Sunroof drain tube question (again)

[BigG]

I know this topics been discused a few times but just after some feedback.
Ive removed my old headlining and have decided to go for a westy ply jobby and am in the process of finally sorting out the drain tubes. the middles and rears are sorted but the fronts have rusted where the plastic tube meets the steel bit in the roof void, my plan was to cut a 30mm hole in the B pillar with a starrat cutter which would hopefully go through the pipe as well and to by pass the angled bit which has rusted, the hole should be high enough up so the headliner and perforated material on the pillar should hide things.
My problem is that after seeing how good my shell is im now feeling a bit reluctant to start drilling and cutting it about and im also worried I might be weakening the pillars also.
My two options at the moment would be to either run a plastic tube from the front drain hole and T into the middle pipe, fine if you dont park with your nose down a hill on a rainy night or to run some 10 or 15mm copper tubing down the face of the B pillars down through the floor and up through the headliner and join the rubber tube that goes into the drain hole then either polish it as a feature or paint it the colour of the interior.
Just wondering if these ideas sound naf or if anyone has any other suggestions.

 

[bayview]

Hi, did you decide which way to go on this. I've got the same issue and had planned to cut into the pillar but bit reluctant. Possibly the lesser of several evils as an exposed pipe would probably bug me.

 

[BigG]

Decided against the exposed pipe idea as it wouldnt work on the sliding door side, im going to attempt to cut a 30mm hole high up in the pillar and hopefully cut through the dogleg part of the drain tube and remove the rusty top part, then run a rubber tube down the existing tube and join it to the top drain tube.
Its all a little experimental but am going to have a go at it this week and will put up some pics ( if its succesful :| )

 

[NickB]

Have you tried getting the plastic tubes up the pillar from the bottom? I managed to run a pipe all the way up into the internal gutter and then attach to pipe from the drain valves on the tray.

Fiddly, extremely annoying but you can make it work.

The main challenge is getting the water from the tray, into the pipe and not all over the inside of the bus!

 

[neilswheels]

So, where's the dog leg then? I've got an ex Westie, so a sunroof bus with no drain pipes. I need to run new pipes, and was wondering how to get around the dog leg bit. also, does anyone have a pic of the bit that links the body work to the pipe? I have to make something, unless they are still available? (yeh, right!)

 

[BigG]

getting a plastic pipe up the C pillar is fairly easy as the existing steel pipe is straight, the problem with the B pillar is that the steel pipe goes up the pillar and when it gets to the top it has 2 right angle turns (what I call the dog leg) This part is a dirt trap and has rotted on one side and is virtually impossible to run a pipe through.
As far as I know the westies dont have these pipes in the pillars and im sure ive read somewhere of people running rubber hoses down them without too much agro, I think the rear drain tubes may even still be in place in a westy.
Ive not had a look in a westy so not sure if the holes are there for the water to run into in the opening, that would probably be the hardest bit to sort out.
Ive not had a chance to do anything on mine lately as its having some major surgery and I dont want to get in the way.

 

[paul]

I've cut a hole in mine on the drivers side and removed the rusted dogleg bit-replaced with some plastic tubing from an aquarium shop held on with jubilee clips.
one day I'll patch up the hole!
very keen to see pics of the drivers side as not had to tackle that side ........yet.
Paul

 

[Graham L]

The westy has the holes in the roof opening 2 front, 2 back but does not have the metalwork connected to them to connect to the drain tubes or holes cut in the bottom to let water drain out. You can get a tube up from the bottom so far but its nearly impossible to bet anything around the double bend. The sunroof buses had a thick clear plastic tube at the top that coped with the bend to carry the water away (I know as I cleaned all mine out during the resto!!)

 

[NickB]

There is a very neat trick to getting the tubes round the double right angle.

You have to have the headliner out, and a friend to help will certainly help.

If you get a 6mm bend steel pipe cleaner (mine is a Stanley one and about 6ft in length) and push this up the existing pipe from the bottom (stop sniggering!) Be careful as the pipes may be fairly brittle.

Push this as far as you can, and get your mate to find the hole in the interior gutter above the B pillar. When the pipe cleaner reaches this point it will start to slide along the inside of the gutter. Get a pair of long nose pliers and carefully crap be pipe cleaner and pull it through this hole (it is about 15mm so fiddly but not impossible). Then pull the pipe cleaner as far into bus as you can and secure it well - gravity will encourage it to slide back out so you have been warned.

Then get some 6mm plastic tubing and secure it very well to the end of the pipe cleaner in the bus. I found it best to cut half the diameter of the pipe away leaving a narrowed bit that pushed inside the pipe cleaner, then tape it on. Don't use too much tape or you won't get it out of the bus at the bottom.

Then very, very gently feed the pipe into the tube, using the pipe cleaner as a guide, not pulling it through. Then after a bit you will have a pipe inside your bus and outside as well. Then to connect up.


You still have a couple of challenges left.

Getting the water out of the sunroof tray - and I used beetle rubber brake switch boots from VW Heritage. Basically an open piece of rubber with a flange you can either push through the triangular hole and secure with some sealant/putty on the back or with the rubber behind the metal. This boot tapers to a narrow close that you can insert some plastic piping into to then connect up and out of the bus.

I spent three years doing this. and found those plastic push fit plumbing connections are the best (find a friendly plumber or pub engineer they have loads). And then you can use the plastic pipe to connect up.

You can have these rubber boots on corner and in the middle, and to try and improve on vw's system, I connected a T-piece to the middle so it drained to front and rear. And it worked.

The tricky and untidy bit is at the back as Westy's do not have the rear holes drilled out in the sir scoop. You can try a flexible drill bit holder and drill one up from the battery tray, but was a nightmare. I ended up running one pipe down the inside of the wardrobe and clipping one to the riveted panel then out through the spare wheel well, through the engine bay and out of the bus. The originals just dropped the water into the top of the air scoop and let it drip onto the battery.

Hope that helps, sorry it is a but words but I haven't got pics to put up.

 

[neilswheels]

Nick, Yes, that helps ALOT! I'd been scratching my head for ages about how to connect to the channel, brake switch boots are genius! Still gathering parts tho, so the Gaffer tape will have to stay on there a little longer! Does your roof slide 'up' ok? I read that a stocker has metal 'ramps' in the channel to lift the roof up.

 

[NickB]

Sadly I no longer have my bus, but after four years of playing with the sunroof on the drive I got quite good at it

My bus didn't have the lifters, without Graham at Midland Early Bay I would never have know about them.

So, what you need are :

A bracket from B&Q that fits this description and code

This little spot in your sunroof trays to help locate the brackets (the two welds are located exactly where lifters were welded to in the original buses

A Hammer

A drill to drill a second hole in the bottom of the bracket to get it in the right place I found only one of mine was right)

Then you t**t it with a hammer until it looks something like this

The gap between the top and the bottom and be "adjusted" to help the roof to the right level to get the cables back in place to push the roof up, and the slope can be adjusted (by bashing the ends!) to make sure the roof lifts up quick enough through the gap in the sunroof rails and to take the strain off the cables.

That okay for you?

Once all this has been done and the roof slides, lifts and is adjusted properly makes you get the felt seal that glues around the edge of the body work (go to KnK they are miles cheaper!) and then it can have the final adjustment so it all lines up properly (and it will look just like a tin top with a line in the roof!)

I sprayed the brackets just so they looked nice, but once the inner sliding panel is in you cannot see them most of the time anyway.

any questions drop me a PM as I don't come on early bay anymore what with now having a Karmann Ghia to get working!

 

[bayview]

some good tips on this thread. I tackled my drains today. Seems that the challenge falls into 3 catergories. 1. those without drain pipes i.e a westy 2. those with drains still reasonably well intact 3. those with pipes that are shot with rust like mine = a nightmare. After plenty of messing around I got new 8mm plastic piping down my pillars with the aid of a strategic 40mm hole cut in each pillar. Think I might plug up the holes with plastic caps rather than weld back as will enable future access/maintenance. Anyway, thought I'd share a few photos. One step closer to having the bus back on the road

 

[neilswheels]

Thinks Nick, another piece of the jigsaw puzzle found.

[/quote]

Why the hole half way down? And what did you seal your tube to the sunroof 'tray' with?

 

[bayview]

I cut the hole in the A pillars up at the top just below the double dog leg mentioned by others - this allowed me to get enough leverage to pull the pipe through the original pipe that was still in place - from there on down I bypassed the original pipe as the pillar is wide enough to take two pipes. For the B pillars I ran new plastic piping beside the original, the hole was cut at the swage belt as the profile of the pillar changes and there is a 'shelf' that its hard to get a pipe clear/pipe past (I wonder if a strong magnet would ease a pipe cleaner past). Mine is an original sunroof bus so the connections at the sunroof tray are present (except for one that rusted away). I graduated up from the 8mm pipe to 12mm which conects perfectly after being heated up a tad. I put rubber grommets in at the exit hole to keep the plastic tube in place.

 

[NickB]

I used Beetle brake switch boots from VW Heritage to collect the water from the sunroof tray and into the pipe. Not pretty but once the headlining is in you won't see them. Seal the back of them with some putty of sealant (whatever is to hand and least messy!)

Liking the rubber grommet idea of keeping the pipe secure - but the official way (shameless sales plug) is to use some rubber drain bungs, that are the same diameter as your black plastic pipe and contoured to fit the body of the bus perfectly. They are from Heritage on special order (about £30 each now I think). I bought some and never used them so they are sitting here in a box doing nothing.

If anyone wants a pair for £20 let me know - just want rid of them now as I don't have the bus anymore.

Here's the little fellas

 

[neilswheels]

I used Beetle brake switch boots from VW Heritage to collect the water from the sunroof tray and into the pipe. Not pretty but once the headlining is in you won't see them. Seal the back of them with some putty of sealant (whatever is to hand and least messy!)

Liking the rubber grommet idea of keeping the pipe secure - but the official way (shameless sales plug) is to use some rubber drain bungs, that are the same diameter as your black plastic pipe and contoured to fit the body of the bus perfectly. They are from Heritage on special order (about £30 each now I think). I bought some and never used them so they are sitting here in a box doing nothing.

If anyone wants a pair for £20 let me know - just want rid of them now as I don't have the bus anymore.

Here's the little fellas

I'LL HAVE THEM! How many have you got?