[mellowyellow]

I recently bought a 1969 Series 1 1750. The car is very original but with one flaw. It is fitted with a vinyl type sunroof. The vinyl still looks good, but the roof is sealed - it is not working. I have two options. One is to leave the sunroof and have it fixed and the other is removing the sunroof and restoring the roof to original condition. At the moment I am leaning towards the second option as I would like to have the car as original as possible. What is the best way to do this. I probably have to find a donor roof somewhere?

Any suggestions/ideas is welcome!

Thanks

 

[alfazagato]

It really depends where you are. In the UK I had a Webasto roof on my GTV, they were installed by the concessionaires I believe, and it was wonderfully made and did not detract from the line of the car. If you are somewhere warmish then you may wish to keep the heat out and a return to the metal roof would be the way to go. An experienced body man can wheel an infill panel for you so there is no need to find a donor.
There will be a need to repaint the whole of the upper part too!

 

[gattia86]

I just recently did the reverse procedure on my '60s vintage Mercedes sedan. I wanted a factory sunroof, so I found a doner car and chopped the whole roof off at the top of all the roof pillars and welded the whole new roof on my car.

Its actually easier to do a nicely finished job this way, since all the welding is restricted to the roof pillars and is mostly hidden by trim and window rubber seals. And because of the short welds and shape of the pillars, warping and buckling are easier to control.

It would be very hard to fill a large hole like your sunroof without some warping or buckling, and it would be hard to get the curve of the panel just right.

 

[rogerspeed]

I'd fix that sunroof. The concensus is Webasto did the steel sunroof conversions POE, even if their ragtop/slidetop was a little more downstream, they are rare, authentic, don't detract from the lines and sunroof as garth says is excellent not a flaw.

 

[gattia86]

I agree with Rogerspeed.

A Webasto sunroof is very period correct... I'm thinking '60s Minis, etc.

If you were local, I'd offer to chop off my solid roof and trade you!

 

[unicornbc]

Ditto....and I have a spare roof already in stock to trade you !

 

[mellowyellow]

Thanks everyone. It is indeed a Webasto sunroof and we do have agents in South Africa. I will be visiting them soon as to get some advice.