Does anyone know of a decent (work & price) welding shop in Orange County, CA that can weld a clean sunroof plug (per SCCA and NASA rules) onto my 95 Civic coupe? My cage builder was going to take care of it and he ran out of time. thanks.

 

how bout some carbon kevlar bling ??

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Doctor CorteZ &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">how bout some carbon kevlar bling ??

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<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by FormulaIntegra &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote"> (per SCCA and NASA rules)</TD></TR></TABLE>

I guess I should have said "per Improved Touring and Honda Challenge rules," neither of which allow carbon fiber. If I wanted carbon fiber, I would have searched for carbon fiber. C'mon, is there no one in Southern California that can skin over a sunroof hole?

 

I'd recommend that you just "re-skin" the roof with a non-sunroof skin.

This is something that just about any body shop could do.

I'm planning on doing it to my EF hatchback.

In the "EF" section of this site, there was a page about two weeks ago about a guy doing this to his CRX (and he also had to meet racing rules). Try doing a search in that section for "sunroof".

Wes

 

Thanks, Wes. I knew this as an option, but figured it would be a huge chore and somewhat expensive, as most body shops deal with insurance companies and charge through the roof. My cage fabricator knows an old school sheet metal guy (english wheels and all the fancy tools) that he was going to have try to match the compound curve of the roof and bead weld it in place, but ran out of time. I don't want to have to run races with a flat, riveted piece of sheet done by myself, nor do I want to run with an open hole and arm restraints. I guess I'll contact some local body shops and see what I can come up with.

 

I hear a shop in Cypress does some pretty good fab work....try Brian or Frank:

http://www.afterhoursautomotive.com

They got this good looking H1 car on the site that I saw at Big Willow last month. These guys did alot of prep for NASA and some nice cars for the SCC Time Trial event too.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by FormulaIntegra &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I guess I should have said "per Improved Touring and Honda Challenge rules," neither of which allow carbon fiber. </TD></TR></TABLE>

read the rules again , HC allows for composites and last I checked Carbon Fiber and Carbon Kevlar is a composite.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by FormulaIntegra &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">If I wanted carbon fiber, I would have searched for carbon fiber.</TD></TR></TABLE>

yeah , sorry for the suggestion , what was I thinking offering another possible solution.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by FormulaIntegra &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">C'mon, is there no one in Southern California that can skin over a sunroof hole?</TD></TR></TABLE>

look up something called a body shop , they would prolly be able to handle something like that.

 

If you end up going with a "plug", it doesn't make any sense to work a flat sheet with an English wheel! Just buy an old roof out of a junk yard and cut out the section that you need.

My consern with doing a plug is that it would be difficult to prevent distorting the metal in that area. It takes a lot better body man (welder) than to do the whole roof replacement.

Keep in mind that you are only replacing the section that is between the two "drip rails" (or what ever you call that area with the plastic strip).

Wes

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Wes V &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">My consern with doing a plug is that it would be difficult to prevent distorting the metal in that area. It takes a lot better body man (welder) than to do the whole roof replacement.
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Can you lend any insight into this?

My last hatch got decimated by some drunk. It's sitting in the back. I bought a new one, but failed to notice (it was kind of dark, and I didn't know if the VX actually had an OEM moonroof or not) had one of those cheap aftermarket sunroofs.

Anyway, I hate that sunroof with apocalyptic fury, and I have my old CX with a perfectly fine roof (one of the few things that wasn't destroyed).

I thought I would just cut out the roof, grind it to match and weld it in, but now I'm a bit concerned.

 

pull dripstrips off and drill out spotwelds , remove roof.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Doctor CorteZ &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">pull dripstrips off and drill out spotwelds , remove roof.
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Sounds too easy Do I have to remove the windshield or rear windows? If not, that sounds like my dream.

Thanks for the help and the suggestion Doc.

Edit: Looking at helms, looks like the windows have to go. Man, I hate windshield adhesive.




Modified by project_mercy at 4:30 PM 9/1/2004

 

yeah , the glass must go also.

a throttle cable or the likes will make quick work of the windshield mess , or the best thing I've used is safety wire but most people dont have that laying around.

 

I have safety wire for my motorcycles, so I'll give it a try.

Thanks again.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by project_mercy &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I have safety wire for my motorcycles, so I'll give it a try.

Thanks again.</TD></TR></TABLE>



two small blocks of wood and two people will have the windshield out in a jiffy

 

I've got to say that Doc sure makes it sound easy.

I'd recommend that you have a glass shop remove the window and count on it breaking. Honda bonds it slightly differently than older cars and isn't easy to get out without damaging it. I plan on having a shop remove the old one and then come back at a latter date and put in a new one.

I'd recommend that you buy the factory "body" manual. You can get it from Helm's and is helpfull in that it shows the order that the body panels are put together. It's not that pricy.

There are two ways that you can remove the roof skin. In both methods, you have to remove the windshield, drip rail cover, interior headliner, tail gate.


1. The factory method is to drill or grind out all the welds under the drip rail and remove the total section that is between both sides of the body. This includes the cross braces at both the front and rear. Then weld in the new piece. All the welds would be under the drip rail

2. Another method (and what I'm planning on doing) is to remove the welds along the top of the windshield and where the skin touches the rear brace. Then remove the welds under the drip rail that keep the "skin" on, not removing the welds that keep the front and rear cross-braces in place. Remove the skin and weld in a new one.

The reason that I like method 2 is that it reduces the chance that the body will move around once the roof is removed. The alignment of the rear hatch shouldn't change.

Wes

 

Thanks for your help too.

Yeah, I'm semi-familar with windshields, and I've already factored in a 50% chance that I'll break it.

I was staring at the car last night, and those were the steps I came up with. The Helms body manual I think would be nice though.

I know what you mean about adjusting the car alignment. I was actually thinking of just spot-welding a support beam between the b-pillars to keep alignment the same.

 

carbon fiber is allowed this year in HC...just not SCCA. HC you can use anything including lexan, fiberglass or aluminum.