Remove Sunroof - Plating In

[Guest ecosse205]

Hi,

Wonder if anyone has some pics / advice on plating in sunroof after removal.

Car is being used as track car and have no real issue with sunroof fitted but may look at removal when time allows in the near future

Thanks

[Baz 421]

Been looking into this too as it seems non sunroof cars are harder and harder to find, or bl**dy miles away! Fairly simple really, sheet of ally or steel cut to shape, rivetted and sealed over the hole, but i'd be interested if anyone's done it, any problems? some pics etc?

[boombang 2]

I did this on my old 309 - sheet of thin steel, drilled, primed, painted, silicon sealant + rivets.

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v332/boo...atefinished.jpg

Edited April 8, 2006 by boombang

[Jonmurgie 2]

If you have the big sliding room (and about 95% of 205's seem to) then it;s not only the biig whole in the roof to deal wih, you'll be left with a row of nice holes down either side of the roof which is a bit of an arse. You can see what Boombang has done but cutting an interesting shape...

 

You could also go down the replacement roof, though that gets a fair bit more expensive (£105 + VAT for new roof panel from Pug + fitting + painting)...

 

But if it's just for track then any old plate rivited in would do really

 

Oh, and it's something I've been meaning to do for a couple of years but still haven't got around to it! I guess I've been keeping an eye out for a non-sunroof shell as that's just easier

[jochem 0]

I saw this done to a rally 205 that was on the memorial run.

Roof seemed to be even stronger than a non sunroof model.

 

It was indeed a oversized plate rivited in place.

[DaveK 0]

ive been giving this alot of thought aswell and think il go down the plating route. how much weight is there in a normal sunroof?

[Baz 421]

Don't know exactly, but that huge piece of glass is going to weigh quite a bit!

 

I purchased a '90 non-sunny shell this morning anyway!! So my very clean shelled '87 non-sunny car could be for sale soon.

[Alastairh 47]

I would much prefere a decent sunroof shell with a decent cut plate over the top.

 

Seen them before side by size, and i know which one feels stronger.

 

For the track car, we've got this plate which was removed from a track car and was running for 3 months, then hit from the side coming home from a rolling road.

 

http://ben.loaded.net/gallery/albums/album..._2215.sized.jpg

 

Can take measurements etc if someone likes.

 

Alastair

[dai_p 0]

THIS is what i have done with the sunroof on my trackcar. it's a sheet of ally, cut and drilled and fitted with rivets and bonder/sealer. use blind rivets if you can find them as it saves having to block up all the holes in the rivet heads with sealer. for the holes left by the guides i just used more rivers and sealer.

 

regards,

 

Dai

[Guest Ross84]

You can weld in a sheet, i Have done this previously on a car but it took quite a while to do as I had to keep cooling it to prevent it distorting.

[pugpete1108 62 1 Cars]

You can weld in a sheet, i Have done this previously on a car but it took quite a while to do as I had to keep cooling it to prevent it distorting.

 

yeah i was thinking of welding but then the cooling down/rippling thing stopped me , is there a lot of weight to be saved mine is the small sunroof model . might just rivvet a plate over it but then again wanted it a bit neater mmmm what to do

[Guest BrainFluid]

Neat riviting looks well smart if you ask me. Better than the blobby line that looks like metal bathroom sealant imo.

 

Nate.

[PUGugly 0]

Any one got any pics of a riveted roof?

 

Got my sunroof on the floor of the garage and a rather large hole in the roof to fill now!! Was going to weld a steel roof section out of a scrap 205 on but am now thinking of the plate riveted on as an easier option and with all the talk of ally, a lighter one too!

 

One concern is how scrutineers would veiw this mod. Does any one know of logbooked cars with plates and if so what are the minimum thickness used? Is fibre glass another lightweight option? Can you buy a plate that is already pre formed to make the finish much tidier?

 

Seemed a simply job to do but, as with all jobs there are so many options!!

confused as usual

[Emmy Seize 8]

If I had to, I would run the replacement panel through a swage around the edges and fit the thing from

 

underneath. Using a spotwelder gets you around the distortion problem. Lead loading afterwards results in a very neat finish.

 

Replacing the complete roof panel is far easier than trying to weld the sun roof hole properly, though.

 

It gives you the chance to solder the gap between the rear side panel and the roof, which further ads to the rigidity of the body.

 

Roofpanels come very cheaply from scrapyards (in Germany, at least).

[jonah 1]

There's a picture of my riveted plate in this thread:

http://forum.205gtidrivers.com/index.php?showtopic=30363

 

My car is logbooked, no problems with scrutineering.

 

You can buy pre-formed plates from West Midlands Motorsport and probably other places. I don't know whether they are curved or flat though. The sheet I used for mine is a piece of roof skin from a scrapped 306 - being curved to start with it forms easily to the contour of the 205 roof.

[DaveK 0]

that looks really mint mate, excellent job. how much did all that cost and how long did it take you?

[johnrobertgordon 0]

I have also just done this. I purchased a 60x93 sheet of 3mm ally. pulled off the sunroof, spread some tigerbond around the edge of the ally placed over hole (in roof) and drilled an rivited it into place.

 

How do i post pic's?

 

John

[DaveK 0]

just do the same as what uve done in ur sig mate, just copy a link here from ur photobucket image

[johnrobertgordon 0]

just do the same as what uve done in ur sig mate, just copy a link here from ur photobucket image

 

 

duh!!!! of course, lol