Rusted Sunroof seal - roof out repair

[bizw0z]

Sunroof out, seal repair
Thanks to Dr Dave. I Stole a few pointers but the overall repair is quite different, but certainly takes longer. I didnt need to use liquid metal to rebuild any large patches of missing metal so didn't cover it

Attachment is this in a pdf for printing.

Tools/equipment
• White spirit
• Wire wool
• Wire brush
• Dremel if you have one.. really makes life easier
• Dremel attachments for sanding, de-burring, cleaning, etc
• Smooth hammerite with rust-proof (saves kurust and paint)
• Black Silicon sealant (I used black screwfix silicon for bathrooms)
• Liquid threadlock
• T25 torx screwdriver or socket bit



Sunroof removal
This is the easy bit. Tilt sunroof up fully.



Remove cover plates by sliding them backwards. There is one on each side.
There is a small C at the front. This stops the cover from rattling back and forwards. If it has broken but the parts are still there, Super glue it back together now. That way it will be dry when you come back to re-assembly.
Put both plates out of the way, I just put them on the dash, you don’t need them anymore till you have finished.


You can now see the 3 bolts holding the sun-roof on. You will need a T25 screwdriver or socket bit to take them out.



Remove the 3 from each side and put them safe. The ashtray or somewhere like that. They should be a bit tight as they have thread lock on them.
Now carefully lift the sunroof straight up. The last thing you want is lovely scratches on the roof from the securing tabs.

Sunroof seal removal
Now the sunroof is out, If your car is outside, I think you had better cover the hole with a tarp or similar, or put it in the garage. You really don’t want the interior washed if it rains. Leave the sunroof arms in the tilted position, at least any rain will run off…

Back to business..
Remove the seal. I personally started at one end and took it of going all the way around. I found with all 3 I have done so far, rover put a blob of resin near the corners. If the seal stops at any point, you stop pulling. Now with a knife or small screwdriver, prise the resin away from the sunroof. Don’t worry about scratching the paint. If your sunroof is so rusted its lifted, a scratch in it is nothing. You are going to be painting it anyway.

Sunroof seal cleaning
Check the inside of the seal, especially near the corners where you will probably have glued bits of rust attached to the seal. There will probably also be quite a bit of rust still inside the seal elsewhere aswell.
Clean out all loose rust and then clean out the channel with a screwdriver covered in a cloth, soaked in white spirit. The last thing you want is the sealant sticking, or trying to stick to, rust dust and debris.
Once clean, put the seal to one side to dry out. White spirit doesn’t take long though.

Sunroof rust removal
Now you have the joy of cleaning the rust off of your sunroof. Believe it or not, this is the best condition one of the 3 I did.



This is what to expect, or worse.






Cleaning rust is nothing new to any of you but here’s how I went about it.
The dremel came into its own for this next part. Mine is a B&Q special that came with an extension meaning its almost like the size of a pen to use. Really useful.

Firstly, start on the underside area as that’s where the bulk of the rust is. Using the dremel with the sanding wheel, remove all traces of rust AND any bubbled paint as that’s rust waiting to happen.



Here’s where you need to be…



The brown patches are light surface rust that will be cured by the hammerite. Remember, the more rust you remove, the more structural metal you will remove.
Ok, the underside is cleaner, now quickly run around the sides and make sure you have got the loose rust from there.



Finally, the hardest part. The gutter around the top of the glass.
This gutter I will be full of rust and rubber sealant which is a pig to get out , unless you have this fantastic attachment for the dremel .



It came in a dremmel kit so I don’t have a part number, but its such a time saver.

With the dremmel on a low speed, run this around the channel removing the rust and rubber from it. The rubber I found in the channel had rust underneath, so removing the rubber meant the rust was able to be reached cleaned and treated.



Do be aware, the glass can sometimes be off centre. Cleaning the bits you can’t get at there, are back to a small screwdriver and wire wool. Luckily, these areas are few, and small.

Painting the roof
Im not going to go mad on this part. I painted all of the metal roof just so it had a uniform colour. Make sure you get plenty into the gutter when painting the top. This is where the water will collect if you have a gap in the sealant. Let it dry overnight…

Sunroof Sealant
This is where Dr Dave and I disagree about the amount of sealant. I loaded it up big time. The first bead I put inside the seal itself, taking it from end to end. This will coat the outside of the roof gutter and spread round underneath the sunroof.



The second bead I put into the gutter around the glass roof, putting the sealant all the way around the sunroof in one go.



This picture shows the silicon a bit thick, I was fiddling with the camera whilst siliconing, bad move. Silicon should be level with the gutter and glass.

Now it’s a case of starting at one end and pushing the seal back into place. The join should be adjacent to the “secureit” label, there’s no precise place, after all, the seal is rubber. Work the seal into the gutter all of the way around and at the end you will inevitably have a gap at the end. The first one I did I used duck tape at the beginning and then closed the gap by working the seal around and once it met, pushed the ducktape on to hold it in place. Once its secure, push the top of the seal down to expel any excess silicon, this means you should get some excess all of the way round, meaning you have a layer of silicon between the glass and the sealant all of the way round. Remove any excess straight away. I used a Stanley knife blade to scrape the still wet silicon away from the TOP seal to leave a clean line, cleaning the blade on a rag.

To finish the seal, a tip from a tiler mate of mine. Lick the end of your little finger making it wet with saliva, then run your little finger around the edge of the join. The saliva will stop the silicon sticking to your finger, and give a superb rounded finish.

The next part is optional, but at this point, I refitted the sunroof in the car with the 4 corner bolts done up but not fully tightened. Close the sunroof and then tap the glass down so that it sits as it would do in normal use. This meant the seal would set in its perfect position and any excess silicon is forced out before it sets.
That’s it for today….



Next day, raise and remove the tape holding, hopefully, the seal ends together. If it held, a quick wipe over with kitchen roll and white spirit will remove any duck tape glue marks and your done.

If it didn’t hold or you have a gap, move to the next section. If its fine move to refitting

The tape didn’t hold or however hard I try, I still have a gap in the seal !!!
The method involving the vaseline and the silicon should work just fine but its not how I did it. I made the mistake of using poundland duck tape on the last two and it didn’t hold. This meant I came back the next day to a small gap.

To fill the gap, I used a slightly different method. I put some cellotape on the bottom of the gap and halfway up the seal. Now, pushing the silicon into the gap, fire some in so that it spreads into the two halves of the seal a little. Gradually withdraw the silicon nozzle and then fill the top of the gap with silicon. Wrap the tape around the two halves of the seal. The cellotape should make the silicon take the shape of the seal either side. Leave it to go off with the tape in place. Once set, remove the tape and clean up any excess silicon or cellotape glue.

Once happy, refit roof.

Refitting

Fit roof back with 4 loose bolts. Close the sunroof with loose bolts, once again, tap the roof down so that it’s in its right postion. Put a small amount of threadlock onto a centre bolt, put it in and tighten, do other centre bolt, then remove other 4, one by one, threadlock, replace, and tighten.

Raise sunroof and replace the side covers by moving them onto their pegs and pushing forwards till the click in.

Job done.

If you do have blobs of silicon or silicon finger prints left on the roof, either white spirit with wire wool will get rid of stubborn marks, or white spirit and kitchen roll for small spots. I would advise waiting a week or so afterwards before doing that so the silicon can completely cure. You don’t want the white spirit getting into the seal before its set and undoing your hard work..

You now have one VERY rustproofed sunroof that should last longer than the car…..

[Zaidain]

Great guide. +rep to you sir!

[chrisoverson]

Top marks mate will have to try this on mine, leaks all the damn time and I know it is rusty.

Unfortunately my seal has actually split but I'm sure I'll fix that some how....

Very nice guide, will most definately help plenty here

Rep given

[MetroMartin]

excellent guide, this will help alot of rover 25 owners as its a common problem.

Can you swap the sunroof for the earlier Rover 200 bubble as I think that uses a rubber seal surround?

[chrisoverson]

Originally Posted by MetroMartin

excellent guide, this will help alot of rover 25 owners as its a common problem.

Can you swap the sunroof for the earlier Rover 200 bubble as I think that uses a rubber seal surround?

mine is a 200 bubble and that doesn't seem to be fairing any better

[bizw0z]

Originally Posted by chrisoverson

Top marks mate will have to try this on mine, leaks all the damn time and I know it is rusty.

Unfortunately my seal has actually split but I'm sure I'll fix that some how....

Very nice guide, will most definately help plenty here

Rep given

If you mean split in two, you can treat the second split using the join fix. The only difference is fix one side, let the silicon go off, then fit the second half.

The silicon will act as a barrier to the water

[nikolas]

great post mate.. even though i don't have sunroof very nice guide..

[bizw0z]

thanks for the rep guys. appreciated. ;-)

[D.Ilbert]

Nice guide, probably better than mine.
- http://forums.mg-rover.org/showthread.php?p=4343662

Your sunroof was obviously in a lot worse condition & needed a lot more remedial work than mine.

You used to be able to buy new rubber seals from the Bristol Sunroof Centre (http://www.bristolsunroofs.co.uk/sunroofspares.php) but it looks like they have sold out.

Edit: Rep added

Regards
Dave

[bizw0z]

Thats true Dave. All 3 were in a right state when i got the rubbers off but then they were 2000-2002 cars.

the rubber seal covers most of the destruction as i found where the water had got in, the sunroof sits in the water gutter and just rots it away.

I probably went OTT on the silicant, but I know none of them are going to damn well leak or rust any more.

There may be a few people out there that only like doing a job once and taking their time, if so, it was worth my time writing it.

cheers for the rep mate. Appreciated.

[chrisoverson]

Originally Posted by bizw0z

If you mean split in two, you can treat the second split using the join fix. The only difference is fix one side, let the silicon go off, then fit the second half.

The silicon will act as a barrier to the water

it's more ripped than anything else, not split in two cleanly...

I know it could be fixed most likely or sealed up but it probably wouldn't look right. I'll try and find another seal first if I can.

[bizw0z]

Originally Posted by chrisoverson

it's more ripped than anything else, not split in two cleanly...

I know it could be fixed most likely or sealed up but it probably wouldn't look right. I'll try and find another seal first if I can.

bristol sunroof centre ebay outlet.....

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Rover-200-...item336a14fea3

;-)

[bizw0z]

did you get that one off ebay chris?

[unclefester]

First post just to say a big thanks to the OP. Just picked up an almost pristine 25 1.4 spirit with only 29k that leaked after the first shower of rain, probably my testing of the sunroof whilst purchasing the car finally caused the leak to become apparant.

Just carried out the above repair and am waiting for the silicon to set off before refitting the roof.

So big thanks again.

[barkerland45]

Perfect guide, many thanks to the OP and also for including a downloadable pdf to print off and refer to while carrying out the repair.

And for anyone thinking about doing this job but a bit worried as they like me are no pro mechanic...dont worry its a pretty straightforward job to do just take your time and allow a full day to do it. if your'e like me and didnt have a garage to put the car in while the sunroof was off the car, buy a cheap waterproof tarp or argos special roof/window cover (the kind they sell to stop getting iced up windows in the winter) and cover the car with this while doing the job incase it rains.

[carlnw1975]

great guide and a big thank you for the pdf download great stuff mate

[chelseablue96]

Great guide and i havnt even got a sunroof lol.

[psycho_terror]

Originally Posted by chelseablue96

great guide and i havnt even got a sunroof lol.

lucky man!

[bizw0z]

Not been back to this in a while..

Glad its helped so many.

[Foxy1957]

Great guide and many thanks for the in-depth information. Just repaired my son's Rover 25 '53 plate. Followed the guide step-by-step and the end product was absolutely spot on.
Many thanks again.