Stephencs601

Off to the hospital I go. Folks, lets keep our fingers crossed that we can get this done. My thoughts are this, the tops can be made, now how about the seals and latches. Lets hear from you all. The latching parts can be made of poly vinyl chloride(pvc) but not really a good product. Polyethelene is far better, durable and has memory. Seals, Who can we contact for the seal? Anyone know someone at 3M or another mfg. Lets all get this done as a team effort. No one individual is as strong as us all working together.

86 951 Driver

A couple questions which may help to clear up any ideas. First off did Saratoga originally make the seals for the glass roofs? The new roofs are they made exactly like the old ones or will they be a slight updated design?

I am asking this because if the design is exactly the same then we could just get a picture of an old seal send it to say 3M and see if they have anything like that in stock that we could get bulk supply of.

Or even better if Saratoga didn't make the seals themselves then we could try and track down the original manufacturer of the seals and tell them what our project is. Any other thoughts?

Stephencs601

Pilkington did not mfg the seals. The design will be an exact replica of the original. Whereby, whomever has a seal, please contact 3M and see if they can be duplicated, or are a stock item. I suppose that they may be a stock item that comes in a roll and we will cut to order on each top.

p5th

Well, just lost bidding on ebay for one, bid got to $900. That was my bail-out point. I guess I'll wait and see how this turns out.

Crazy Eddie

Is there any chance we could use stock Porsche seals ? Yes they are expensive but they work ...?
Regards
Ed

PEvans

Saratogas came in framed and frameless varieties, and gray and bronze glass. I don't know if both colors came in both configurations - I think the frameless roofs may have been bronze glass (mine is).

For the 944/951 they also have variants for electric and manual roofs. I think the electric versions have guides for the lifting arms rather than latches.

So if Pilkington will re-offer these potential buyers may need to know which variant.

PEvans

The seal on my bronze frameless electric roof Saratoga is long gone. The roof is noisy and has damaged the paint in the sunroof well.

I don't know what the seal solution is, and if a replacement seal comes out of this opportunity I would be very interested and willing to pay.


Here is one seal post I kept when I was actively researching this. I never tried any of these ideas and I can't recall now where they came from:


"The ONLY seal that works because it is the same as the original is #321 877 209 a VW seal for the Jetta, etc. of that time period. You will need two since the VW's sunroof is smaller than the saratoga's."


Here is another:

"I actually talked to the original designer of the Saratoga roof a few years back with the same question.
He said (for the bronze roofs) he just used a plain-Jane D-profile seal that was readily available at the
time and glued it right to the glass top. He didn't have any recollection on the original seal strip
supplier nor did Saratoga have any stock left over from the original run.

"I deal quite a bit with a supplier called McMaster-Carr for a lot of the components I use at work. Although sometimes pricey, they have a great selection of just about everything and 99.9% of the time all of the items are in stock. It should be a good starting point as you can buy several profiles/materials in small lengths until you find one you like. It looked like that seal was about a 3/8" x 3/8" D-profile.

"From what I remember, it looked like I would have to buy one of the "tadpole - D" profiles and cut off the tail to get it to match the original, although I'm sure there is a manufacturer out there that makes exactly what you're looking for.

"You may even want to experiment with different profiles as the original Saratoga designer told me the seals on the bronze roofs always had a weakness with heavy rainfall and they changed to the style that's used on the 924/944 Porsche roofs because of it. You'll need to pick a material that's good with UV and watch your temperature range too."

PEvans

I recall someone telling me the seal on a frameless Saratoga is supposed to go around the edge, not just on the underside. This would make a little sense as the gap is what creates the wind noise and the roof does move around a little bit. However, it would also take away from the clean look of the glass edge. I can't tell by looking at mine.

951Saga

I will take my roof to Pilkington here in Columbus tomorrow. My seal is intact though far from perfect. They have someone in-house who deals with seals, so let’s hope a solution is found, maybe even offer new seals for existing roofs.

Cheers,
Jason

pettybird

This is RL.. More like:

PEvans

I don't see how it would add anything, but I'll offer anyway. If for some reason they want to see a frameless with not much seal left I can take mine to Pilkington in San Jose.

951Saga

Pilkington has my roof!

Pilkington Classics, this is what they do…

p5th

Thats positive movement, I think this might just happen. I hope they will be in time for summer.

Stephencs601

So it looks like this is moving along very well. Sorry but I am sick as a dog and in bed for two days. Nice to see so many want to help me in this venture. Lets keep it going and just maybe, we will have a new old product. Thanks to all for your help. RL is the best.

951mcomm

feel better steve
+1 under 5