Roof Transplants and Money

[BoggyB]

Hello!

My bus used to be a tin top back in the day but it was cut open to fit a fibreglass sunroof some time in the last decade by a previous owner. I quite liked it at first but it's starting to wear on me a bit. And it leaks.

So I was thinking of finding a donor roof and going back to its roots. Trouble is im nowhere near skilled enough to swap a roof around.

Has anyone here had it done before by a garage and how much did it end up costing? I imagine its not going to be cheap.

Thanks guys.

 

[ozziedog]

I've done it myself and it was a massive amount of work drilling out literally thousands of spot welds on my van and also on the donor panel. Mine had a fair bit of rust in it too which opened up a can of horrors underneath with the superstructure (the can't rails) also being very worse for wear. In terms of time or man hours it took me three weekends on my own but I should imagine an extra pair of hands could reduce that significantly because handling a panel that size and not bending it is time consuming, also windscreen out and in again to boot. THen the rustproofing . I think that if I were to do it over again (which I won't ) :lol: and if I wanted tin top, I'd hang it out and get a real sunroof for it and maybe drop some wires down into the engine bay on both sides for battery and gauges etc. Also doing it in the dark as in not knowing what you're opening up was a bit time consuming and not really knowing what the construction was made it interesting shall we say :roll: If I can be any help in a tecky way when you start to do it, then just ring me, I'll pm my number if you want.

Ozziedog,,,,,,,,, Good luck with it if you start it :mrgreen:

 

[BoggyB]

That sounds terrifying. :lol:

If I tried it myself im fairly certain i'd ruin the whole bus.

 

[Davydomes]

It was done to ours before we got it by the previous owner - I found the bill for the roof and it was £500 :shock: . However, it was in very good condition looking at the pic of the roof before fitting. He had it done by a pro. BUT, we bought the bus as an abandoned project. When we came to fit the rear tail gate. The roof panel (which contains the highly sprung hinge mechanism) did not line the hinges up perfectly. We had to modify the holes in the hinge bars so the tail gate sat central and the correct height to close with an even gap all round - was quite a time consuming faff to get right :roll:

Something to be aware of.

 

[BoggyB]

Yeah, the big concern is I get a pro to fit it, pay a big wodge of dosh then notice its not quite right. Its hard to un-notice that sort of thing. Or I do it and the whole bus peels open like a banana made of steel and rust.

Ach, i might just cut the roof off and drape a canvas over it like some sort of massive willis jeep.

 

[rlepecha]

How big is the cut out for the sunroof? Can the sunroof be taken out and a new section for that area welded in? Cutting out all of the roof when most of it is rot and rust free seems like a waste of material.

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[BoggyB]

It's a pretty big hole. I'll grab a photo in a bit.

 

[gas1man]

What about approaching Paris Beetles and getting possibly a custom sunroof price?
Just a suggestion......

J & P

 

[BoggyB]

First ive heard of paris beetles.

I'll have a gander.

 

[Mark]

I recently replaced my roof, just the roof skin so there was no problem regarding tailgate hinges etc.
Also I only replaced the roof skin from the front roof crossmember back. This does involve a long butt weld but it went OK.
As Has been said, lots of drilling out of spot welds, a proper spot weld drill bit makes a better job as you can then easily just drill through the panel that you are sacrificing.
I took my old roof off by drilling through the gutter and separated the new skin from the upper few inches of body that it came with from under the gutter. After cleaning everything up I drilled holes in the new skin and plug welded it on to my bus.

 

[jonnyfive]

How about space roofs fitting a pop top?


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[BoggyB]

I haven't got the money for one of their roofs, unfortunately. They do look alright though.

I don't suppose anyone near Sheffield has one of those Paris Beetles roofs I can have a look at do they? I'm seeing a lot of conflicting opinions around the internet, ranging from "awesome" to "like a bin bag".

 

[Webbaldo]

I haven't got the money for one of their roofs, unfortunately. They do look alright though.

I don't suppose anyone near Sheffield has one of those Paris Beetles roofs I can have a look at do they? I'm seeing a lot of conflicting opinions around the internet, ranging from "awesome" to "like a bin bag".

Ive seen Paris Beetle actual 'beetle' sunroofs up close (getting one soon for my bug) and they are well made.

Most people who complain probably have botched the fitting.

 

[BoggyB]

Cool. When I start going to shows I'll keep an eye out for them. Theyre looking like a good shout for the short to mid term.

 

[scott wilson]

Mark describes the process very accurately, there are approximately 100 spot welds to drill to remove the roof skin. It is also possible to grind the roof skin to remove the old one and is much quicker than drilling spot welds, but the old skin is then totally unusable.it is also possible to prep( separate the skin from the structure) the new replacement skin with a grinder...again this is much quicker.If you are just replacing the skin you can buy rhd or lhd roof which generally sell for approx £500 although they are massive chunks of metal and extremely awkward to remove and then ship and i`ve seen them sell for twice that. The spot weld drill bits cost approx £10 each and you`ll need at least six if not 10 if you are going to drill the welds out. A good drill is also necessary( i always used air). If you were to pay someone to do this for you without any hidden rust monsters expect to pay somewhere in the region of £1500-£2000 inc materials.It`s about a weeks work at workshop rates. Do It Yourself for the price of a roof, a decent welder, a good drill and the drill bits/grinder...it`s not that difficult.... have fun.

 

[ozziedog]

What Mr Scott Wilson says is bang on the money and it sounds like he might have done one or two. Try the new De walt extreme spot weld bit, EFFFfffinggg superb, a lot quicker, a lot cleaner and it`ll last a long time too. I went through a small box of jobber eighth bits, various spot weld bits and lots of other bits until I came up on the De Walt Extreme spotweld bits, lovely bit of kit and ridiculously cheap when you compare with others and how long they last.

Ozziedog,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, They work,,,,,,,,,,,,, well ! :mrgreen: