I'm about to DIY a Panoramic Roof.

GraySurf said:
AHHHH your the one who bought it! I almost bought this P5 when I saw the ad on craigslist! The sale on my car fell though and the next day the ad was deleted. Bummer. This is exactly what i was planning on doing if i bought it. maybe you could try a center support like a mercedes.
sunroof_open.jpg
It would help prevent the plexiglass from bowing in the middle and by adding that extra support you would most likely limit wind vibrating the plexiglass. It wouldnt be that hard to get some metal or even wood and wrap it in some foam and headliner. you could even ad some reading lights or speakers! (headbang)
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I saw your ad for the Police interceptor!!! I was going to buy your car too. but I ended up buying this instead. The ad said "Trade for mazda protege5" I was alllmost going to call you to test drive your car but I ended up tearing my roof apart. Small world...
 
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Project halfway complete!

Only part that sucks is the FIRST bolt i bolted in cracked the plexi :/ but it's only an inch long so i'm going to drill a small hole at the end of it and seal it up.

After placing the plexi in the rear didn't match up the way i wanted it too, and was bound to leak and made the roof sag a bit. So I went to the store again and found some roof edge.


This piece was about 10 ft. long so I had to figure out how to cut it.

Well i'm at the hardware store! So i asked an employee where the metal shears are and their tape measurers and they were right next to each other lol. After being stared at by an employee as i'm measuring and cutting this 28" piece I put the tools back and purchased my items.

I put that piece of roof edge on the rear and used the weather stripping i purchased to seal it up in the back.

The sheet metal screws held the plexi down much better than i thought.

I put a real thin layer of silicone before i slapped the glass on and went to work

I drilled pilot holes before i drilled with a smaller drill bit than the screw so it ended up beign a perfect seal and getting a real nice bite into the plexi and the aluminum..

I would've loved to have taken pictures of the entire process but I was alone when i put it all together and i couldn't stop to take pictures when i'm waiting for silicone to settle. But i took after pictures!

Here is what it looks like as it sits

plexi1.jpg


Here's the nasty roofedge that i'm going to trim down after the silicone cures.

plexi2.jpg


Heres the crack :/ This was my first bolt i put in. Every bolt after that was put in very carefully. (Good thing I opted to not go with rivets)

plexi4.jpg


After some research, I found out that I can actually stop that crack and just seal it. (I'll probably just put a sticker over it after i seal it)

I Just siliconed the living hell out of it. I put in so much silicone that i'd be surprised if it even leaks. I actually have some left over so if i missed anything i'll seal it and if it leaks again I can just keep siliconing it!

The only step now is to cover up my mess..... One more trip! I'm thinking of going with garage door bottom, but Who knows what i'll run into.

I might even put some LED lights up there lol but probably not because those are hella played out now.

Tommorrow i'm going to town with a hose and simulating the worst rainstorm that has ever hit california.
 
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I got plexi because it was cheaper. More i spend on this more i might as well take it to the shop.
 
d0sitmatr said:
drilling plexi is tricky, most of the time it cracks the edges (I dont mean cracks you can physically see either) small, microscopic cracks will mean the plexi will crack much easier in those same spots down the road.
here is where Lexan has the advantage, except as mentioned before, due to its very chemical makeup, that makes it ideal for these things, also makes it something that would need replaced on a regular basis. after replacing the lexan panel 2-3 times you would be matching a single piece of custom shaped glass, that will last a long, long time AND be covered under insurance (lexan/plexi wont be).

the chances of finding something that will remotely match are slim, very slim. unless the OP wishes to do some fabrication work (which Im pretty sure he already said he isnt comfortable doing)
all in all, the honest easiest route for this will be a piece of glass, safety preferred. (safety glass, for those wondering, is 2 thin pieces of glass with a ultra clear laminate between them, the same technique your windshield is made of)
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You were right about the plexi cracking. I am now concerned about the sagging, but have heard that 1/4" is thick enough to support its own weight but the heat that this thing willl be subject to concerns me.
 
This is why I mentioned Glass...

You can get 3/8 and 1/2 Safety Glass which is the same stuff as teh front glass on a car, cut to order.
 
brokenpath said:
I saw your ad for the Police interceptor!!! I was going to buy your car too. but I ended up buying this instead. The ad said "Trade for mazda protege5" I was alllmost going to call you to test drive your car but I ended up tearing my roof apart. Small world...
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HAHA Well if you change your mind I will take that hole in your roof off your hands for my interceptor lol(2thumbs)
 
BRIAN_MP5T said:
This is why I mentioned Glass...

You can get 3/8 and 1/2 Safety Glass which is the same stuff as teh front glass on a car, cut to order.
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Yeah but you have to keep in mind that i'm literally putting this into a steel frame that was meant for a convertable roof.

Glass cut to order will be much more expensive and I would also need to buy different materials to mount it, possibly tear my headliner apart to use machine screws etc.

Now, i don't mind doing this but if i'm going to do that I might as well take it into the shop to get professionally done, or rip the entire bracket out and make a custom bracket myself. I'm not going to do that when my quote to put a new roof in was so cheap. thx.
 
Torenntial Rainfall Simulated.... (I'll have pics by tonight, still have to upload them)

Simulation failed :(.

It wasn't leaking where I sealed it or where the plexiglass was sealed up. Those seals held up!!

I really went to town and put my hose on shower AND jet setting over every ltitle crevice on that roof for a half hour. Even concentrating on the joints and especially where the rain would puddle.

Well, turns out when i took the old roof off, I forgot that i ripped the rubber seal that went around the whole thing. Somehow this leaks JUST A LITTLE into my A pillar under Heavy hurricane force rainfall.

So it looks like one more round of silicone, or if i can find JUST that seal for sale i'll buy it but i highly doubt it being that i found one place in southern california that even has any professional experience with one of these.
 
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Pics of the Progress..

Post rainstorm
IMAG0058.jpg


Another angle
IMAG0059.jpg


Interior shot
IMAG0062.jpg


Another Interior shot
IMAG0063.jpg


Along these grooves is where I need to seal it up
IMAG0068.jpg


The leak :(
IMAG0060.jpg



So basicaly, it's silicone round 2 tonight and tmw i'm going to shop around for aesthetics.
 
blkspdfreak said:
not an expert opinion by any means, but will this be sturdy at highway speeds? id imagine opening the windows will put major pressure in the cabin from the air flow. as far as the drilling into the plexi, i would think as long as you predrill the holes you should be alright. and if it all fails you can go with a carbon fiber cap which would look badass. good luck either way.
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With open windows I can notice it moving up and down pretty violently when i put my hand on it but it's not very visible (SO it's not flexing a lot) . However, it's in there pretty damn good. I'm thinking that this might force a crack down the road but only time will tell. I hope that it counteracts the sagging that d0sitmatr was talking about. (It'll probably make it worse)

Time will tell but if it holds up for more than a month, i'll feel confident enough to do it with glass. (Which i'm starting to lean towards now instead of the hollandia 400)
 
could you put a horizontal cross brace in there to help support it? It wouldn't eliminate the possibility of cracking, but it would certainly help with minor flexing. You could even shape the brace a little bit to give the plexi a bump up in the middle so it doesn't sag.
 
peter.cort said:
could you put a horizontal cross brace in there to help support it? It wouldn't eliminate the possibility of cracking, but it would certainly help with minor flexing. You could even shape the brace a little bit to give the plexi a bump up in the middle so it doesn't sag.
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I looked at it from an angle today and it already has a hump going both ways.

The brace has a natural curve to it, so I don't think i have to worry about too much sag.
 
I layed some serious caulk down on her tonight :).

I put so much caulk on this thing it could be in a porn.

I'm getting pretty good with my technique, the key is to get the proper cut on the nozzle and to kind of "Paint" the caulk back and forth to fill the gap while applying pressure. You end up with a real nice looking bead when you're done :). I wish I did this to the whole thing! Oh well, at least I really overkilled it so there would be no leaks. However, i think it really comes down to quality over quantity on using this stuff.

Problem is it's not sandable or paintable either...

So now I have to look around for some pretty huge pieces to go about making this aesthetically pleasing. (As long as tommorrows rainstorm doesn't get through the roof)

I'm thinking of going to the junkyard and finding some long pieces of trim panel, possibly the stuff on the bottom of the side when you open the door. maybe the stuff on the outside of the door, garage door bottom, (Excuse my lack of proper terminology here.) etc. etc. etc....

I feel like the aesthetic part is going to be the real long part of this process. I really don't want this to look like crap and i'm going to be spending a lot of time fixing this up.
 
it'll probably never be OEM looking. IDK I guess anythings possible lol.

However, I'm just shooting for "Not Sloppy" which would probably be the best i could hope for on this.

Yeah I really wanted to make it so I can remove the roof and put it in the back if i wanted too. (It fits with seats up)

However, that requires fabrication and it would probably be cheaper to take it to a professional Because of all the tools I would have to buy/rent to accomplish a full fab job.
 
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