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Roof

The car came with a sunroof. Unfortunately, it was rotten. This is a problem I could overcome, however it had a bigger problem. It was a metal slide sunroof (apparently incredibly rare) which took a good 2 inches of headroom away from the driver. I simply could not fit in the car without hitting my head on it. I think that would have resulted in injury! It had to go!

I decided early on that I would not be trying to use a 2nd hand roof. New ones are not cheap but in the grand scheme of things, are not that expensive either so I decided to suck it up. Removing the old roof was quite straightforward. The spot welds could be drilled out along the front and rear flanges but the side of the roof had been spot welded in an overlapping fashion deep inside the gutters. This meant I had to grind away until the metal was thin enough to prise away without damaging the framework underneath. It was time consuming but straight forward to achieve.

Once the old roof was off, the new one was trial fitted. It fitted perfectly as you’d expect from a genuine part. Final fitment was done with a modern automotive 2-part epoxy glue designed for fitting roofs to cars. I welded the front A-pillar joint just for peace of mind.