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Hi,

I started stripping my S2 rst which i have owned for the last 12 years, and was hoping to do a bit of welding and a bit of blowing in of the paint work. I have now got the car stripped to a bear shell and found rot everywhere (its amazing how a mint looking car can be so bad underneath all the plastic and interior)!!! should just re-shell but as I've had the car so long Im gonna stick with it. It need rear quaters, front panel, rear panel, inner arches, battery tray, full scuttle, floor panels and chassis sections etc etc!! at the same time Im converting to Cos management, Gaz coilovers, Big brembo f3 brakes and reconditioning and replacing everything that is needed.

Anyway, I got the sunroof out which needs replacing and roof lining down. The panel which holds the sunroof runners and which the sunroof slides back into is badly rotten and has started to rust through to the outside causing the paint to bubble (common I know). I would like some advice or links to threads that could help with the following-

-Is the panel welded or just sealed into place (I cant see any signs of spot welding)
-How do I remove the panel?
-Is there a replacment panel available?
-has anyone done away with the sunroof completely and if so how and what roof lining did you use??

Any other help woud be great.

If anyone is interested I will start a thread in the restoration catagory.

Thanks Sam

botters

iTrader: (2)

if you want to get rid of the sunroof you are better off just welding a roof skin on off a non sunroof model mk4 and using the non sunroof headlining or a 16i headlining its not as bad a job as you would think, or you could bond a carbon roof onto your existing roof?

jonny s2

iTrader: (12)

sounds like theres lots of work and money to be spent there, if its that bad i would be tempted for a re-shell, look for a near perfect shell and transplant all the bits over, not your original car i know and prob not the advice you were wanting, but its much more economical in the long run,

best of luck jonny

RSGold

Where are carbon roofs available for a mk4 and what it would cost? I have this prob and would consider this option. Cheers

jonny s2

iTrader: (12)

carbon delight prob down the road from you

little bram

The sunroof tray is spot welded in mate. If you look from the top of your roof where the sunroof sits there are spot welds around the top. you should see where the two skins meet. then under it is bonded on. Don't just try to pull it off when you've drilled the welds out because you will just crease the roof and you will never get it right after that. you will have to cut it off like cutting a windscreen out.

hope this helps

lee

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Yes I know your right, Even if I was sensible enough to go for a re-shell I think I would struggle to find one good enough. I want to do the work so i can be 100% happy with how good the car is. The welding and sand blasting will cost me nothing, Quality pattern panels are cheap enough. Just the painting may cost a pretty penny. Hows your car coming on??? (I bought the Cos management from you). Wanna swap shells?!?!

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Cheers Lee, I'll take another look. So the panel is only spot welded around the perimeter of the roof opening? As the sunroof panel runs the full length of the car is it just bonded from the roof opening backwards??

Chopshop85

iTrader: (4)

Do not re-shell it! keep old fords alive.

tripod

Hi mate iv a full roof of a origanal rs turbo tiny bit of rust on it i was going to do a full roof swap on mine but its not as bad as i first thought im up in bolton and im open to offers for it cheers

jonny s2

iTrader: (12)

lol, i know what your saying mate but ive been thro it all many a time and altho its nice to do the work yourself, when you have soo much to do it just gets too much and the time will come when you just want to use it especially summer/show season, you want the one in the garage lol.
finished the grey one sam
hope all is well mate

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Thats it the moonstone, Straight swap yeah?? lol

I'm gonna go ahead anyway, you can tell me 'I told ya so' when I have to drive my escort diesel runner to the shows.

jonny s2

iTrader: (12)

yeah no worries mate il pay for petrol too

it will be worth it in the end mate, its just a brain drainer at times lol
good luck with it, and to keep the enthusiasm alive put a resto thread up like ive done, just keeps you going lol

s1cab

iTrader: (1)

just found this...

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ford-escort-mk...item43a188596a

tripod

roofs now listed on ebay mate

little bram

yes mate thats the one. just be careful when you take it off because the roof skin is very weak. can be repaired tho just takes time. get some pics up mate.

lee

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I got this in a PM from Phil who I contacted after reading an older post, Thought I'd paste it here in case it is of any help to anyone else in the future.

alrite sam,

nope its not a problem at all, basically in a way i got mine sorted but as i was out to just try and stop the rot all i did was do away with the sunroof completely by cutting the old one out and replaced it with a piece of sheet steel, this was meant to be a temporary fix until i could sort out somthing more permanant but then i found the rest of the car to be rotten so ended up scrapping it, basically when i cut mine out i had no intentions of refitting it and the underside of the roof looked like this:

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g2...0102009253.jpg

and the actual tray when i'd got it out looked like this:

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g2...0102009254.jpg

the sunroof tray is spotwelded around the front and a couple at the back then its just pretty much tigersealed in, like i said as i had no intention of putting mine back in, i drilled out the spotwelds on the back with a spot weld drill, then heated up the tigerseal to get it soft and just peeled it back to the front, i then took a thin cutting disc on a grinder and cut around the inside edge of the actual sunroof hole, then it pretty much fell out, then i got the piece of sheet steel and bolted it in with stainless steel allen bolts with some tigerseal to to seal it, after i'd finished it looked like this:


http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g2...2102009259.jpg
http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g2...2102009258.jpg

and the inside looked like this:

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g2...2102009260.jpg

i hope this helps even a little bit, it all depends how far you wanna go with the repair, i mean if your like me just trying to stop the rot thats a perfectly good repair untill you get summat else sorted, or you could always get a carbon roof etc or see how rotten the rest of the car is, if its bad maybe a reshell, its up to you,

anyways like i said hope this helps and i hope you get it sorted,

Phil

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Thanks for the help, restoation thread now started here https://passionford.com/forum/restor...ml#post5089118

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I need a sinroof if anyone has one, Must be mint

botters

iTrader: (2)

i had a sinroof but i took it to confession and it is no longer a sinroof

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LOL, Smart ass. Dont suppose you have ERST2 Sunroof too??