removing sunroof structure JOB DONE

Bit of a bump from the past, have you got the pics of thw std panel in the roof spot welded in Steve ?

Mart

 

Pics don't work any more.....

 

Thats why i was asking if hes got them to repost lol

 

Should find them here

 

Any of the finished job?

 

Bumping !

 

i'll try to get some more recent pics taken and posted,

I'll be at donington this sunday if anyone wants to take a propper look.

 

I remembered i have some pics somewhere of a car that had a plate riveted in at Combe that had a good finish if you want me to find it?

 

Is it possible to remove all the gubbins on the inside of the car from the roof, yet still retain a water tight seal with the sunroof panel?

I haven't got a garage to work in but I would like to get the rear cage in the car, at the moment though, the recess where the sunroof retracts to is stopping the rear cage from sitting fully in.



I noticed this small support (riveted in?), which I think is what is stopping my cage from sitting all the way back.

(I'm nearly ready to extract the headlining from the car, so it might all become a bit clearer. Main question is if I can keep it water tight when removing bits and bobs from the sunroof mech)

 

I've got the headlining out now so I can see the 'tray' for the sunroof.



I need to get this tray out now as Steve did with his.



Steve, would it be possible for you to label this picture with the loactions of all the spot welds that need to be removed/cut?

And will the sunroof panel stay in place with the tray removed?

 

Hi,

You will need to fully remove the sunroof sliding panel and associated runners/cables etc and weld it back in later. If sealed correctly it won't leak.

holding on the tray at the front are approx' 4 spot welds on each side of the sunroof cutout and about 12/15 accross the front, you can normally see them by looking closely along the edge, they tend to be evenly spaced.

All the pics i have online are here There are a few that show the spot welds drilled out (pics 5 & 6 in above account), note that in the pic showing the front spot welds i have bent the remaining metal to 90 degrees to sit the sunroof panel on.

The tray is held on down the side by a few spot welds and a small welded plate towards the rear on each side, these are easy to spot when looking up, you will need a small disc cutter to get up to cut them. cut the tray down the middle to make removal easier.

With the removed sunroof panel i took out the inner shaped section with the screw threads etc in so i just had the outer painted shell (see first pic in my picturetrail account), this sat in the cut out on the 90 bent original metal and was spot welded in from the inside, use a wet rag on the outside paintwork to prevent damage to the paint, for the rear edge we cut 5 smaller sections from some stock metal and welded those in as supports.

the inside was masked to prevent the sealant falling through and the outside masked to prevent any excess smeering over the paint work, we used high modulus sealant and a curved spatular to smooth out the sealant, without looking closely you wouldn't tell its sealant.

The strap you can see in the first pic of mine you posted is the rear one from another car roof that i broke for spares (its black in the pic rather than blue) , when you remove the tray the roof panel will flex up and down easily, there are stock VW locations in the roof structure for the extra support to fit in (used on non sunroof cars).

Will try to edit my pics, but it is pretty clear once you start.

 

sunroof needs to come out like this:



Side welds to cut:



Spot weld locations marked out proir to drilling:



pics below show the black roof support i added after the sunroof structure had been removed, this came from the 'practice' roof. It slots straight into a cutout in the structure as non sunroof cars would have this support.

before



after



Masked up before selant:



Finished job from outside:





Inside is painted blue, masking tape inside kept the sealant in a neat square shape so it looks tidy.

Edit: just remebered the tray is also sealed to the roof, you will need to cut through this with a hacksaw blade

 

Photos now work again

 

blast from the past! but any idea how much weight removing all the sunroof gubbins saved?

 

Sorry, I don't think i have a record of the weight removed, was a good few Kg's though.

 

Saved about 15kg in my mk2 Scirocco. I weighed most of the bits that came out.

 

I heard similar, albeit estimated, from a Mk1 sunroof recently, so it looks ballpark.

That's a heap of weight!

 

is there anything better to seal it with that looks a bit more standard? I think silicon seal is a bit too glossy.

 

about 8- 10kg on the mk2, thats the whole sunroof and assembly/frame.

 

Started taking mine out today,it was not fouling on the sunroof,but catching on the x member above the screen,where it interior light is,managed to get it too fit nice and tight now,and have got the last of the 4 bolts in,car has now lost a clunk when cornering hard,think it must have been moving a bit.
Going to tidy up what i have done,and look into cutting the roof out at a later date.
All the foam under the headlining was soaked,so glad it`s gone really