap it all I have a free champagne voucher for the Kennels, so that would be one flute and 4 straws please barman

Sun roof out.

Metal drilled for fixing.

No going back... Especially as three of the sun roof screws were refusing to play so I had to try and drill them, at which point I discovered they were made from a diamond/kryptonite alloy.

Such stupid little screws. Blunted three (for metal) drill bits before I gave up and just wrenched it out like an angry shouty car bodger.

Well, a mad dash through, with the usual compromised mid-term results. My workshop is the kitchen, and as such it explodes into action rapidly and violently... instantly transforming the kitchen into a post-apocalyptic wasteland.

My wife arrived back at 12:30. Her particular brand of disappointment and irritation is delivered in the form of unstable isotopes. She radiates them powerfully from a carefully selected uncomfortable position at the very heart of all the mess. She silently sips a cup of tea and looks around at all my curse word, with an elegant kind of despair that only women can do, until I feel weak, dizzy and nauseous. She also informed me my daughter has a friend coming round at 3pm and she needs the kitchen back by 2pm to prepare food and whatnot.

First problem was that the almost flat, smooth fixings I had in my toolbox were not going to work at all. By the time I got the sunroof out and tried one it became apparent they were about 3mm too short.

So with no time nor hobby funds available to go and look for something better, I had to resort to using the rest of the 6m hex bolts I'd previously bought for my door cards. That in itself meant that getting the job fully finished was off the table for now.

Secondly I had completely forgotten that the black vinyl I was going to use for the sunroof job had been re-deployed on something else, meaning there was a chunk missing and I had to patch it. Again... sub-standard and therefore temporary. All my jobs seem to end up as halfway-done lately.

But, *a* hole cover is on the car, looking slightly ridiculous and not even sealed, but at least I've committed myself to doing this now and I will now either have to refurbish the sunroof and stick it back in, or I will probably have to consider doing this properly as a seamless fibreglass fill, because frankly this approach looks ridiculous now it's on there.

Ho hum.

Offering it up to mark for drilling. I had to drill the roof which I didn't want to do, but the sunroof didn't actually use drill holes it just used screws to clamp on the underside of the roof....



It came as no real surprise once the sunroof was out, to discover that whoever fitted it did it at a pronounced skew. the hole was about an inch further forward on the passenger side than the driver side, which made measuring the holes for my metal patch quite interesting as they had to be at a skew to the hole.



A quick fit-test turned out to be more or less how I have had to leave it for now, aside from tightening up all the bolts in a hilarious nod to water-tightness, which it most certainly doesn't offer as a feature at this point. I look forward to finding the car full of water in the morning.





What annoys me is that it is almost as obvious and stick-out-like-a-sore-thumb-ish as the horrible, ill fitting, not-made-for-the-car sunroof was, and what I wanted to do was to make it less... less sticky-outy (which admittedly it is) and less visually apparent. This thing is very visually apparent. *sigh*



The sunroof, which I eventually wrenched out whole thanks to three tiny screws that resisted my drilling like the Viet Cong resisted American imperialism.

"ShoeGoo"...i always thought that was the sign of a clumsy girlfreind ?

Pug it up as best you can, as a temporary/permanent repair. Don’t waste time, effort or materials on what is only ever going to look “not as sh*t as the sunroof did, but still sh*t”. Source a roof cut from a scrap vehicle, and use it to make an invisible repair.

For now thats a good fix if it's stopping the water getting in. As Glen said hold on until you can make a decent job of it, probably when the weather gets a bit better.
You could make up a repair panel by laying up some glass fibre on the roof behind where the hole it. The shape might not be perfect but it will be closer than the alloy sheet.

I would try and fit that onto the car from the inside and either glass that in or use a suitable epoxy glue. If you taper the edges of the hole you can build up the thickness using glass matt, use some tissue whatever it's called to get a better finish on the top.

Not sure about using gel coat as I tried and it didn't seem to go off very well. It might be just as well to use glass reinforced filler, then normal filler to finish it off.

I think I would rather be trying to fix your car than one with a steel roof to be honest, just hope it stops raining so you can get on with it.

we are all with you, man! keep at it.

I might try, as has been suggested, to bond or glass in an oversized panel from inside, then fill from above. You would be surprised at how well it can go. (temporarily sheet metal screw the inside panel up while the glue cures. the holes will be filled later)

once you have the panel inside, you can use a suitable patch piece on top. then smooth over any gaps with reinforced filler.

I would bond or fiberglass the filler panel in, making it all one piece. The patch panel can be made from fiberglass sheet already cured. you can find some in your home improvement stores or perhaps another source??? (I have seen some here in the states. they use it on trailers, kitchen wall panels, ect) This should just about match the thickness of your existing roof.

To heck with putting it back to original....an aftermarket off the shelf skewed sunroof is not something anyone would want to restore back to original. (unless of course you decide to do this...then we are all with you!)



JP

That was *kind of* the impression I was hoping to end up with. But, ggggehhhhhhhhh it's not saying it to me.

I've just been to pick up 20 black bolts. Still the same style - which are a little too tall really - but at least the replacement ones are black. I think for now that might help me relax a little. One really great thing is that it's pisitively possing down here again, and the inside of the car is absolutely bone dry. Oddly bone dry actually, because I've gotten used to the constant dripping of water directly into the driver and passenger groin zones for the whole time I've owned it. It's keeping all the rain out, so it works from that perspective.

I think I'll replace the chrome with the black bolts tomorrow morning. I think I have some primer and a bit of satin black rattle-can knocking around somewhere too, so I might pull the vinyl back off and spray the panel. While it's off I might try and swage the edges of the panel a little bit to point them down to the roof a little more, then stick it back on with the new bolts. Will need to get creative with kitchen utensils to create a way of swaging neatly though.

In some light the black vinyl on the patch panel reflects light completely differently and it just looks odd. Right now, in the rain, it looks like a perfect match and (chrome bolt heads aside) I really don't mind it so much.

A shot in the rain where it looks like a perfect colour match (sort of)