So anyone on Victoria, Australia knows that this weekend rained - alot. And my poor cruiser got pretty soaked inside due to my leaky sunroof. (the Australian 62 series "Sahara" has a factory sunroof, I think the 61 does too?) It was rusty as, and needed alot of manual help to get it to close or open - so taking it out and trying to fix it was high on the priority list, but after finding my seats soaked - it hit the top.
So this morning, I followed some instructions from an old post on here and took the whole assembly out - super easy and no need to touch the headliner. If anyone is looking for how to get it out - a little write up is below.
Anyway, once I got it out I realized how bad it was. Rusted to hell everywhere, and the gasket was completely useless. Couldnt find replacement gaskets, but I would have to rebuild half the steel plate to even attach a new gasket. I quickly gave up on fixing it, and decided to just delete it. I removed the interior roof lining part from the sunroof assembly, and the outside steel roof part, cleaned up the steel chopping off unneeded parts, and then stuck the interior roof lining back on. I dropping it back in the hole in the truck, and using a magnet to hold it flush, centered it and then glued it in with black polyurethane. I ran nice beads on the truck side, another bead on the sunroof panel side, and third bead to bind them together. Then I smoothed them with a finger, and cleaned up the sides with turpentine. (why not use welding technique with glue?!) When it's dried and I can get my magnets off, I'll probably either run another bead on top to make it flush with the rest of the roof, or fill it with body filler and feather it out completely. I would have welded it on first, but my MIG is out of wire and couldn't be stuffed trying to get it clean enough to TIG.
It looks just like it did before from the inside, but obviously doesn't move... I'll re purpose the switch for something else, and ended up removing a fair bit of unneeded weight in the way of motors and tracks.
So if anyone else cant thing of a use for a sunroof, and is sick of leaks - It's not hard to get rid of the whole thing. Or if anyone is keen to rebuild theirs and needs a spare set of tracks, cable, motor etc - let me know!
So this morning, I followed some instructions from an old post on here and took the whole assembly out - super easy and no need to touch the headliner. If anyone is looking for how to get it out - a little write up is below.
just open it all the way up, and remove all the Philips head screws that you can see holding the track in. Then from the inside of the truck, take the sunroof control panel off and remove the 2x M10 bolts holding the little sunroof gearbox on. It swings down and the little gear drops out and it just hangs there politely. Then back up top pry the tracks up to break the glue, and pull the whole thing out. I did it alone - but two people would be easier. It just slides out of the roof cavity and bob's your auntie.
Anyway, once I got it out I realized how bad it was. Rusted to hell everywhere, and the gasket was completely useless. Couldnt find replacement gaskets, but I would have to rebuild half the steel plate to even attach a new gasket. I quickly gave up on fixing it, and decided to just delete it. I removed the interior roof lining part from the sunroof assembly, and the outside steel roof part, cleaned up the steel chopping off unneeded parts, and then stuck the interior roof lining back on. I dropping it back in the hole in the truck, and using a magnet to hold it flush, centered it and then glued it in with black polyurethane. I ran nice beads on the truck side, another bead on the sunroof panel side, and third bead to bind them together. Then I smoothed them with a finger, and cleaned up the sides with turpentine. (why not use welding technique with glue?!) When it's dried and I can get my magnets off, I'll probably either run another bead on top to make it flush with the rest of the roof, or fill it with body filler and feather it out completely. I would have welded it on first, but my MIG is out of wire and couldn't be stuffed trying to get it clean enough to TIG.
It looks just like it did before from the inside, but obviously doesn't move... I'll re purpose the switch for something else, and ended up removing a fair bit of unneeded weight in the way of motors and tracks.
So if anyone else cant thing of a use for a sunroof, and is sick of leaks - It's not hard to get rid of the whole thing. Or if anyone is keen to rebuild theirs and needs a spare set of tracks, cable, motor etc - let me know!
