Philipp
01-04-2015, 02:34 PM
Dear all,
Some months ago I introduced myself by posting a question on how to treat the fiberglass body after the od roof box have been detached from the body (http://dmctalk.org/showthread.php?8493-New-roof-box-installation-fiberglas-body-treatment&highlight=roof+stainless). Since if finished all the work last summer, I thought to share my experiences with you and give some hints to those who have to do the repair in the near future.
I took a lot of pictures but unfortunately only with my mobile, thus quality is not the best but will help to explain the steps. Please also apologise for my basic english as I'm not an english native speaker.
Before you start to do any work on your roof structure, please be aware of that this work is not an easy weekend job. I've spent a tremendous amount of hours in my colleagues' garage and not every task is just simple "put it on - fix it and enjoy the result". As many persons noted almost evey roof structure is unique and need some adjustments. My first recommendation: If you do not have enough space and equipment and may not experienced enough, do not start wit the disassembly or may ask somebody who has experience in this field and can support you. Or you just bolt down the roof box as many other persons did (and also posted their experiences in the web).
If you are not familiar with this topic at all or you do not know how a detached roof box look like, this is a quick introduction:
(1) There is a good indication that your roof box become detached (duew to old glue and/or too much stress from the torsion bar).
32317
The T-Panel will lift and the louvre may touch the T-Panel while opening it. Remove the 'Rear Screen Upper Finisher' and you can easily see if your roof box becomes loose.
(2) Since the original roof box is prone for rust you may see some rust spots at the edge of the roof box just below the torsion bar. This is just cosmetic but can give you an indication that your roof box has some more rust than you may think. To get a better picture remove the T-Panle and the access port and put your mobile phone in it and take a picture. This is how it looked on my DeLorean:
32318
To give you a taste on how this looks like when you get full access to it:
32319 :8ball:...
In retrospective I would define the following decision matrix:
(1) Does your roof box get detached? [YES] or [NO]
(2) Is your roof box rusty? [YES] or [NO]
(3) I'd like to improve my DeLorean and I'm fine with a non-original stainless roof box? [YES] or [NO]
You should tick two out of three boxes before you go the extra mile and start with the removal of your roof box. The third question may irritate but I've definitely underestimated the fact that an aftermarket solution can be easily identified once installed. Of coure I do like this improvement and I would do it again (because I ticked the first two boxes) but I'm not 100% satisfied that I've changed the look of the roof box construction irrevocably. But anyway this is something the owner of the car has to decide...
As I said my roof box became loose and there was pieces of rust in my roof box, so I decided to do the job and to install the stainless roof box from the delorean.eu.
In my next post I'd like to start on the preparation for the roof box replacement. I hope I can give some hints and advices on how I think the replacement should be done. But I'm also happy to get some feedback from your side in order to know if my work here is useful or not. I'll keep you updated.
BR
Philipp
Some months ago I introduced myself by posting a question on how to treat the fiberglass body after the od roof box have been detached from the body (http://dmctalk.org/showthread.php?8493-New-roof-box-installation-fiberglas-body-treatment&highlight=roof+stainless). Since if finished all the work last summer, I thought to share my experiences with you and give some hints to those who have to do the repair in the near future.
I took a lot of pictures but unfortunately only with my mobile, thus quality is not the best but will help to explain the steps. Please also apologise for my basic english as I'm not an english native speaker.
Before you start to do any work on your roof structure, please be aware of that this work is not an easy weekend job. I've spent a tremendous amount of hours in my colleagues' garage and not every task is just simple "put it on - fix it and enjoy the result". As many persons noted almost evey roof structure is unique and need some adjustments. My first recommendation: If you do not have enough space and equipment and may not experienced enough, do not start wit the disassembly or may ask somebody who has experience in this field and can support you. Or you just bolt down the roof box as many other persons did (and also posted their experiences in the web).
If you are not familiar with this topic at all or you do not know how a detached roof box look like, this is a quick introduction:
(1) There is a good indication that your roof box become detached (duew to old glue and/or too much stress from the torsion bar).
32317
The T-Panel will lift and the louvre may touch the T-Panel while opening it. Remove the 'Rear Screen Upper Finisher' and you can easily see if your roof box becomes loose.
(2) Since the original roof box is prone for rust you may see some rust spots at the edge of the roof box just below the torsion bar. This is just cosmetic but can give you an indication that your roof box has some more rust than you may think. To get a better picture remove the T-Panle and the access port and put your mobile phone in it and take a picture. This is how it looked on my DeLorean:
32318
To give you a taste on how this looks like when you get full access to it:
32319 :8ball:...
In retrospective I would define the following decision matrix:
(1) Does your roof box get detached? [YES] or [NO]
(2) Is your roof box rusty? [YES] or [NO]
(3) I'd like to improve my DeLorean and I'm fine with a non-original stainless roof box? [YES] or [NO]
You should tick two out of three boxes before you go the extra mile and start with the removal of your roof box. The third question may irritate but I've definitely underestimated the fact that an aftermarket solution can be easily identified once installed. Of coure I do like this improvement and I would do it again (because I ticked the first two boxes) but I'm not 100% satisfied that I've changed the look of the roof box construction irrevocably. But anyway this is something the owner of the car has to decide...
As I said my roof box became loose and there was pieces of rust in my roof box, so I decided to do the job and to install the stainless roof box from the delorean.eu.
In my next post I'd like to start on the preparation for the roof box replacement. I hope I can give some hints and advices on how I think the replacement should be done. But I'm also happy to get some feedback from your side in order to know if my work here is useful or not. I'll keep you updated.
BR
Philipp