Happy new year everyone

Amazing work; can't wait to see the finished car!

After a couple of weeks a phone call came my way and the sunroof frame was ready to pick up. I was after a satin base coat not lacquered so I had to wait a while for it to be painted as my painter didn't want to mix up such a small amount just for this. That wasn't a problem let’s face it I've got plenty to get on with lol.

Sorry about the next batch of pictures I had no idea they had come out so dark. To say I was over the moon with the work done on the frame is a massive understatement it's perfect it really is like new.

Right first thing here is to refit the seal now this imo should be done out of the car but I guess it just comes down to what tools you have but the tools I'm using here are really cheap to buy so would be well worth the investment.

The aim is to bond the old seal back into its groove this is not always necessary but in my case the seal had shrunk too much so every time I pushed one corner in the opposing corner would pull out again.

My idea here is to bond one corner of the seal in then clamp it down, then move to the opposite corner to bond and clamp that corner, then leave it to go off. I will repeat the process on the other two corners another day.

Fitting the first side.

So first side in, you must make sure you don’t use to much sealer and also trail fit the seal dry before you are ready to put sealer on that way you will know when the seal is fully seated. This is really important as you don't want the seal to sit proud anywhere as this will lift the glass off and cause the same leaks you had before you started. With the Britax sunroof the groove the seal sits in runs right round the edge of the frame and the seal should be pushed down into the frame about 4mm to sit perfect but you should be able to feel it bottom out with your fingers.

The other side, I took this into work the following day so the sealer I used had at least 24hours to set.

Here are some close ups.

Panel clamps really help here as I could control the amount of pressure and the flat feet they have makes sure I don't pinch or split the seal.

This is the sealer I used pretty strong stuff I did a test on a piece of old boot seal which I stuck to my bench and it was a git to pull off lol.

After all that was done I left all four corners clamped up for 48 hours at room temp (approx 18degs). Before refitting the frame I had one thing I wanted to do and that was deal with the electrics to the interior light as these had fallen down and were visible on the roof liner. All I did to fix this was use some good quality cable tacks with 3M sticky pads and some zip ties to hold the cables up. A small note here, allow for a good gap against the roof of the car as you don't want them rattling against that either.

Now it’s just a case of refitting the hole unit which is basically the reverse of how you go it out, I didn't take any pictures of the sunroof going back in because the sealer starts to skin over in about 10-15 minutes so I didn't have time but it’s important to apply the sealer to both the frame and the exterior of the roof skins just to make sure you get the very best seal, I even used a 10ml syringe to inject a constant bead all the way round the edge of the frame just so I know there is no way water is ever getting in.

I will edit this post with some fitted shots when I next return, cheers peeps.

Amazing work; can't wait to see the finished car!

You and me both chap, I've got a Mk2 golf to build for the other half

Sounds awesome. Are you going to post a build thread for that on here as well?

that red mk2f is a peach!! I agree looks great in red - would look the nuts with some 14" botteltops painted dark grey metallic ...

Sounds awesome. Are you going to post a build thread for that on here as well?

Probably but it might be on clubgti instead but we'll see😉

that red mk2f is a peach!! I agree looks great in red - would look the nuts with some 14" botteltops painted dark grey metallic ...

Yer it was, it was an ex demonstrater so it was full of really weird bits and bobs. Unfortunately I sold it to a plum who decided he would respray it himself on his driveway even though he had never picked up a gun before. He prept it using 80grit and didnt mask anything off then wondered why he couldn't sell it a couple of months later, faceparm.

Edited 2 January, 201610 yr by dirtydubs

Just a quick little update this one and a few snaps to show the freshly refurbished sunroof back in the car.

After the glass had been slipped back into place I could fit the little plastic spacer stops, these had been in soak for a couple of days in Autoglym Vinyl & rubber care just as a precaution.

These little plastic stoppers fit in four places around the frame like so

As I mentioned in my last post I used a 10ml syringe to apply a perfect bead of sealer around the outside of the frame then before it had a chance to dry I wiped away any excess with cotton wool buds soaked in Panel wipe. It's important to use Panel wipe NOT thinners as thinners will bugger the paint on the roof and possibly the frame if you have just had it repainted.

This should leave you with a nice small rad on the edge of your frame like so.

I'm really chuffed with how this turned out it really is like a new glass top. To have a working sunroof ready for summer is a massive plus I'm sure this will add a lot to the driving experience and fun factor of the car once she's back on the road.

With plenty of coats of Autoglym the rubber seal has come up lovely.

The only true way to find out if all your hard work has paid off is to soak it with a hose pipe but before you do here is what you should be looking for once your cleaned sunroof glass is refitted you should have two thin black lines all the way round the edge of the glass where the seal is being pushed up against the glass like so

Those to little lines are your road to a leak free life if you can see those then your work here is done, sit back and admire your handy work and as soon as the sun comes out pull over whip the glass out and enjoy the rest of the drive home.

Right so there you have it my "How to guide" on glass after-market/dealer fit sunroofs yes it's time consuming but all the best results are. If you have yours professionally Painted or Powder coated then the total cost of this job is about £80 but if you do it yourself then you only have the cost of the sealer and some paint but please do yourself a favour and don't scrimp on the sealer a good sealer will cost about a tenner and will last about twenty years a cheap B&Q silicon sealer will be a git to work with and last about five if your lucky so you do the maths. So go on give it a go don't just silicon it shut, refurbish it and enjoy it.

As always thanks for reading and your comments good or bad are always welcome.

Edited 4 January, 201610 yr by dirtydubs

That's a fantastic job you have done, very OCD and I love that. Way above my own standards even if I'm being pedantic about my work lol

Hats off, can't wait to see more

Hi you just going back a bit , when you repaired the pipe of doom in the drivers side inner rear section did you cut it right down and just run a piece of hose through. Mines rusted like yours did but I should be able to cut it down to a sump and get the whole welded on the inner arch by the filler neck ? What do you reckon ??

Hi you just going back a bit , when you repaired the pipe of doom in the drivers side inner rear section did you cut it right down and just run a piece of hose through. Mines rusted like yours did but I should be able to cut it down to a sump and get the whole welded on the inner arch by the filler neck ? What do you reckon ??

Yer that's basically how I've done mine the metal pipe is suppose to restrict flames entering the car in the case of a fire but my thinking was if the fires got that bad the cars a lose anyway so balls to it I'm legging it lol. That said however I have replaced the pipe in the past it just depends how much of the sill is gone and how much access you have but it does make feeding the new rubber breather pipe through really easy as it just pushes through the new steal pipe with ease. But make sure you test fit your new tank and make sure the hole in the inner wing lines up with the pipe input on the tank neck before you go making any holes as there is bugger all room once the tank is fitted and this will effect how the tank neck fits in the petrol flap area afterwards.

Next water leak is the front windscreen this as a lot of you will know is a very common rust point. It's safe to say I've done a few of these over the years so this next bit was like second nature. First let me say that repairs in these sorts of areas have to be done to a good standard, simply skimming over with filler and repainting will only last a couple of years at very best and will double the repair job in the long run so if you are going to undertake this yourself get prepared and tooled up or if you’re going to get a shop to do it for you get them to explain exactly how they will tackle the problem and thoroughly inspect the repair after, before you hand over your hard earned cash.

So here’s what I had to deal with at the base of the screen on both sides.

Passenger side.

Although I cannot guaranty that rust will never ever return to this area of the car again I can at least talk you through the ways you can try and hopefully give you an idea of what lay ahead if you are contemplating this kind of repair yourself and at the price some body shops charge I don’t blame you lol

First of all here are the sorts of tools you will need to arm yourself with.

And some of the sealer

First of all let’s get the screen out it’s the only way to be totally sure of doing the best possible repair. The screen that was in the car was original but was badly chipped and would not pass an MOT so I took the easy route and pushed it out with my feet. If you wish to refit your screen afterwards you will need to carefully push the rubber seal out of the window frame bit by bit with plastic pushers of some kind DO NOT be tempted to use screwdrivers, if the metal touches the edge of the glass it will crack. It’s a bit of a shame really as all the glass is original but there is nothing better than driving with a fresh new screen in so I will fit a new one after all the repairs were done.

Original factory fitted screen.

The wiper arms proved to be a bit tricky but that’s was to be expected when they looked like this lol

With screen out this is what I found lurking underneath the drivers side.

Passengers.

As you can see they was a hole leading into the car on both sides so that was another leak point found.

Right first things first it was time for a clean up just to see what I was up against. The aim here is to remove any bad metal so I need to establish how far back I needed to cut. I used 3M 120 grit 25mm sanding disc's to start.

You can see here from this picture the three areas I have arrowed. On the right you have the rust that will need cutting out, obviously lol. On the top left arrow you have the clean unmarked, good metal. On the bottom left arrow you can see the Grey/Beige dip treatment that was applied in the factory this is the stuff you want to keep as its your best defense against rust in the future nothing you can buy off the shelf will better it and is the sole reason you should never take any panel back to bare metal.

Right now to do a bit more surgery

You can see here the black marks left in the steel by the rust its these that will need to be removed.

You can do this by cutting them out them out or by working the steel with things like scotch brite pads like these

The idea is to slowly and gently work the metal untill all the black spots are removed.

You can cheat a bit here if you have any black marks (oxidisation) close to the cut edges where you will end up welding then you can leave them as the heat of the welding process will burn the rust right out of the steel. You will be able to see this as the repair proceeds.

With the the bad metal cut out you can now see the corrosion has started to spread to the inner panels.

Armed with my trusty Pencil grinder and a bullet tipped diamond bit we soon sorted that, thankfully it was just surface rust and it came off really easily.

Getting there.

That's better.

With that done it was time to seal it with a good coat of acid etch primer.

Now time for the passenger side, although the hole was bigger and I had lost a bit of the frame itself the rust had not spread as far in to the inner wing as the drivers side so it was a bit easier.

With the frame repaired.

I then primed it and returned the next morning to apply a good thick coating of stone chip something that should of been done in the first place.

Back over to the drivers side.

This will give me the best chance of protecting all surfaces even the ones I can't see.

PLEASE BEWARE! Do not weld while this stone chip is wet as I've mentioned before it's extremely flammable so it will need at least 12 hours to go off before you can weld in the outer repair panels.

Till next time thanks again and if you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask I can only try my best to help

Love your very detailed write ups, looking forward to seeing the repair continue

Love your very detailed write ups, looking forward to seeing the repair continue

Thanks chap, tbh i think i got off lightly as there really wasn't much rust even on the drivers side. Another 6 months outside and it might of been a much bigger job

Loving the attention to detail here, learning a lot about bodywork repairs too which is handy as ill be lightly resorting my Mk2 Coupe in a couple of months. Good luck with the rest of it, looking forward to more updates!

Sounds awesome. Are you going to post a build thread for that on here as well?

Probably but it might be on clubgti instead but we'll see

Cool!

Hi guy's sorry for that lack of updates, I have a new computer and I'm struggling to get to grips with certain things.

I've recently become a MAC user and the only thing I'm struggling with is how to use Photobucket on my mac it doesn't seem to let me copy the image link like m old PC used to, anyone here a mac user?

Oh and apologies if there are any weird posts that pop up and then get deleted as I'm just playing around trying to learn how this bloody mac works lol.

Loving the attention to detail here, learning a lot about bodywork repairs too which is handy as ill be lightly resorting my Mk2 Coupe in a couple of months. Good luck with the rest of it, looking forward to more updates!

Thanks chap, I want to try and help people look after there own cars and try to give as much tips from what I have found to work over the years I'm doing this tread more as a "how to" rather than a look at how many mods I have thing. As far as yours is concerned chap, the one piece of advice I always try to give is, put your time into the prep this includes cost of materials don't scrimp on sealers and tools as you will use them for multiple jobs and they will make your life easier in the long run. Always try to think from every angle and consider what your repair will have to put up with in the future i.e. moisture, temp changes and condensation etc etc. Don't leave any stone unturned but at the same time try to leave as much of the factory metal untouched "if it aint broke don't fix it". oh and post some pics I have had two coupe s models over the years and I miss them both deeply.

Never think "it will be alright" as just skimming over with filler or sealer will stop it for now but in the long run will only force the rust in deeper and that will be twice as hard and twice as expensive in the future plus there is nothing worse than that feeling of know you mucked up and you know why lol

Love da concours coupe proper originality with those 50pence piece alloys, wich are on my mk2f coupe boulevard but after a 5th for spare

Love da concours coupe proper originality with those 50pence piece alloys, wich are on my mk2f coupe boulevard but after a 5th for spare

That car was stunning with no rot what so ever I really kicked myself for selling it I knew then I was never going to find another so original.

I've got one like da but its mk2f, mot tester asked wer I got it from because no rust or welding n e wer. And 2 owners wich 1 owned from new for 2-3 months then 2nd til I got it last year 1993-2015

I think I've sorted out my new Mac I'm just checking to see if this image loads up ok and the size is still ok

Can you guy see this ok? does it seem any different to any of my previous posts?

Many thanks.

Edited 24 February, 201610 yr by dirtydubs

I've got one like da but its mk2f, mot tester asked wer I got it from because no rust or welding n e wer. And 2 owners wich 1 owned from new for 2-3 months then 2nd til I got it last year 1993-2015

Sounds great, keep it as original as poss bud there getting so hard to find in good honest condition. Have you got a thread on it?

image is working well good sir!