Pass the angle grinder - lots of pics

Geez your still busy with your Mark1 mate i remember watching this thread years ago and i just got one of those topic reply notifications,so it looks like you braving one of the most difficult areas to restore on a mk1 the dreaded sunroof,good on you fella most people sh!t there nickers and seek a solid roof to replace it with but your doing mighty fine with your attempt! Keep it up mate and enjoy the wind in your hair on those hot sunny days. Nice work!!!

Cheers, pretty much finished the roof area now, getting ready to spray it. Seeing your work on your red mk1's roof was what made me think it was worth a go .

More updates (from last year)

Cleaning out scuttle/raintray.

Mainly solid with surface rust. This was the only repair needed.

Repairs to the O/S steering mount.

This is one of the areas that the car failed its MOT on back in 2005 (that long ago  8O ). Seems it's another common MK1 rust area.

The extent of the damge. Rust had got into between the outer plate (part of the steering rack bracket) and the bottom of bulkhead blowing the two pieces apart.

Cutting away the rot.



All the rot removed.



Section made up for repair of bulkhead corner. Due to accessabilty, in terms of fitting and welding, this area had to be repaired with several sections.

Welded in place.


New section for steering rack bracket made from 3mm steel.

Welded into place.

New section for front of steering rack mount.

Welded in to place.

Finished repair


Cheers

Roof repairs and refitting sunroof tray.

I spent some time removing the rust from the undersde of the roof skin. The roof skin is thin and delicate without the sunroof drain tray in place and I was worried using the angle grinder would generate too much heat and pressure. So by hand I sanded of as much rust as possible and then used Bilt & Hamber rust removing gel to get back to clean metal.

As you can see number of holes in roof skin. I decided to weld in repairs to these areas, but only after the sunroof tray was back in place to provide rigidity.


Sunroof tray welded into place (roof skin not attached at this point)




The sunroof tray is welded in place apart from at the rear of the opening where the roof skin is folded back around a roof brace (attached to the sunroof tray). I managed to unpick/bend back the roof skin here with a screwdriver and snipe nose pliers. When refitting I was able to crimp the roof skin back around the sunroof tray roof brace avoiding the need for any cutting or welding.   

Plug welding the roof skin into the sunroof tray.

You are doing wonders on this car!

Markwon,

Awesome work.  I'm dying to know how you fed the hoses that drain the sunroof train at the front and the back.  Pics please!  Did you use the original ones, or have your replaced them with something new?  Any problems feeding them through?

Hi, have to admit I haven't done that yet   . I ordered some drain hose from Crazyquiff a year or two ago, but I found that although the inner bore is right the outer width is somewhat thicker than the original. This isn't an issue at the rear as all the holes are big enough, but it will be an issue with holes in the A posts, they'll be a way round it though.

Not too worried about problems feeding the tubes through, should just push through, plus most of the interior trim is removed so I can get at areas.

I'll try and get more pics up soon, car is basically finished and being refitted at the moement, hope to get an MOT around March.