Hi,

I'd really appreciate some advice about this.

I have a '78 XJS with a factory-fit sliding metal sunroof. Apparently it is a Hollandia (maybe Webasto... I realise they were related companies)...There were sealing problems in the past because it was caulked up with silicone.

As much of a pig as sunroofs are, as I am keeping the car original I have decided to reinstate it. I have removed the silicone, dismantled the lid from its carrier, and am now experimenting with different rubber profiles to try and get a reasonable seal. The aperture is really tight and that task is on hold for the moment pending delivery of some hollow sponge rubber that I hope stands a chance of doing the job.

Anyway, the rear headlining was sagging so I decided to take that down at the same time and that is when things got even more complicated. There is no conventional headliner board, as there is a socking great sunroof cassette sitting below the roof. Whoever trimmed it last had stuck some foam/neoprene type material to the undersurface of the cassette, and then the foam-backed liner had been offered up to that.

If you can imagine the cross section of the car, in profile... That means that the front and rear of the liner were entirely unsupported. To be fair it didn't look bad, but there was no courtesy light at the front (as nothing solid behind the liner), the rear view mirror screwholes were covered up (hence a stuck-on mirror that keeps falling off) and - worst of all - the liner front and rear relies solely on being tucked into the front and rear window rubbers for support. The front was pretty good (although it is a smaller gap between the front of the cassette and the front of the roof, than between the rear of the cassette and the rear of the roof - if you see what I mean). But at the rear a small rubber bead on the liner had disintegrated and the liner was coming out of the window rubber, presumably because of the traction.

So... I plan to fabricate some custom panels front and rear to extend the support for the headliner much closer to the rubbers. At the front I have riveted some small angle brackets to the front of the cassette, so a piece of 3mm hardboard sits flush with the cassette, and have riveted the front section of the board to the inner skin of the roof (near the protrusion where the visor clips screw in). It looks like it should blend the profile of the headlining OK, and I have put a courtesy light aperture in the board where the cars normally have one. I have positioned it in such a way I'll be able to mount a screw-on rear view mirror too.

I am doing the same at the rear - attaching a suitably shaped piece of 3mm hardboard to the rear of the cassette, profiling it to shape (using a cardboard template), and fixing it to the rear roof fairly close to the rear window rubber.

But already I can see that it will be tricky to attach the liner (did I mention that sunroofs are a pig?). The videos I have seen show people happily tacking material onto a board whilst working on a work-surface... I will be working overhead, with everything draping over me until tacked up.

I was planning to repeat what the last guy did i.e. a layer of foam first (presumably to smooth the contour of the cassette which does have some screwholes, panel lines etc.) - except my layer will run front to back practically rather than just on the cassette itself, because I will have boarded front and rear.

Then I was going to attach the headliner (i.e. foam-backed fabric) to that - trimming the sides by gluing to the roof and using the trim rails, and gluing front and rear for a couple of centimetres before tucking into the rubbers.

My problems are... Presumably I can't use a GRP replacement board, because the profile will be all wrong? But if I use unfinished liner (i.e. just foam glued to plain fabric), it won't have the rubber strip front and rear that helps to tuck it into the window rubbers. And the window rubbers are so stiff I am wondering how I can tuck the liner material into it without damaging it. Perhaps it is just a question of using a heat gun on the rubber and gently working the liner in with a spatula (or similar)...?

Do you think my plan would work? Perhaps better to apply both layers of foam to the liner whilst it is out of the car, so it is smooth and has a bit more body... And then offer the whole thing up to the cassette/boarding?

I may be over-thinking it so any suggestions welcome! If anyone has experience of trimming the roofs of one of these cars I'm interested to know what you did. I saw one photo of a car with I think the same roof (the lovely white XJS that got sold) .. Interestingly that had a custom shaped support (a bit like the side rails) over the rear window arch, and now I know why and what it was doing! I suspect non-factory and a different way someone found around the problem.

Thanks!

Adrian

 

I have an 89 with factory roof. I can take some pics but I’m not sure they would be very useful. The headliner looks clean appears to be sort of stretched over various surfaces.
mad for trying to seal the sunroof in my experience a sunroof has drains and is never water tight. Maybe I misunderstood what you’re attempting to seal.

 

Thanks! I’m not sealing the roof - it has been sealed, I am trying to get it functioning again. And yes, the tray itself looks well designed to deal with any ingress. I’d be interested to know what seal is on yours - presumably a sponge rubber hollow profile p-section...?

 

where would this seal be ?

 

On mine, around the edge of the lid.

 

Quick update on this.

Headliner World have made fibreglass caps for the front and rear sections of the roof (in front of and behind the cassette)… and have made new quarter panels (the old ones were very warped). They have fitted the new liner and considering the complexity it is a good job - the rear isn’t perfect but I had asked them to do it in such a way that I could drop the rear if I ever need access to the sunroof motor (which made the job harder as the covered rear cap is screwed to the c-pillars, but not glued).

The sunroof has just been an absolute pig but it will not break me. I have used a Dremel and cut out a lot of the heavily corroded steel former that supports the roof skin, sitting just behind the sunroof aperture. I think it was jamming the roof (having swollen with corrosion) and it was by now adding zero support anyway.

And I eventually twigged that one of the springs on the sunroof carrier - which secures the rear of the lid to the carrier, and enables the lid to rise up from the carrier and flush with the roof as tangs on the lid rise up a profile on the side of the aperture - was absurdly stiff.

So I have weakened the spring, will grease up the tangs and the profile they rise up, and hope to at least get the lid to at least fully close and rise flush with the roof. Then I can finalise choice of a foam rubber profile that is thin enough not to snag as it closes and hopefully it is job done.

Much of this may make no sense if you haven’t spent some hours effing and jeffing over one but it may be helpful to anyone with a similar metal roof.

A long shot, but if anyone knows anyone who used to fit or maintain these Webasto sliding metal roofs it would be massively helpful to have access to some expertise…