Wanted: Roof (Europe)

[mane]

My 3.0 CS sunroof has been fixed too many times and it's major work to make it proper again, if even possible.

No part shop seem to have a roof and nobody in Europe seems to be selling ... So somebody, sell me a roof. With or without sunroof.

 

[Markos]

Welcome @mane! I hope that someone in Europe can locate one for you. I know of three for sale in the states. Let’s see what folks on your side of the pond come up with first.

 

[Keshav]

@mane, as Markos pointed out, some help from Europe.

For one, if you explain the experts here as to your problems with the sunroof, you might very well/ most likely get the answers and solutions. Almost easier than a roof replacement. The level of knowledge here is phenomenal and nothing like fixing your original roof. Explain the problems and what’s been replaced and pics to accompany. Electric or manual.

Having said that, I just called my parts guy who will have a couple of coupes to part out in the next few days. He’ll check the condition of the roofs (you’d want one without sunroof along with the roof lining parts) and let me know, I’d say, in about a week.
From Germany
Keshav

 

[mane]

Awesome to hear! Story goes like this:

When I bought the car, the roof was the only bigger issue with its rust. It had many rust bubbles around sunroof area. I knew that this would be the most time taking to fix. Looked like this:

As car was being soda blasted, the blaster called that the roof has so much filler that it takes way too much time to blast it and would get very expensive to do it that way. He recommended just to use grinder for the roof. Rest he soda blasted.

After soda blasting, it looked like this:

Also, after disassembly we saw that there was previous fixes in the roof:

Addition to that, my friend told me that the roof has bent bit inwards from the middle. Maybe the amount of filler has pressed it down? You might see some waviness in the picture above.

My friend is not rust repair pro, so he raised his hands up. Said it's too hard for him to fix and probably very expensive if some pro would fix it.

So.. that's why I'm searching for the roof

I have one guy coming to check the roof on Thursday. He's a pro on this stuff. But I'm sure all the hints and tips are welcome here . Not sure how expensive the roofs are to buy used including shipping versus a pro guy just fixing it. Maybe you guys know the best what I should do..

ps. I have almost zero experience on fixing cars, but I'm learning while doing this. Luckily I have an experienced friend helping me out.

 

[Markos]

This problem is all too common with sunroof cars. I'm not exactly sure why the bubbles form, but there are some theories/explanations. Interestingly enough - one of the owners of the spare roof has the same rust bubbles on his project car as you do. I'm going to advise that he keeps his spare roof.

There are two ways to swap the roof. You can cut the a-pillars and weld on the new roof structure at the pillars. A roof skin with a-pillars makes for a big box, about 5'x5'. If you splice it in towards the top of the pillars, you don't need as large of a box to ship the thing.

The second way to do the roof is to separate the skin from the body, and weld (or glue) on the replacement skin. A great writeup here:
https://e9coupe.com/forum/threads/my-cs-restoration.1780/

You can also have a sheet metal fabricator make a new roof skin. It has been done before...

 

[Keshav]

That roof really looks far too gone to me. Replace it. It’s been done many a times. It can be boxed and sent. You could also check if there are any incountry Transport companies that could take it along from Germany.
Once you’ve discussed with your body guy and have decided what to do, let us know. My guy has a manual sun-roof that you could have (specially if your current one is manual and can use the parts) or wait for a non sunroof one which he is getting but condition unknown as off now.

Cheers
Keshav

 

[mane]

Haven't yet heard what the body guy said. He should have visited my friends shop today, but I haven't been able to contact my friend about it yet.

My roof is manual, so that would work. Also non-sunroof one is totally okay. Anything goes now

I'll send you pm about the roof.

 

[Gransin]

Moi!
I've been searching for a roof in Sweden but have come up empty handed so far.
Keshav is one of the good guys here and has helped me many times with hard-to-find parts for my project, so absolutely no worries there!
You should start a project thread

 

[Keshav]

Maybe we should send two roofs Robert
Thanks for your kind words....

Keshav

 

[Arde]

Perfect opportunity to create a convertible...

 

[Markos]

There are still two known roofs available in North America (East Coast and Canada). It may be worth looking into freight options.

I want to say that I estimated my roof crate at about 200lbs, which was generous. The plywood weighs more than the roof. Again, about a 5’x5’ box. Height is contingent on the A-pillar cut.

 

[mane]

Okay, got some info now from my friend. The body guy came to see the car today, and he was like "no problem". He's plan is to take a roof panel from some newish used car and weld it into the place. Taking just the top sheet. This sounds like the easiest and maybe cheapest option here. I didn't hear any estimate yet.

E9 roof is shape is quite flat, and actually has quite generic shape and curvature. Sunroof will be gone, but the good thing is that it won't rust around that area anymore

I have written some stuff about the project elsewhere. I could copy paste to this forum too and update it more later.

So I guess we'll be fine now without replacement roof anyway. Thanks for the help and support all of you!