Open Air hardtop

[Tom109]

With a rare, wide-open weekend in front of me, I finally felt motivated to tackle a long standing problem - how to finish the hole I cut in my roof!
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The goal was to boost hardtop ventilation by installing a folding fabric sunroof. Due to interference between the sunroof frame and the hardtop's construction, I shelved it until I developed a solution. Well, here it is
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After the final, successful installation, I had to pull everything to prep the roof for paint and headlining. More to come in the following weeks…

Tom P.

[mlp141]

Very cool.

[scatterling]

nice!!

[Frank84]

wow! I love it!

[crazyfish]

Awesome.

[galen211]

Is that a kit or did you make it?

[Tom109]

Galen,

This was a Britax (Weathershields) Sunway kit as used on MGB's in the 60's-70's. I was lucky enough to stumble into a guy that had an extra NOS kit kicking around after restoring his MGB GT. I had to have it when I saw it, but I had no idea if it would ever fit a LR roof. Long story short - it now fits and even offers a little GB provenance...

Tom P.

[Tom109]

With all the recent rain and thunder storms I never thought I get any painting done. Well, here is the roof. The gutter was separated from the roof and cleaned, but retains it's original patina. It was re-rived and sealed to the roof with 3M 5200, then all seams were sealed on the inside with 5200, and 3m seam sealer along the exterior gutter.
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I also coated the tailgate in DBG, and the upper lift-gate skin - limestone inside and primer outside - which is now ready for re-assembly.

Tom P.

[Tom109]

OK, the roof insulation is now pre-cut, and I'm ready to start gluing teh fabric to it and then to the the roof. However, I seem to have hit a bump in the road. Apparently I cut the alpine window opening just a tad too small? :mad:

I know it can be difficult, but the glass and rubber physically will not fit! When I cut them, I decided to err on the "small" side, so I cut them +0.25" over the glass dimensions. After really forcing things together, it appears I need at least +0.3125-0.375".

So, now I have to tape all than shiny new paint, bring out the jigsaw and shave a tiny bit more.

Tom P.

[Frank84]

Better too small than too big!

[Tom109]

I really thought the seal would compress, but I didn't consider the fact that the locking strip would actually expand the seal between the roof and the glass. So, I put 2-inch painter's tape down to protect the paint, and began to shave 0.025" off the top edge of the opening (feathered into the ends which I felt measured OK). I made two passes, removing 0.125"each time, with a test fit in between. Now they fit perfectly!
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I used a homemade locking strip tool, made from hardwood dowel and a large cotter pin. I had to re-shape the eye to pass the strip smoothly.
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Now that the glass is in, I can go back to the insulation and hull liner. I used EZ Cool from Harbour Supply (http://www.lobucrod.com/).
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The insulation is cut-to-fit, next I'll glue it to the hull liner, then to the roof...

Tom P.

[scatterling]

wow Tom, looking good!!

[Tom109]

I'm starting to finish, I think?

Back at a 2005 ROVERS swap meet I picked-up this S2 lift-gate:
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I bought it because it had every piece of hardware intact, even though the frame was toast:
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I salvaged all the hardware:
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And, over the past few years, manged to find a fair number of NOS hardware pieces:
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It will be all going back together soon. I picked-up a NOS S3 lift-gate frame w/skin from Ray wood, had the frame galvanized, then painted it limestone. The inside of the original S2 skin will also be limestone, and the exterior DBG. It's partially re-assembled, and the DBG paint is drying now, hopefully I'll get a few pics up tomorrow...

Tom P.

[Frank84]

I'm starting to finish, I think?




Haha - you'll never be done! There's always just one more thing to fix, improve on, etc.

But it is looking really good!

[Tom109]

Deleted and unnecessary post and dropped-in the liftgate re-assembly pics...

Fitting the frame to the skin.
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I had some scrap 3/4x3/4 oak strips that i used to support, and crimp the skin edges.
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Tom P.

[Tom109]

Long time without an update... I'm really happy with the roof, and pretty much everything is done except for door seals and brakes. I've had all the brake bits, just not the time to dig in and finish it all off.

As she sat last week...
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Headliner...
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Disassembled again...
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Working-out the remote servo angle...
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It will be mounted on top of the passenger-side foot-well, outside the Kodiak, so the standard brackets needed tweaking.

Tom P.

[kun109]

Looks awesome Tom. Wish I had a set of those rear sliding windows on my rig.

[Tom109]

Baby steps. Lately I just can't seem to find any reasonable garage time!

I did manage to drill the IIa brake drums to fit the rear M16 studs...
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Tom P.