2ft Hole in my roof

[Yammer5]

First post!

Howdy all

Im in a bit of a pickle, my 5 is one of the unlucky ones that has an electric sunroof, it has had a leak since a bought the car and rust has been falling out, i decided to take out the sunroof completley and see how bad things were.
little did i know that an electric sunroof is a 4inch deep box that is as wide and as long as the roof of the car! its massive, and is bracketed to all 6 pillars.
Anyway, me and mr angel grinder got to work and out it came, quite nicely actually glass and all as one piece.
I found that the sunroof was really rusty but the car roof wasnt that bad.
I was now expecting to just treat any rust and then get a sheet of metal and weld or metal glue it under the sunroof hole and fill it and that would be that.
But....when they install an electric sunroof it seems they remove any additional strenghening bits and bobs that a normal 5 has, so now my roof is just like a sheet of tin foil its so thin.
It now sags down a little on its own, if i stuck another piece of metal under it to fill the sunroof hole it would just sag down even more, and thats just the aesthetics it would be a death trap if the car ever rolled.
Has anyone ever stripped down a R5 without a sunroof? do they have some sort of metal strenghening beams or something?
And do you think they are something i can get hold of?
or does anyone ave any other ideas of what i could do to strengthen the roof?

Thanks in advance for any help

Jay

[Markey Mark (BD)]

To answer your question mate, no there are no strengthening beams on a 5 without a sunroof. I removed my headlining from my old 5 before and it made the roof very flexible, the standard headling gives the roof the strength to hold its shape.

[Andrew Cooke]

nope, they are like that. Flippy floppy things. I think the stiffness come from the headlining.

[stuTHC]

You can still just plate it, fill and paint, but you'll need to source a headlining for a 5. They are normally damaged if you try to remove it so you'll be best with a new one. I dunno if renault still sell them, drop Paul B a pm, he'll be able to get you a part number at least.

Hope you get it sorted

oh, and welcome to the boards

[raj]

get a proper cage if your concerned about your safety i think there a must for all 5's

[Markey Mark (BD)]

get a proper cage if your concerned about your safety i think there a must for all 5's

Trouble i found with that mate is the roof bangs on the cage when you have no headling in, roof gets sucked down when window is slightly open alittle or pressure from top on windy day.

I've left my headling in the red 5 this time as i couldn't stand driving it with the roof banging away

[Matt@CodeRedMotorsports]

[QUOTE=Markey Mark (BD);17126]Trouble i found with that mate is the roof bangs on the cage when you have no headling in, roof gets sucked down when window is slightly open alittle or pressure from top on windy day.



Roll cage padding sorts that.........

[Yammer5]

New poster! (less than 10 posts)

Thanks for the info, ive just purchased a roof lining from Bob at CGB yesterday.
Its good to hear you guys confirm that the roof is generally thin lol
I think ill try and get another thin sheet of metal and get some metal glue and try to make the roof a touch stronger and fill the sunroof hole at the same time, ill then glue the roof lining in and hope that that's ok.
Another quick question, is the roof lining just glued to the roof?

Thanks for all your help guys

Jay

[stuTHC]

Yeah it's glued in.
It's upto you mate but i cant see the need for the extra plate. Why add weight if you dont need too? The lining is very stiff on its own, once it's bonded in place the roof is fairly strong (well....). Id recommend you wait 'till the lining turns up, if your still not convinced the roof will be strong enought without the extra plate you can always fit it then.
Is the lining your getting from cgb new?

[Yammer5]

New poster! (less than 10 posts)

No its second hand, i picked it up myself a few days ago.