Sunroof seals, how to join them & more

pmansson

pmansson

Well-Known Member
Messages
877
Reaction score
31
Location
switzerland and sweden
I have the new, grey seals; front and rear. Obviously too long, and need to be cut and joined somewhere. I know that the front seal is glued to the body and the rear seal to the rear end of the sunroof panel.

A straight, 90 degree cut to make a perfect joint???
I read somewhere about leaving the ends of the front seal bent downwards....
I haven´t seen any closeup photos to judge just where the joint should be...
Just leave the clean cut ends, or treat them in any way?
And be careful to get them the same height, flush with the roof panel I assume???
Thanks. I need to tackle this now.

Did someone say that the old wires with their metal "bullet" ends are better than the modern ones with grey plastic "bullets" ?

And where does the teflon tape (which I haven´t found in any shop yet) go?
In the wide, long alu panels for the guides to run on....????
I use sewing machine oil on my Webasto sunroof on one of my old Jaguars. Works fine and the oil does not stain anywhere.
 
Felts

Here is a shot...hope it helps. The best advice I can give is to head to your local Volvo repair shop and look at a 240 sunroof sedan. An '84 was the example I followed. Tough job and about impossible to get perfect. Best of luck to you.
100_1264.jpg
 
Last edited:
Thanks alot.
The Volvo 240 point: that they had the metal "bullets" instead of currently available in grey plastic?
Good view of the front seal, and how the ends are bent down, BUT: how can you get the rear ends to join in a nice, flush, straight way, without cutting them in an angle to meet the front seals that turn down in a curved manner???

To release the old cables and insert the new ones, I open or remove the gearbox adjacent to the electric motor I assume....?

The motor is the same as the early style, sardine box, in the windows, so I will open it and check it, oil the bearings and incoming seal etc. Probably look into the gearbox as well.

My zipper (rear mounted motor and gearbox on a `74 car) broke when I tried to open it, so I might as well go all the way and replace the roofliner. My upholstry shop says they can do it properly. Finding the material is the hard part.....
 
The roof

Hate to say,
But a lot of the work I have done started with the desire for a functioning sunroof and kind of snowballed from there. Hope you don't open the can of worms as I did! I have to run at the moment, but let me get back to you later with some advice...
 
Headliner replacement requires removal of both windshields,sunroof panel,sunvisors,dome light,sunroof switch,grab handles,all upper door seals ,all upper door-window chrome trim.Good news is it will be easy to get to sunroof motor.Bad news is the reassembly is a PITA.Sure you can't live with a broken zipper?
 
Thanks Paulin. I am still laughing....and I know about most of this. Wasn´t aware of the PITA upper door seals having to come off though, but I have already decided to live with the broken zipper.

I have spent the afternoon remounting the front bumper after the parts had come back from the chroming shop. These hand built cars are really tiresome on many occasions.
The problems was partly that it was a late US spec car, transformed to Euro style bumpers in a very non-professional way. Too tired to list all the issues. It´s OK now, but will never be like my Euro spec cars´ bumpers.
 
If you look at Pamp´s picture above

it is clear how the ends of the front seal are tucked down. Fine, but how do you match the ends of the rear seal to make a perfect fit when the sunroof is closed?
At a corresponding angle forward. Doubt it, but it would work in theory.
Why not cut all 4 ends at right angles to make the 2 joints perfect......?
Grateful for answers and opinions before I start to glue and cut...

Are the currently available cables with their plastic bullets as good as the old ones??
I can get hold of a set of NOS cables with rusty bullets (due to long, humid storage in an outside barn).
 
Sunroof felts

I gotta stick to my guns on this one. First, I used Volvo felts for my roof as they are black and just look better for my colour scheme. They also do not have the aluminum backing and are a hundred times easier to manipulate. If I lived where you do I would not hesitate to use local Volvo talent to do the install as you are bound to find someone who is way past the learning curve to this job correctly. Golde roof, same, same. Thousands of older Volvos driving around, not so the coupe. Same roof design. I got my cables from Carl N. LaJolla Independent.
 
Point taken. I will talk to the Volvo dealership. 240 from the mid 70s or what?
Still don´t get the tucked down ends bit, and how they meet the rear ends....
 
Volvo

I would use a well established independent Volvo repair shop. Again, the example I used was a 1984 240 GL sedan. Felts also ordered to this spec. on-line for I believe $80 for the set if I remember correctly. I still have the OEM set in gray, I preferred the black. Also the Volvo material lacks the metal backing, making the job easier. Wurths Rubber glue is the way to go as recommended by Carl N. The previous felt install on my car was a hack job and they were pop riveted to the body! Extra work to fill all the holes, for sure.
Here is a shot I took to compare the colors (note my car is pretty much in tear-down mode at this point)
100_0999.jpg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top