Cory M

Here's another car with the same kind of roof panel, but the panel is bonded in place and smoothed to look like a factory hardtop from the outside, pretty slick.

Larry Herman

That's just to put out any fires!

Veloce Raptor

An excellent point....






Professional Racing and Driving Coach

kurt M

Don't bother with grinding wheels or drums. Use blending wheels on an angle grinder. They look like a stack of little sheets of sand paper fanned out in a circle. 80 grit will knock the mountains off. 120 grit will lay the metal flat and 180 grit will blend things down well and leave the metal ready for priming or plastic. German made brand Walter makes very good blending wheels. They have a thread center and you can swap them on and off the grinder without them becoming out of round. This is important for fine finishe work when you don't have one grinder for each grit and some for the whire wheels too. One wheel of each grit will far outlast this project and you will be hooked on them if you have not used them before. Take your time and don't ding the base metal with the 80 grit. I have been known to use layout ink on the metal to highlight where I have removed metal. A Sharpy run around the base of all the weld beads works too. Weld spattter and heavy grinder spray will pit glass too.

funny that someone else mentioned the beer bottle. As a welder and an automotive facility manager that has to deal with OHSA and other workeplace regulations I cringe at open eyed guy and open bottle of beer. UV light, weld fume and dust is way bad stuff. Unlike the guy behind the welder he has good (looks like a nice new kit) gear on. "Why do my eyes feel like I have sand in them?"

kurt M

At least it is Miller blue. Agree on the beer. Never did figure out why people drink that stuff.

Gary R.

Thanks for the tip Kurt, i saw those in the drawer here at the shop but no one seemed to be using them but i'll sure pop one in next time! Have to be super-careful with the regular disc, if these cut well (and relatively quickly) i'm all for it!

kurt M

I like the happy welder shot. I am guessing a Miller 140 autoset by what looks like a #15 gun and a package kit that included the gear and auto dark hood. If so a very handy 120 V glue gun.

Gary, they rock. They cut at an angle and when they wear in a little they have a curve to them. You can take down the tops of welds and then carefully shape a fillet weld or blend flat a butt weld. always work the metal cold and let the tool spin almost free with blending wheels. The wheels will loose their grit and glaze if run on fresh welded full hot metal. Warm to touch is OK. You can also grind a full one against a rock or chunk of cement to force it into a profile if you need to form a shape or cut flat an inside corner. The good ones last well and can be removed and replaced and still spin true. The ones that have a hole in the center like a regular grinding wheel are one time on for the most part for careful work. If you remove it the next time you use it will be out of round until you blast away a bit on a chunk of cement or some thick steel.

BostonDMD

OK boys...........

I am sold.......

When are we doing mine?.........

I will provide Italian wine and lobster risotto.........

Sean F

Miller 211 autoset. will do 115 or 230. Nice feature being able to go between the two. Autoset is a waste of time. You still need to make manual adjustments to get it dialed in right.

Didn't include the gear, just handy to get it all in one place.

BTW, for those who suspected - the beer shot was staged.

It was fun time. The grinding discs you're referring to are called flap discs.

MUSSBERGER

About as much as all that rod and filler.

flatsics

You can lose 40-45 lbs if you take out the entire sunroof Assy, motor, cables,and wiring.
From Fred's pics, the inner sunroof structure is still in the car. It is a pain to remove with the cage installed. Lots of spot welds and reinforcing brackets.

When I did mine I removed the entire sunroof assy.
I also removed the inner stucture of the sunroof panel. It is spot welded to the outer panel.
You end up with a roof that is one layer of metal just like a non sunroof car.

I used 3m Automix Panel Bonding Adhesive to bond the panel to the roof.
http://news.thomasnet.com/fullstory/454581
That stuff is crazy strong, the metal will tear before the adhesive will let go.

You do not have to paint your roof if you go this route. You can use black silicone and it will look sort of like the stock sunroof seal from the out side.
My car is silver and I used silver silicone.
I messed up and bonded the sunroof to far towards the front of the car so the panel is not in the center of the hole. It looks just fine for a race car.

DanR

I dont think Fred needs the weight reduction as he runs balast (although up high would be a nice place to relocate it from)

Gary R.

Yep, and as I JUST make weight with my spare in place and 1/2 tank of fuel it's just waaaay too much work for me to do just to have to then set the car up for ballast anyway..

flatsics

Yeah, it is a ton of work. I'm 6'2"-that's the main reason i did it. You get a lot more headroom with the whole assy gone.
I don't think it makes a noticeable difference on a stock class car, it is a small percentage of overall weight.

FredC

I thought about it. But frankly, it's not in the same league. The motor, cables, hardware, and the rest of what i took out weighed 23 pounds... and I have not (will not) taken out the inner structure for the reason Doug C (Flatsics) mentioned. Worth it from a weight perspective, but i really did it for looks more than anything (wanted a non-sunroof car from the get go).

As for overall weight reduction, with everything i took out so far, including 90 pounds of balast, the car must now weigh in the mid 2,300s.... !!!!! Would love to get a couple of laps at Limerock at that weight