How To: Stainless Roof Box

[Philipp]

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).

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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:

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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

[Tillsy]

None of your attachments are workng :(

[Philipp]

Hi, I tried again to upload the pictures. Hope it works now...



(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).

32330

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:

32331

To give you a taste on how this looks like when you get full access to it:
32332 :8ball:...

[Philipp]

[Part 2]

DISASSEMBLY

Remove the following parts (in this order):

1) Complete Louvre with gas strut, etc.
2) Rear Screen Upper Finisher
3) Outer door seal (front and back) and the inner door seal
4) Now you can remove the T-Panel (be careful the edges are sharp)
5) Disconnect the harness for the dorrs through the access point in the middle of the roof box
6) Remove the clamps holding the harness in position on each side of the roof box
7) Before removing the door gas struts, release the torsion bar (there are several instructions in the internet on how to do that. Therefore I do not add a detailed decription here)
8) Removing the door gas struts and ask two colleagues to help you to support the door while you are loosening the screws of the door hinges. Be careful, the harness need to be properly guided through the hole in the roof box when removing the doors from the body...
9) Header Panel
10) Infill Panels (front and rear): I saw pictures on the internet where the rear panels are still mounted while removing the roof box. I wouldn't recommend as they can be easily removed by slightly lifting the quarter panels. Surplus you have better accessibility you definitely need to work on the roof section. Be careful by removing the rivets and moving the panels back and forth as they may brake...
11) Even though the new roof box looks slightly different and shim work is definitely needed at a later stage, I made pictures of the door hinges and shim pads underneath and in horizontal direction. Be aware of that the screws are seized up as they were tightened for the last 30 years... I was using an angle grinder to get them off... :evilgrin: May you need to be more careful when you like to save the old screws (with back-up plate) holding the door hinge down. As I made a complete new set I didn't care. Be careful not to damage the door hinges as they are quite expensive to replace.
12) Remove the front and back headliner, starting with the sunvisors.

This is just my proposal to do it. Of course work on your car is in your responsibility.

It takes approximately two to three hours to remove all the parts. Afterwarks take a break and relax, it's just the beginning...

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BR
Philipp

[Patrick C]

This brings back nightmares from when I helped Cliff Schmucker with this project. Every roof is different and the stainless replacement needed considerable modification to fit.

[Philipp]

[Part 3]

As I didn't have any practical experiences I just started to prepare the parts to be exchanged without any modifications on it. In retrospective I wouldn't have done that but it's easy to be wise after the event...

I received the new stainless steel box without any surface treatment, i.e. same look as the stainless steel panels. As mentioned in a previous post, I do prefer to have everything as 'original' as possible and to have a shiny roof box it's definitely noticeable (especially with black door hinges, etc.). Therefore I decided to sandblast and powder coating the roof box as to be seen in the picture:

32362

In addition, I cleaned all door hinges and re-painted them.

Another part I replaced were the old bolts with the retainer plate holding down the door hinges (I do not know if this is the correct name of it, therefore I've just added a picture of it). The old ones were completely broken as I couldn't loosen them without help from the angle grinder. Surplus I'm not sure but I think they are not avaialbe on the after market:

32363

I made new solid plates, so they are working with stainless steel countersunk head screw. I made also new shims for leveling the hinges in vertical direction. They have only the minimum height to level the door hinges as they have a kind of bend not allowing to sit correctly on a plan surface. This was not a problem with the old roof box as it was forming a kind of counter part to the hinges. With the new box this is not the case. I.e. you need this 'additional' shims just to mount the door hinges. For more adjustment work you need the old shims. There were some 'additional' shims together with the new roof box but there are quite short and I was looking for shims with some more area of support:

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In the next picture I marked this bend in the door hinges prevent them of sitting correctly and even on the roof box without this 'additional' shim:

32365

BR
Philipp

[Josh]

Cool thread. I like the pictures.

Just something to comment on if i were doing it myself... I would definitely pull the windshield. A failed roof box means the header is more than likely sagging in the middle. So the glass needs to be pulled, the roof realigned, the roof box replacement done, then the glass re-installed.

[Philipp]

Cool thread. I like the pictures.

Just something to comment on if i were doing it myself... I would definitely pull the windshield. A failed roof box means the header is more than likely sagging in the middle. So the glass needs to be pulled, the roof realigned, the roof box replacement done, then the glass re-installed.

Thanks. When I was doing the job I've also read about this. To be honest I've never seen the point to remove the windshield. The roof section is also supported by the rear window. So I thought that the middle section cannot be sagged that much. Surplus I've also bolted the new stainless roof box down to the fiberglas body. I.e. the sagged fiberglas section gets slightly lifted by the more rigid roof box. I will post some pictures later one to illustrate my thoughts on that...

[Brian_SS_TT]

Hi Philipp-
Curious as to where you are on this project and would like to the see the finished product as well as more pictures of the process if possible.

Thank you

[Philipp]

[Part 4] Removing the old roof box.

Some may say that by having a bended and loose roof box it is easy to remove the old roof box. In my case it was not.

The middle section is the easiest part. Even though attached to the front and back part where the hinges were assembled, the middle section can be easily disassembled (there are also six screws holding this section down - get access by removing the headliner...). The middle section is normally not glued down to the fiberglas structure. Ensure that the harness does not get damaged while removing this section.

The rear part is the most difficult one. You have to carefully lift the part from both sides. Do not apply to much force as on spots where glue is still holding the roof box down to the fiberglas body, the fiberglas structure may get damaged. In my case I couldn't avoid that on some spots the fiberglas structure got slightly damaged. I will show on how I fixed it in my next post... Again, take your time to remove your old roof box. The less stress you apply, the less you have to fix afterwards... And - if I've forgotten to mention in one of my previous posts - take pictures of all door hinges and shims the factory used to level the doors.

Since everything was full of rust, I couldn't loose the screws fixing the hinges. Hence I had to cut the upper part of the rear and front roof box in order to get proper access to the back of the hinges and to cut the screws with an angle grinder.

33144
I started with jiggling the rear section off (just put the middle section back to the roof for taking the picture).

33145
Rear section off. The lower part was covered with rust chips. Unfortunately I couldn't avoid that part of the fiberglas body broke and got off.

33146
Also the fron section I had to cut the upper part for better access to the hinge bolts.

33147
Same as for the rear section: On some spots I damaged the fiberglas. Hardly to avoid as glue still bonds on some spots and damage the base material by removing the roof box.

33148
I removed all the old glue and sanded the front and rear section.