replacing vinyl roof

S

skilly

New Member
Hi Folks

A job I have been meaning to do for ages is replacing the vinyl roof on my 3500s. I was told from the previous owner that a previous owner had the car in his garage for years and had been using the roof to store boxes and all other sorts of rubbish, anyway as a result there is some dents etc on it. It's not overly noticeable but these are the only blemishes on the whole car so it's probably a job worth doing. Anyway I am some advice on how difficult it is to replace the whole roof. It would be my plan to buy a good second hand one and swap it over. If the headlining on the second hand roof was good can it be left on or would it need replacing as a matter of course as part of the job. How long would a job usually take and is it a DIY number, I'm no Ed China but i'm not frank spencer either. Is there an instruction manual available to show you a step by step guide for this sort of job :?:

Any advice or tips would be great.
 
Hi skilly.
Having replaced my roof and headlining for one with a webasto sunroof in,I can tell you how to do it!
As long as I can remember it all!!! :wink:
Just take your time and allow a good sunny weekend to do it!
I am presuming you dont have a sunroof,and are going to replace the roof with one without a sunroof,this makes it a quite straight forward job!
First,Make sure you have your replacement roof ready to fit!!
At the front and rear of the headlining there are cover panels,very carefully remove these,you may have to remove the inner 1/4 panels from the back,but they just screw and slide on and off.
The inner main headlining can stay in position!!
Then carefully remove the stainless trim from both outer front corners of the roof,you will have to also remove the pillar stainless,and the screen rubber stainless as well!
Once this is done,you will be able to access all the phillips headed screws holding the roof panel on!
Without counting,I think there were about 25-30 in total?
When you are sure that they are all off,you will have to carefully lever the roof up at various points around its edge to break the weatherseal bonding!
You will need at least 2 people to do the job,as its quite heavy! But 3 would be much better!
Also jiggling the front screen rubber off,then tilting the roof back it will come free from the rear screen seal!
Clean all the old sealant off the roof framework,and liberally apply new before reversing the process to refit!
Just make sure you pick a dry weekend,or do it in a double garage if you can!
You will find also that the roof has an inner soundproofing layer,and the interior light wire is taped to the roof,hopefully you can get to this with help from a mate as the roof comes off!
ask anything you like,somewone on the forum will be able to assist you!!

Good luck DAVE
 
Thanks a lot dave this is maybe a winter project, providing I can get the use of my mates garage. Now all I have to do is source a good complete light or dark brown vinyl roof.

Cheers
skilly
 
Your better off buying a S1 roof or non vinyled roof. You can then clean it all up, and put new vinyl on it. Invariably vinyls are not 100% perfect as they have rust coming up inderneth, which just looks horrible.

I bouht a near perfect S1 roof, keyed it up and had it vinyled on the floor outside workshop. Then simply screwed it on. It is effectively good for another 30 years. You can still but EVERFLEX, which is waterproof and extrememly heat resitant. Pattern is almost idebtical to original used by Rover. Use a company called Alpha adhesives for the glue. Do a google search for everflex and alpha adhesives .... rest assured this is what a professoinal firm will use (if you can find one to do it any more).

If you are near London, get the materials and the roof and I will have a word with Dennis about price to fit. Dennis has been in the motor game for over 50 years and has the skills that have all but disappeared from the marketplace. Vinyling rooves, shrinking rooves with oxyacetaline, panel beating and faultless, ripple free repairs. He worked on "classics" when they were new!
 
Alpha sell the old 'Dunlop' S1358 which although a polychloroprene adhesive, was specified for donkey's years by Jaguar and other British car companies for bonding vinyl roof materials.

If anyone needs any, I can get it at a special price :wink:

PM me
 
Hi,
just in case you're interested I order vinyl and glue today for my 3500S from wollies. It cost about 22.50 per metre (54" wide, need 2m) and 13.50 for the alphabond adhesive. I had no luck finding another roof in Ireland with good vinyl so I'm going to have a go myself. The one i picked is 24 BLK, my car is huntsman but I've decided to change colour while i'm at it. Have enough to do the side panels as well.
Regards,
Dave
 
Cheers, i'm going to draft in a few of the lads. And I'll use my fathers workshop, plenty of room. Just need to keep him away from it, still a running joke in the family about the job he did on the roof of a cortina in the early '80s. He painted it black for some strange reason??
I'll keep you posted on the result.
Regards,
Dave
 
I had a Woolies catalogue and couldn't find anything comparable to the P6 vynil.

At least the P6 roof is easier than Cortinas etc as they have seams to get straight and the 1/4 panels and roof are all in one piece

Are you taking the screens out or just tucking the vynil under the rubbers ?
 
Dave,
I bought the closest one I could find from the range http://www.woolies-trim.co.uk/p-1184-ex ... cloth.aspx. It's not a perfect match to the original but anything is better than the fire damaged vinyl on it at the moment. I'll see how it looks when it arrives and if I don't think it suites the car I'll sell it on and find more. I'm going to try and avoid screen removal, I'll just lift the rubber and tuck it in on the advice of our regional organiser.
Regards,
Dave
 
Dave,
I'll kepp you posted. It could be a week or two due to work commitments but I'll take pictures and make a few notes when I get around to it and let you know the results.
Regards,
Dave
 
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