Adding sunroof drains to a non-sunroof car

[tdskip]

Good morning - with your help I realized that my car has it's roof replaced with one from a sunroof car. That means my car (1974 coupe) doesn't have the front or rear drain holes. That leads to a couple of considerations that I am hoping to get your help on;

1) Do I need to add the drain tubing / channels or do all the cars have them?

2) Is there a way to add drain tubing / channels without having to drill into visible parts of the car?

3) Is there a better way to route the drains or materials to use than mimicking what the factory did?

I, of course, found all of this out after I had the car repainted. Ugh.

[SalParadise]

What a disaster. These drains as you know really should work well - or the car gets filled with standing water very quickly. Unless you never drive it in the rain you need to sort these out.

My feelings would be that you need to get ahold of someone who has a sunroof car and you can take notes. How did they run the drains? Into the rockers? In modern cars you need to maintain these things. I know I have maintained modern sunroofs and all they have are plastic tubes running into a grommet on the A or C pillar and the water runs down to the ground out of a hole.

It's a simple setup using plastic tubing attached with clips.

You may consider doing something simple vs. replicating the factory setup (ie if the factory used metal tubes, etc).

[tdskip]

Good morning. Thanks for the response.

The interior of the car is being completely retrimmed, so at least I have that to work with. I was wondering the same thing - can I just run some drains out the rear fenders from the pillars and have the trim hide that?

[RSBob]

The rear drain holes exit at the top of the engine compartment gutters on the left and right sides. For you reinstalling these are not practical. Instead I would run plastic drains in back down the C pillar, drill holes in the parcel shelf and run you tubing through that into the engine compartment and then between the engine tin and the rubber pieces.

You could do something similar to the front, running tubes through the A pillars under the cloth covers and somehow fish through the corners of the dash into the frunk and drill exits into the wheel wells leaving a couple inches of tube hanging.

No expert, just thoughts.

[tdskip]

Good morning Rick, thank you for the response.

Good thinking - that seems to make the most sense. I think what I'm going to do today is try to photo document everything and saturate the inner roof area with a rust converter/sealer and try to mark up where the drains could go.

Thanks!

[Jgordon]

Originally Posted by RSBob

The rear drain holes exit at the top of the engine compartment gutters on the left and right sides. For you reinstalling these are not practical. Instead I would run plastic drains in back down the C pillar, drill holes in the parcel shelf and run you tubing through that into the engine compartment and then between the engine tin and the rubber pieces.

You could do something similar to the front, running tubes through the A pillars under the cloth covers and somehow fish through the corners of the dash into the frunk and drill exits into the wheel wells leaving a couple inches of tube hanging.

No expert, just thoughts.

I don't believe there are front drain holes. Been in and around my sunroof a few times, and only saw rear. I think the roof is sloped toward the rear anyway, so lack of front drains shouldn't be a problem.

[Steam Driver]

Absolutely there front drain holes, one on each side. They drain down tubes in them”A” pillars, exiting in front of the doors, in that cavity behind the front fender. The lower ends not readily visible.

Omitting these probably not a good decision, although I agree most water would probably go towards the rear.

[tdskip]

Thanks gentlemen - will work up two front and two back.

[SalParadise]

As I said, don't get too caught up in replicating the '74 German mentality. Sunroof drains are so basic that it's laughable.

On my Volvo it's literally four plastic tubes 3 feet long (you can buy these at Ace hardware) with grommets that stick into the A and C pillar.

You could run four plastic clear tubes (make sure it's the same size to attach to the nipples on the pan) - and then drill a small hole and run them into the pillar (if you even need to - they are probably already there).

You are just getting water out the sunroof pan, which is very important because a simple overnight thunderstorm will fill the cars' floor pans with water. Either way your setup will be simpler and better than original because you will be able to maintain it if you use clear tubing (to look for blockages) - and it will cost you less than $25 to do. Seriously.

[RSBob]

Originally Posted by Steam Driver

Absolutely there front drain holes, one on each side. They drain down tubes in them”A” pillars, exiting in front of the doors, in that cavity behind the front fender. The lower ends not readily visible.

Omitting these probably not a good decision, although I agree most water would probably go towards the rear.

If parked on a hill or slope nose-down, no drain holes in front would result in a mess.

[tdskip]

Thank you for all of the responses and ideas. I very much appreciate the help.

[Jgordon]

Originally Posted by RSBob

If parked on a hill or slope nose-down, no drain holes in front would result in a mess.

That's certainly a reasonable point.

[75 911s]

Just some reference photos

[tdskip]

Thanks Duane

[tdskip]

[tdskip]

Thanks again for all of the help. I figured out via some automotive archaeology what must have happen here. At some point the prior owner wanted a sunroot so they sectioned a slightly later car and mated it on this one. In the process of doing that they simply cut through the entire roof structure, including these drain lines, and installed them without being connected to anything so water would drain into the body cavities.

Fortunately it was an inland SoCal car so it rarely got wet but still. Yikes.

Going to flood the inner areas with Eastwood inner frame rust converter / sealer before running new lines.

Thanks again for the help!

[tdskip]