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Cliffs: If you have a glass sun roof you may want to check the hinges and inlets for rust, and becareful not to snap the bolts holding the inlets on.
I was messing around with some random crap on my car, and decided to pull off the glass top roof.
The metal "hinges" on the front have been a bit rusty for some time now, and I always ment to get around to fixing that.
So about two weeks ago, I did.
I pulled the glass roof completely off, which was no small feat, as in the entire time I have owned my car, I have only had it off once. (maybe twice, but the second time I was really drunk. No, I didn't drive.)
Well, I got the glass off, and unbolted the metal hinges. They were completely rusted. I started to go about pulling off the coating they had on them.
It seems to be a type of plastic, and they must have been dipped into it. The part of the coating over the rusted part was easy to peel back and snap off, however anywere that was still un-rusted (up by where the "hinge" attaches to the sun roof) it was a complete pain in the ass.
I peeled off what I could, and then busted out my air powered dremmel and went at it with some sanding wheels. It took a while, but I have removed pretty much all of the platic, and I have removed all the rust.
I sprayed the "hinge" in some black anti-rust spray enamel, and I guess I am unsure of how this will hold up. I'm going to try it for a while, and see, but I will be keeping a close eye on it, unless someone can tell me otherwise.
Also, I looked at the female inlets that the "hinge" sits in, and they were also starting to rust. So, feeling I was this far into the project, I decided 'what the hell' and tried to take them off as well.
Out of the four bolts that held the inlets on, I snapped one of them off, and two others were so rusted I feel it was just dumb luck that I got them out at all.
Well, after messing around with an easy out that didn't work for sh*t, I finally broke down, drilled it out, and tapped it for a new bolt.
I then got all stainless steel bolts to put the hardware back on.
While all this was going on, I looked at the inlets. They are a plastic peice that gets bolted to the top of the car via two bolts. They also have metal sleeves molded into the plastic.
three of my sleeves were rusted out.
So, out comes the sand paper again, and I started in on them. Once I felt I had them pretty clean I painted the sleeves black with an anit rust enamel once again.
I also looked at the desgin of the sleeve, and found out that it sucks in two ways.
1st: It has no drain holes. Any water that gets inside the inlet stays in there until it evaporates, or rusts the hinge. I for one think that is quite possible the worst desgin ever. Especially as the part sits inside the drain basin for all the water that does manage to get in the sun roof area for cars with a glass top. one drain hole put in the bottom of this part would allow all the water inside this part to drain with the rest of the water in the sun roof area. (which granted isn't much, but was at least enough to ruin my hinges, and my car lives in the garage for 95% of it's life.)
2nd: The drain for the bolt holes goes towards the back of the car, but the part is tilted towards the front once it is mounted. This means that any water that does get to where the bolts are doesn't simply drain off and down with the rest of the water. It pools around the bolts and the sleeves, which was undoubtably why my bolts were rusted out, and one was so degraded it snapped off.
To fix these problems, I drilled two small drain holes in the bottom of the plastic inlet, so water would drain out. I also notched the area around the bolt hole so that when in place, the water can run out the front of the peice as well. I will also be using stainless steel bolts to put everything back onto my car.
I just wanted to let everyone with a glass roof know what I found so that they could also check their cars and see what condition the hinges and the plastic inlets are.
If you are going to modify your plastic inlets they will have to be removed, and you will want to use a good amount of penetrating oil and let it soak for several days before even attempting to break these guys loose. They are pretty small bolts, so let them soak, go slowly, and try not to wreck anything or you will also be drilling and taping new threads.
I'll see if I can get some pictures of the parts tonight before I do anything else.
Also, be ready for a bit of paint to come up if you do have any oxidation. My sun roof area is black, which I believe if fairly typical. The black came off around the bolt holes down to the red primary color of my car. I just used some black touch up paint around the bolt holes.
I did check on prices for just getting replacement crap. At my local mistu dealer, the hinges were forty bucks a peice, and the inlets were twenty.
If anyone needs the part numbers I have them.
Do you guys think that anti-rust enamel on the hinges will be good enough? Or should I be looking to powder coat these things? Or dip them in plastic again?
Does anyone else even take there glass roof off?
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Bad decisions make good stories.
Look at it! LOOK AT MY @SS AND TELL ME IT'S PRETTY!
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