Sunroof delete?

[suprarx7nut]

I'm also thinking of welding one of my 100s. I see it as a plus. Do you think it's a 10% de-value or maybe a higher percentage? So that would mean I'm "losing" upwards of several hundred dollars over my years of ownership? Plus the only thing that I get out of it is the truck that "I" want and getting to be the ONLY one on this site to do it (according to the moderator).

I think it depends on the rest of the car. Is this thing trashed? Ripped seats? Peeling paint? Rust throughout? Missing or broken interior panels? Dented body panels? If so, then weld er up! You're not going to lose much. If the car is nice you're just going to flat out lose your audience when you go to sell. You'll have the majority of the market turn away immediately once they see it.

Me, for instance. I'm not buying an amateur-welded sunroof delete. You could have a great vehicle otherwise, but I'll walk away entirely. The level of detail and work to properly delete the sunroof is significantly more than the work required to replace the entire assembly and get it working 100%. If I'm shopping a used LC and someone chose to delete the assembly and weld in a panel on a luxury SUV, I'm assuming it's because they lacked the means and/or know-how to fix it, but had the misplaced enthusiasm to bring out the welder and spray paint. Not exactly an ideal previous owner, haha. Put that energy into fixing the sunroof.

Wheeling in the mountains with the sunroof open is awesome.

If the sunroof doesn’t work, isn’t the value lost already? Sure someone could pay to have it fixed but I doubt anyone ever would. If you market the vehicle to the right person during resale I think the buyer would understand it’s actually an upgrade especially if it doesn’t leak. Just my two cents.

No. The value isn't lost unless the body panels are permanently altered. If they are, then sure, the value is lost I guess. The value is definitely *not* lost if the cable needs adjustment and it needs a new set of seals.

Why would you doubt anyone would fix a sunroof? That's a real common thing, haha.

I think this is very much driven by your perspective. Are you used to buying broken cars and hacking them up for fun? Some car enthusiasts are - especially in lower income regions. Most people are not. Most the buying audience of the 100 certainly is not.

 

[Pinestreet]

I think it depends on the rest of the car. Is this thing trashed? Ripped seats? Peeling paint? Rust throughout? Missing or broken interior panels? Dented body panels? If so, then weld er up! You're not going to lose much. If the car is nice you're just going to flat out lose your audience when you go to sell. You'll have the majority of the market turn away immediately once they see it.

Me, for instance. I'm not buying an amateur-welded sunroof delete. You could have a great vehicle otherwise, but I'll walk away entirely. The level of detail and work to properly delete the sunroof is significantly more than the work required to replace the entire assembly and get it working 100%. If I'm shopping a used LC and someone chose to delete the assembly and weld in a panel on a luxury SUV, I'm assuming it's because they lacked the means and/or know-how to fix it, but had the misplaced enthusiasm to bring out the welder and spray paint. Not exactly an ideal previous owner, haha. Put that energy into fixing the sunroof.

Wheeling in the mountains with the sunroof open is awesome.



No. The value isn't lost unless the body panels are permanently altered. If they are, then sure, the value is lost I guess. The value is definitely *not* lost if the cable needs adjustment and it needs a new set of seals.

Why would you doubt anyone would fix a sunroof? That's a real common thing, haha.

I think this is very much driven by your perspective. Are you used to buying broken cars and hacking them up for fun? Some car enthusiasts are - especially in lower income regions. Most people are not. Most the buying audience of the 100 certainly is not.

Thanks for the good chuckle. Your talents are misplaced. You should be a writer! And a Jeep owner--full view of the sky when wheelin in the mountains with the rich people in their heavily modified (but not hacked up) luxury SUVs. Then you can head back for some McDonalds, which is by definition the restaurant food that appeals to the most people!

 

[Land Shark]

I used the clear flex seal tape. Been on a couple of months and no issues yet. Time will tell

 

[suprarx7nut]

Thanks for the good chuckle. Your talents are misplaced. You should be a writer! And a Jeep owner--full view of the sky when wheelin in the mountains with the rich people in their heavily modified (but not hacked up) luxury SUVs. Then you can head back for some McDonalds, which is by definition the restaurant food that appeals to the most people!

Hey now, Jeeps don't get to hog all the open-top fun.

 

[Pinestreet]

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Just happened to click on this link this morning and the owner lists just six bullet points about his 100. One of them is SEALED SUNROOF!!!

But I guess it's just because he's poor and the vehicle is a complete mess that no enthusiast would buy!

I guess he should have just bought a "poverty pack" 100 with a slicktop and cloth seats (OH the humanity!)

 

[Skleet]

As someone who has "deleted a sunroof" on a diff Toyota, I think ur forgetting how thin the sheet metal is on a roof. When U start welding in a structure large enough to cover and seal with weld, u introduce a lot of heat into the center of a large thin sheet on metal that is attached only on the ends normally (the center supports use blobs of bonding adhesive). I welded in a structure slowly but still have wrapping and had to build a secondary structure needed for other things I was already planning on and used said help remove some of the bowing brought on by the welding. If I was not already doing a # on body mods, working with a vehicle that already had its roof replaced (shop did a horrible job which caused rusting around all the body windows) and not comfortable welding, I would never do this to a DD car I was planning to keep stock, IMO the only way to properly do said would be to correctly replace to whole roof panel and repaint the car or u'll end up with a warped mess the and armature will try and fill with bondo...

 

[Pinestreet]

As someone who has "deleted a sunroof" on a diff Toyota, I think ur forgetting how thin the sheet metal is on a roof. When U start welding in a structure large enough to cover and seal with weld, u introduce a lot of heat into the center of a large thin sheet on metal that is attached only on the ends normally (the center supports use blobs of bonding adhesive). I welded in a structure slowly but still have wrapping and had to build a secondary structure needed for other things I was already planning on and used said help remove some of the bowing brought on by the welding. If I was not already doing a # on body mods, working with a vehicle that already had its roof replaced (shop did a horrible job which caused rusting around all the body windows) and not comfortable welding, I would never do this to a DD car I was planning to keep stock, IMO the only way to properly do said would be to correctly replace to whole roof panel and repaint the car or u'll end up with a warped mess the and armature will try and fill with bondo...

That is very good advice and I really appreciate that you didn't lecture us on "whether" to do it, but rather gave insight as to "how" to do it. Which was the original poster's question.

What do you think about a sunroof delete panel that bolts into existing mounting points and is sealed with RTV? This is what many BMW owners do and panels are available for many different makes and models. And it probably saves them a tiny bit of money in fuel over the next 300k with the reduced weight and better drag coefficient!!!

 

[Skleet]

Personal I don't like the RTV part, I'd want a repair/fix that was one and done. To be clear I am not body person (as work) but I'm not afraid to cut and weld/fix/mod panels etc. After talking with someone more exp in said I picked up a 3m two part epoxy chalk/adhesive gun (part#08571). Was told some body shops r moving away from welding replacement panels on and r starting to glue them on with these two part epoxy's, I haven't had time to look into said epoxy's but I was thinking one of these used to permanently seal in a "sunroof panel", mite work, if one can sand these epoxy's and paint over them... or just skim some body filler over then paint...

As far as bolting in a panel, from my exp the bolt point for the sunroof structure r located near the A & B pillars, this would require designing a surface that bolt to said locations and then had it's own points for the sunroof panel to bolt too, but could just be over thinking it...

 

[Malleus]

I don't think so. Minimalist are crazy. They'll pay anything for minimalism.

Yeah, all four of them

 

[Malleus]

For those that did a sunroof delete...which path did you take? Retain glass and seal up? Weld shut?
Looking for suggestions/examples on how to do this as mine is a mess -held together with jb weld and zip ties.

I have a spare you can have. It just needs to be cleaned and lubed. It'll take all of an hour to swap them.

 

[nikoli]

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Just happened to click on this link this morning and the owner lists just six bullet points about his 100. One of them is SEALED SUNROOF!!!

But I guess it's just because he's poor and the vehicle is a complete mess that no enthusiast would buy!

I guess he should have just bought a "poverty pack" 100 with a slicktop and cloth seats (OH the humanity!)

I thought it was pretty clear he delineated between enthusiast and non-enthusiast.

It makes sense that deleting the sunroof would eliminate most non-enthusiast buyers, which would leave the seller with only enthusiasts being interested. This would also eliminate potential trade-in at most any lot.

At some point the hack is more expensive than the fix. It’s worth noting where that point is… and it seems to be at welding. No reason to disparage a person for stating it on a public web forum.

 

[bridgeburner]

Honestly guys, I have had gorilla brand black duct tape sealing my minorly leaky sunroof closed for close to 4 years now. I've replaced it once.

It was one of those temporary but now permanent fixes. It works fine even if it is a little ghetto.

I think you are overthinking it.

This is the same solution on my truck. With a front runner roof rack there isn’t much point in having a sunroof IMO.