Sunroof Delete on my 3.8 Widebody Projekt Part 1

[NY65912]

Having decided that the 3.8 Widebody Project should not have a sunroof, as any "real "race car should, we went ahead with deleteing the sunroof.

Here's what happened.

After the removal of all the asociated sunroof parts, false roof and trimming with a cutoff wheel we were left with the raw opening.













I pondered the best way to fill the hole and contacted Chris from Fenn Lane in jolly old England. I had seen previous posts and recalled Chris' method. Chris sent a beautifully crafted panel of the proper gauge sheet metal with the appropriate compound curves made on the English wheel. The panel is flanged and fits perfectly in to the sunroof opening. Chris said that he spot welds the panel into place so I thought I'd follow that idea since I have a spot welder.



Panel supported from below with 2 x 4's.


Spot welder suspended to aleviate fatigue.




Continued below.

[NY65912]

This is part 1

[911st]

OK Pelican needs to order a stack of these pannels.

Way cool!!!

[DG624]

What did you cut off of the original panel? Can't you just remove the original panel without cutting?

[GaryR]

Does the Fenn lane panel have a big enough edge to use a 3M panel bonding agent to hold it in place? Looks like it's about a 1" flat but hard to tell.

[DG624]

I had the panel welded that was the original sunroof section. They kept the bracing underneath. The body shop didn't want to risk distortion in the roof panel. Can I still cut away most of the original bracing without problems?

[NY65912]

The original panel comes out.

The bracing and mechanism gets cut out.

There is some trimming / clean up needed around the sunroof opening.

Gary, there is plenty of flange to use adhesive, I wish i thought of that. It would have saved me from carpal tunnel syndrome

Contact user name chris_seven at Fenn Lane.

[Math]

lets see some pictures of the outside!

[Reaper930]

I've seen these done with adhesive, and with heat cycling from the sun etc. can make the paint bubble up. Best solution is to fully weld or use filler/spot weld method or weld on a new roof section as I ended up doing.

If you use filler, make sure to let it cure completely prior to primer and paint or else you'll wind up with bubbles and cracks.

Good work though!

[scott.k]

really nice work.

I recently did mine. I cut the inner pannel out and remover the sunroof mech and fiberglassed in the sunroof opening. I wonder what is lighter between the metal cover or fiberglass. I didnt ask around before I did it, but it seemed to work well. Hopefully my plug wont und up bubbling up like Reaper930 said. Havent had any probems yet though

Are you just going to paint right over that or are you going to fill in the seam with something like bondo?

[crb07]

Just spoke to Chris at Fenn Lane and bought his last insert. He has more on the way. Will post photos of project in the next few weeks.