Roof repair section - Heritage

[Nugsy]

Anybody used one of these.

Had my sunroof bus about 12 years and when I got it, it had rotted between the roof and 1st feature line. Had it repaired about 8 years ago. Was supposed to be an all steel repair with minimal filler, but can see now it was a lot of filler that's cracking and lifting. Was hoping to find a good fabricator (Midlands) to repair. Looking at roof cuts, and found there is now a repair panel.

 

[Nugsy]

Sorry, seemed to have done duplicate message

 

[ozziedog]

I fixed my roof about fifteen years ago because of rotten gutters. I bought the van thinking that decent repair panels would be available. I spent the first month or so (weekends only) cutting out extremely carefully and tack welding my repair panels in and it looked complete ****. My repair panels were from a different place to yours and didn’t have as much cover as yours . The issue being they were completely the wrong shape in the actual gutters. I’ve never seen a van with square gutters. In the end, the more I did the worse it was looking and as I got toward the rear of the van, the cant rails were disintegrating too. I also tried, re rolling the gutters but I didn’t have the kit to do a decent job of that either. I struck lucky and bought a whole van with a fairly decent roof panel and swapped them over and that seems to be the best way and get some original steel, either the whole roof panel or some decent cuts. I’ve spoken to some pretty good restorers over the years and they’ll pretty much tell you the same as in get a cut. How much do you need? The sides are fairly consistent around the sun roof area, it changes a bit towards the rear and the very front.

Ozziedog,,,,,,, Have fun, let in a cu t

 

[Nugsy]

Its literally just the length of the sunroof up to and including the feature line, both sides, gutters are fine. I've fully stripped the headlining and it mat also need some internal work to strengthen it

 

[sunnyside]

Looking at that photo, I wouldn’t say you needed any new steel in there. Maybe start by taking the paint and any filler off to see what you have there before committing to new steel. It may all clean up fine and just need a light skim of filler and repaint.

 

[ozziedog]

Its literally just the length of the sunroof up to and including the feature line, both sides, gutters are fine. I've fully stripped the headlining and it mat also need some internal work to strengthen it

That don’t sound so bad then, it was the gutters that were less than acceptable and the gutters on that section look pretty awful and squared too.
Im with Sunnyside ^^^ on this in have a look with a little rub first as that looks pretty good. I know pictures are deceitful little sods.

Ozziedog ,,,,,,, I’ve absolutely seen way way worse

 

[Nugsy]

Looking at that photo, I wouldn’t say you needed any new steel in there. Maybe start by taking the paint and any filler off to see what you have there before committing to new steel. It may all clean up fine and just need a light skim of filler and repaint.

It was actually holed/rusted through in places when I got it. I just stuck some duct tape over it for a year or two (remnants still on the sunroof panel).
As mentioned, the place I used to repair were meant to replace the rot with all new steel.
They clearly didn't, looks like they flattened the filler inside and covered it in schutz.
I will remove all the filler on the outside, but given the rust spots where the repair is, I imagine it's just got worse.
My concern is if it's spread past the feature line, and the fact it still curves from the line to the sunroof opening.
I need to get it to a few repair shops to take a look, but wondered if anyone had used the repair panel and how close it is

 

[Nugsy]

That don’t sound so bad then, it was the gutters that were less than acceptable and the gutters on that section look pretty awful and squared too.
Im with Sunnyside ^^^ on this in have a look with a little rub first as that looks pretty good. I know pictures are deceitful little sods.

Ozziedog ,,,,,,, I’ve absolutely seen way way worse

Thanks Ozzie for your advice. I've been looking on the Samba, full roof is $3-500 minus shipping. Looking here at the usual places it's way way more. The rest of my roof is fine, so need to find someone to share an og roof with

 

[sparkywig]

https://earlybay.com/threads/roof-cuts.81672/

 

[Nugsy]

https://earlybay.com/threads/roof-cuts.81672/

Thanks Sparky, I'd seen these but they look like ex-Westy as they have rivet holes all round the opening. There's a couple on fleabay to but look rough.
Just realised Autocraft do a similar repair panel, literally 20 mins away an they have a summer sale. Will try and head over next week to have a chat.