Sunroof Plate

[Martin W 0]

I will be plating over the sunroof over christmas with a sheet of aluminium but how thick should it be?

 

I'm thinking 1mm sheet aluminium will be fine. What thickness have other people gone for?

[tom_m 0]

I will be plating over the sunroof over christmas with a sheet of aluminium but how thick should it be?

 

I'm thinking 1mm sheet aluminium will be fine. What thickness have other people gone for?

 

thick enough to keep the rain out and not sag, its not got to do anything much structurally

[Martin W 0]

1mm aluminium sheet is suprisingly thick and flexible enough to mould to the roof's shape.

 

I'll wait to find out how thick other people's sunroof plate are (and follow the crowd!)

 

Thanks

[ashley peddle 3]

1mm sounds a bit thin. i think the ones i made up were 2.5mm but i could be wrong - look up the thread in 'group buys/discounts' sections

[Martin W 0]

Thansk Ashley, it looks like you used 1.5mm aluminium sheet.

[Martin W 0]

Ashley - did you just drill out the gromets that the original sunroof mount was screwed into?

[ashley peddle 3]

yup - the holes come pre drilled on the plate (due to me giving them an accurate template) so i just how to drill out the cups from the roof skin and just drop bolts through

 

gona be fitting one to my new 205 in a couple of weeks and will be doing a guide, but i guess thats no good for you

[Martin W 0]

Thanks for the offer but I've already got the sunroof out and have held onto the original mount, so I'll just use that as a template for the holes in the ali plate. As you did.

[ashley peddle 3]

Because the roof has a natural curve at the front youd prolly be best off doing the following:

 

- drill out all the old cups

- tape the plate to the roof

- mark about 10 of the holes onto bottom of the plate (from inside the car) that will probably be every 3rd or 4th hole...

- drill the holes and test fit the plate by dropping some small nuts and bolts through and tightening them up

- mark where the rest of the holes have to go and remove plate

- drill the remaining holes and refit the plate

 

 

reason for this is that some of the predrilled holes wernt a total match on mine due to the curve at the front of the roof so where the old surround is a good duide its not a perfect match

 

hope that helps and makes sence

 

ash

[Henry 1.9GTi 36]

mine is 1.5mm. Doesnt sag and being ali its very easy to drill/file and even cut with a jigsaw using a wood blade

 

say bye bye to ~15KG suprising amount of crap up there.

 

Martin: are u going to use rivets or nuts and bolts or 4mm bolts into existing rivnuts?

 

If using pop rivets then new holes need to be drilled. I left all the old rivnuts in place to save hassel (except the ones that sheared when removing roof) Then used a 4.9mm drill to drill out new holes inbetween the rivnuts from inside the car making sure to miss the spot welds running around the roof. Place ali sheet over the top and get it all lined up, tape it down and get someone with a big bit of wood to press down when u drill up through the hole in the car and through the ali, make sure not to dislodge the alisheet and it all lines up perfectly. Then 4.8mm Ali with steel mandrel pop rivets go in nicely using a cheapo rivet gun and some heave ho. Use thick card with a hole in it around each rivet when poping them as the gun bounces and put some nice marks in my paint!

 

Any way good luck, gives the car a very motorsport look so should be right at home on your car

Edited December 6, 2007 by Henry 1.9GTi

[daza4 24]

Just a quick note.

 

From the blue book for race cars if you wanted to plate the roof of a car that was to be raced in any series you need to use 3mm steel plate. Ali is not allowed. I dont know the reasons for this but I asked the question of my mate what he had used for his car running in the saloon championship at castle combe. as I wanted to do the same for my car.

 

Hope it helps.

[swordfish210 20]

I also used 1.5mm plate. It's plenty strong and flexible enough but it's pretty funny when going through car washes watching it vibrate like crazy :)

[28CRAIG 2]

Just a quick note.

 

From the blue book for race cars if you wanted to plate the roof of a car that was to be raced in any series you need to use 3mm steel plate. Ali is not allowed. I dont know the reasons for this but I asked the question of my mate what he had used for his car running in the saloon championship at castle combe. as I wanted to do the same for my car.

 

Hope it helps.

 

 

3mm steel that is crazy it's about 3x thicker than a 205 floorpan

[Baz 421]

I dont remember there being any guidelines in the MSA Bluebook regarding thickness etc. Just that glass above the head is not allowed.

[projectpug 0]

3mm steel weighs a lot! I will be doing this mod soon for cheers for the guide where do people obtain their alloy/Al from?

[ashley peddle 3]

just type 'sheet metal' and the town where you live into www.yell.com - most places will be happy to help and if your lucky they will have an off-cut so wont be too expensive

[Martin W 0]

mine is 1.5mm. Doesnt sag and being ali its very easy to drill/file and even cut with a jigsaw using a wood blade

 

say bye bye to ~15KG suprising amount of crap up there.

 

Martin: are u going to use rivets or nuts and bolts or 4mm bolts into existing rivnuts?

 

If using pop rivets then new holes need to be drilled. I left all the old rivnuts in place to save hassel (except the ones that sheared when removing roof) Then used a 4.9mm drill to drill out new holes inbetween the rivnuts from inside the car making sure to miss the spot welds running around the roof. Place ali sheet over the top and get it all lined up, tape it down and get someone with a big bit of wood to press down when u drill up through the hole in the car and through the ali, make sure not to dislodge the alisheet and it all lines up perfectly. Then 4.8mm Ali with steel mandrel pop rivets go in nicely using a cheapo rivet gun and some heave ho. Use thick card with a hole in it around each rivet when poping them as the gun bounces and put some nice marks in my paint!

 

Any way good luck, gives the car a very motorsport look so should be right at home on your car

I'll probably drill out those screw resess things that the original sunroof is screwed into and I'll rivet the plate on, thanks for the advice.

 

On another note I have kept all the bits I have removed and will weigh it at the end to see how much weight I have saved. So far the following has been removed:

 

Sunroof and all associated bits.

Heater matrix

Unnecessary wiring

Windows (to be replaced with polycarb)

Lower part of dash

all remaining sound deadening

and millions of scres/bolts!!

[ashley peddle 3]

the sunroofs weigh about 15kg's and a 1.5mm ali plate weighs about 3kg - thats a nice chunk of weight off the top of the car...

[James_R 3]

Think mines about 1mm steel, it's very think, liek BAz says no minimum thickness, thats the window's bit.

The screw bits were kept on mine, and dome headed allen head bolts were used and just screwed in to the exisiting points, with some RTV to seal it down.

I can double check later.

[James_R 3]

here's to give you an idea of how thick the plate is (1p piece for scale)

 

Edited December 7, 2007 by James_R

[sonofsam 5]

just type 'sheet metal' and the town where you live into www.yell.com - most places will be happy to help and if your lucky they will have an off-cut so wont be too expensive

 

 

Just dont go in there looking like a piky asking for 'scrap aluminium'

 

Aircraft spec alu is even lighter, but you might pay throught the nose for it, you can get alu blades for jigsaws btw people.

Bandsaws are very effective also for cutting sheet, if a little noisey!

[Henry 1.9GTi 36]

The holes which are there for the original rivnuts are quite big, you will need big rivets and a large gun i reckon.

 

I'll be interested in how much was saved by removing the windows and heater.

 

Henry.

[Baz 421]

As the rivnuts are there then why not use them? I think someone may have already mentionned using them, iirc James's is like this.

[Matt Holley 11]

My sunroof was rivited on in the first place, Is mine the only one

[sutol 0]

Just a quick note.

 

From the blue book for race cars if you wanted to plate the roof of a car that was to be raced in any series you need to use 3mm steel plate. Ali is not allowed. I dont know the reasons for this but I asked the question of my mate what he had used for his car running in the saloon championship at castle combe. as I wanted to do the same for my car.

 

Hope it helps.

When Volve came into Saloon car racing a few years ago I remember them using an estate car with a sunroof. On the parade lap they went round with a dog poking out of the roof.