'74 Sunroof Repairs

[Bradley82]

Okay, so my sunroof isn't working (cables are snapped), and the crank is rusted and has a broken spring. Fortunately I got it closed, but I'm afraid to open it until I can fix everything.

Where can I purchase replacements at a reasonable price? I'm thinking it might be tough to grab decent ones from a pick-n-pull, and Bavauto gouges like mad.

Also does someone want to walk me through their replacement? I don't want to mess up the sunroof, since it does tend to rain quite a bit around here and a leaky roof is not something I want to worry about.

[DukeRimmer]

I have the know how, the parts, and I'm in Santa Cruz. Cables are so weak you should buy new if you can.

[Bradley82]

I put in my sunroof seals and headliner with the heavy duty 3m trim yellow stuff. Did as directed. Cleaned and prepaired all surfaces. Scuffed and degreased. Sprayed both liner and car with a cross spray as directed when possible.Let sit between 15-30 min. then stuck it. Everything "looked" great. It has been a around 2 months now and between 85 and 95 degrees out side and most of the glue has loosened in the last few days. Headliner's saging. Still very sticky but won't hold back to the surface. Tallked to my brother (3m VIP)and he said they had lots of issues. Tallked to a friend that owns a very high end body shop and said the same. He said find the green stuff the pro's use whatever the name is. Good luck

Any ideas on what the name of that stuff is to bond the seals to the panel and car?

Awesome. I love this forum!

What's your flexibility like? If you could walk me through the install or maybe make some time I could bring her by. I should probably just buy the cables from bavauto, I'm guessing, since I can't find any other aftermarket parts online, and don't trust used cables.

[DukeRimmer]

Tinkidz is advising pro contact adhesive for the headliner. My favorite pro in santa cruz is Robert's on Chanticleer. I use wurth rubber glue for sunroof seals. I wrote and saved the following for someone working with seals. Let me know if you have questions about cables.

Open the sunroof just enough to grasp the front of the headliner. Pull down till the clips are free of the sunroof and push back a little. Close the sunroof, and slide the headliner all the way back. Remove the four retaining screws, and if you’re worried about adjustment, tape the knurled adjustment nuts in position. Push the front of the slider up, and lift forward and out. Watch the sharp rear corners as they pass the fixed roof to avoid paint damage.

Start the front seal at the end, and the rear seal at the center. Mask the roof at the edge of the radius to aid clean up. Use contact adhesive technique, meaning apply glue to both surfaces and allow it to tack before applying seal. It will instantly bond so there's no need to tape it in place. Glue the side of the seal that has the seam.

I've seen main (front) seals cut short so the ends are exposed. This will begin to unravel in about ten minutes. It wants to have two sharp bends in the ends so that it terminates 20mm under the roof. There is an indentation in the jamb to accept the ends.

The rear seal wants to curve down before ending. When closed you want to see no ends. It's a good idea also to end the rubber insert 4mm short of the felt to allow it to fit more snuggly into the gap, and to glue the ends to prevent unraveling. I like to very tightly tape the ends down and leave to dry over night. This is, again, to get the rear seal into the gap as far as possible. Both seals want to stand 1mm proud of the roof.

Some guys refer to the rubber strip glued to the rear of the sliding roof as a seal, but it's a bumper to prevent knocking on rough roads. It does not need replacing until it's cracked. Others think the felt seals should be water tight. They are not. Water intrusion is a result of plugged drains. Your sunroof is very easy to remove and replace, so why bother trying to install felt seals without removal? Installation of the seals on the other hand is not easy. There are many ways to make errors. The glue can be applied so that it’s visible on the seal when the job is done. The masking can get glued in the gap between paint and seal and be hard to remove. I like to remove it immediately to prevent this, but then the glue is still sticky and stringy so it can be messy. The hardest part is locating the curves in the rear corners, especially if you don’t have an original to use as a guide. Sorry I don’t have pics that would make this text more understandable. Best of luck with your project.

[Bradley82]

Wow. Being a total newbie to this, it seems a bit daunting. I mean, the only things mechanical I know how to do right now are change the oil and tires, and basic maintenance stuff. Do you have pictures that might accompany the above walkthrough? It's hard to visualize without wondering how many different ways I'm going to screw it up.

That or, if you're in Santa Cruz, I could bring my car by and you can point things out as you explain in person, which would be the ideal situation since I am an utter newb.

[DukeRimmer]

Sorry no pics. Let me know when you get the cables. Are you doing seals? Cables are easy, but plenty of room for error when changing seals.

[Harv]

Check out this link.

http://www.my2002tii.com/spring_2005/sunroof.htm

John

[Bradley82]

Ooh, that helped a bit. Now I've got some visuals.

[TBBMW]

Soooooooo would you suggest we use the Wurth Rubber Glue on the headliner? I am still a bit confused on what to use on my Polaris project to install my new headliner.