My antique TVR would origionally have had a fabric type sliding sunroof type thing...

I have the aluminium surround to fit in the hole in the roof, as well as most of the sliding fabric bit, but I have absolutly no idea how it goes together...I am also missing a few crucial bits..

So, I was consideirng using the origional aluminium frame and fitting in a clear plastic panel...Perhaps applying a tint film to the plastic to make it look a little less daft...

But my question...

What plastic should I use in the roof window, and is it possible to bend it/have it bent, as the roof bends in one direction...

I think it could look quite nice if I can manage to seal it properly.... I imagine the origional fabric roof leaked pretty badly, and this being the UK I would rather have a clear window than a fabric slide that will stay closed most of the time!

Have you considered using a suitable sunroof glass from another car at all?? Might need to enlarge the hole at a guess but with some ingenuity it might work??

Hi,

I would use a sheet of polycarbonate as it doesn't tend to shatter. Tiger seal would be good or get some of the sealer they use to put windscreens in.
HTH

Bob

I would imagine that finding a piece of sunroof glass with the correct curve and size on it would be near on impossible...

Does polycarbonate go yellow in daylight? and will I be able to force a bend into it?..

gently heat the polycarb with a heat gun and you'll be able to bend it. heat it too much and it'll staryt to burn

I have a sunroof mechamism that came out of my audi 80 that I don't want anymore.

Its like a box that bonds/mounts to the roof and has the sunroof mechanism inside. It does take up some headroom but assuming the hole you have is smaller would be easy to fit. The audis roof had a curve to it so it may be ok.

Hmm...

I wonder if I could just get a windscreen type seal like this: And simply pop that around the edge of the hole in the roof, and then pop my polycarbonate screen into that...

wonder if that would work....deffinately look better than using the aluminium extrusions I currently have lying about

looks like the type of seal minis used to use

Depending on the thickness of the polycarbonate the seal might work, I would preferably use thicker poly and bond it into place, this would also of course ensure that there could be no leaks.
Polycarbonate does not yellow in the sun unlike some other clear plastics, it is used as a layer in some cars as a bullet proofing medium, so would prevent some oik trying to break in through the roof.

Bob

[Edited on 29/9/08 by bbwales]

Because its a fiberglass shell its going to flex quite a lot....I dont think I can really bond the window in place perminantly...Hence why that seal is attractive....


Worth a try...I guess

Cut the polly the same as the hole in the roof then bond some aluminium around the inside of the hole say 15mm smaller.

Then bond the polly to the aluminium in the roof hole with tiger sealer after that back fill around roof to polly .
this will make it all flush

Jacko, I had considered that...Would look very good especially if the poly is tinted the same color as the body...

However.... How well does tiger seal cope with flexing?...Because the shell really does flex a lot!

You will / should be ok with tiger sealer it's what we glue panels on buses + big side screens with or use

Kent windscreen sealer may / will be better
then you could use the black primer

How big was the sun roof glass? have some bits about but not sure if big enough

http://www.webasto.co.uk/company/en/company_locations.html

It might be worth a try talking to these people. the fabric roof would almost certainly have been a Britax one, and Webasto took over Britax roof systems a while ago now. It might take a while to find someone who knows about the older cars, but you never know, you might be able to get hold of the correct part as NOS.

The piece of PC needs to be 775x445mm....So its quite a sizeable hole!