Van

I got to work on my sunroof delete project yesterday.

Here are some pictures from it.

I cut a piece out of a non-sunroof chassis that I had sitting about... First I placed my sunroof on it and got it lined up in the right position:




Then I used it as a template and plasma cut along the outline:




Did a little grinding on the edges until it fit nicely:




Tack welded it into place:




And started the full weld (I've only done the driver's side and rear... I'm getting a bit more heat distortion than I anticipated...)

Lorax

Why not use the whole roof skin?

Van

In hind sight, I probably should have - I thought it would just be convenient to weld to the lip made by the sunroof rain catch channel... of course, I think this is the root cause of the heat distortion... because of the profile of the rain channel, the top of it expands from the welding heat, but the bottom does not. And this causes the metal to warp.

Live and learn!

Lorax

I have said that many times while working on this car

Next time just drill out the spot welds and use an airhammer/chisel to get the whole skin. I have never seen this done on a 944 though...

potent951turbo

+1, I know you already answered but still I would have cut the whole skin off.

ShApE

to keep distortion from occurring, weld one 1/2 inch bead on one side and then another on the opposite side. keep doing this around all sides staying as far away as possible from the last bead you laid. Never run a constant bead on a body panel like that for more than an inch at a time.

Van

I was doing 1/2" (or shorter) at a time alternating as you suggest.

It's an issue of that formed (folded) inner rain-catch lip - when I weld, the top of that lip gets hot (even a little) and expands (even a little), but the bottom of the lip does not expand... so the top grows, but has no place to go (constrained by the bottom part) and causes the deformation. The only think I can think of is to not have a continuous weld - but just a series of tacks - maybe every inch or so...

DanR

Is the distorsion as bad in real life as in the pics? Just wondering if it will fill out? (pic 5 in top right looks like it would need substantial filling but could be light angle!)

You may also want to be careful when grinding the weld back as that can also build up heat if done continuously. Ask me how I know

N-Dub

I'm somewhat curious why you cut a hole in such a rare roof...

DanR

so he can fill a hole in another roof!

Van

I wonder what's more rare... a non sunroof car, or a silver rose turbo S?

What I do know: all my go-fast parts are currently bolted to the silver rose turbo S...

MM951

Now you won't have to worry about stripped sunroof gears and leaky seals

catamax944

Too bad you didnt use the whole roof skin,it would have looked factory.Even the original colour of your donor was silver....lol.

I have a question.Could a whole 924 roof be fitted to a post 85.5 944 or the windshield area is diferent?A non sunroof 924 is easier to find and cheaper so.....

lee101315

Very nice, I was thinking about doing the same thing, but with an older steel sunroof minus the seal... This should really stiffen the chassis up. You guys are being too critical, it takes a big set of ***** to take on a project like this.

Dont worry about evening it out, just grind down the welds, strip the whole roof to bare metal, and have a good body man fill everything out. Everything will look fine

N-Dub

Well yes of course, but why not lay some fatty welds on the existing hole filler? Granted yes there is a slight size difference, but it's almost like killing a unicorn...