Need help for body work

Ok first off when I bought my 92 3kgt sl, I noticed that it had a sunroof and that the headliner was torn in some places. But it was broken. So I temporarily replaced it with a lexan sheet cut to size. However my half ass job didnt hold up and finally messed up the headliner. So now Im at a point where I dont want the sunroof, so I took it off. But now I need help on how to cover the big hole left behind. I was considering welding a piece of aluminum sheet to it but there are to problems, I dont know how thick the sheet should be and I dont know how to weld. So I might take it a body shop for welding. Any ideas.

You would need to use steel. The factory roof is very thin. 20 gauge would probably be fine for a replacement piece. The right way to do it is to reskin the roof, but that's pretty involved.

Ok do you know where I can buy the steel sheet? My mechanic is a good welder so I might get him to do it. But Ill probably have to use bondo to evenly match it up.

Any metal fabrication shop can get it for you if you can't find a metal supply shop.

I'm surprised your lexan sheet didn't give you problems. At high speeds your replacement sheet will flex upward due to the significantly lower pressure on the top side of your roof. At the right conditions it could have flown off!

Thanks for the help Hans.

The Lexan sheet didnt fly off because I put a clear sillicone on both sides of the sheet.

i knew there was a reason i like the glass roof, not the solid one...

does cianci (i know, evil name) or anyone else make covers for this type of sunroof?

They probably do but the problem with the sunroof is that its not oem, the previous owner installed an aftermarket one on it, making it pretty hard to find a replacement glass. I thought it was oem so I bought the sunroof glass off another 3kgt but it was even close to size. Now I just got the glass just lying around. My other option was to install the removable targa glass like on the vr4.

I've been thinking about making a fiberglass replacement for the sunroof on my Talon, but it would require extra reinforcement to fight against flexing as specified eariler. I've seen it done before and I'm sure a lot of serious racers not wanting to weld their cars would really like this option.

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Originally Posted by Miguel92.3000GT

They probably do but the problem with the sunroof is that its not oem, the previous owner installed an aftermarket one on it, making it pretty hard to find a replacement glass. I thought it was oem so I bought the sunroof glass off another 3kgt but it was even close to size. Now I just got the glass just lying around. My other option was to install the removable targa glass like on the vr4.

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the OEM glass covers most of the roof, so that's clearly not OEM. it looks about the size of the non-glass-roof models though. to be perfectly honest, it looks about the same as my aftermarket sunroof. mine's a sunsport.

Do you have a pic of your sunsport? I thought it was the non glass roof model as well, so when I found one I bought it but turned out no to be it. So now I just have that sunroof laying around at the house.

funsport, actually--now that i think about it. and unfortunately i don't have any good pics of the roof. and i'm a few hundred miles away from my car right now. :(

(sorry for the link to hell)
http://www.3si.org/gallery/data/586/PICT0705.JPG

Your car is green? Last thing I expected to see per previous conversations. :D

I had another brand of sunroof in my car (no brand ID on it anywhere unfortunately) that I can post pics of if you'd like.

The easiest thing to do would be to measure the hole and buy another sunroof. It would also be the cheapest.

DocWalt: Can you post a pic of your sunroof

Hans: I havent been able to locate one like mine.

http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/952/0204091241.jpg

I can't find the other pic on this PC. I'll check around.

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Originally Posted by BigTyla

Your car is green? Last thing I expected to see per previous conversations. :D

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not really. it gives me the advantage of expert opinion. green SUCKS. you yourself should know better. :p

p.s.

hans is right. any aftermarket sunroof sized equally or bigger will work; and it's undoubtedly cheaper/easier than replacing the whole roof panel or trying to weld in a cover.

Does anyone know how thick the original roof is on our cars? I got a quote from a guy, and just to cover up the hole left by the sunroof hes charging me $350 and my freinds dad has been doing body work for 18+ years and said he would reskin it for $300. As long as I get the metal.

seriously, for that cost, you can probably get another aftermarket sunroof put in.

So what price would be good for reskining a roof?

that probably IS a good price. it's just that replacing aftermarket with aftermarket is probably about the same cost.

Yeah I just thought it would look better with out a roof, but then again now im thinking I should just go and place the roof off a targa glass stealth, since I have the glass and I can aquire one from a stealth faster than a 3kgt. What would be a good price for that in your opinion?

when i had my funsport replaced, i kept the same glass. labor & parts to fix everything was ~$200-250. not bad...but that was several years ago.

http://www.sunroofdoctor.com/funsport.htm