Hole In The Roof Remedies

[busman78]

Picked up a 71 bay in Mew Mexico, pretty good body, little rust, runs decent, absolutely nasty paint job. Doing the color correction now, one major issue is the previous owner installed a roof vent, bus now has that hideous 14" square hole, looking for options, suggestions, roof has already been warped by previous vent being screwed down with excessive number of screws, see the pictures. Open to ideas, so far I have not found a body shop that will touch welding up the hole and I am not a good enough welder to even attempt to try it.

[skills@eurocarsplus]

perfect candidate for a sliding ragtop

that isn't going to be an ez repair

you will need to cut the hole bigger and get rid of all of the screw holes then find a piece of steel, preferably run thru an English wheel to give it some curve

no matter what, it's going to warp even with a TIG so you will need to do A LOT of shrinking/stretching to get it right.

i wouldn't be surprised if it took a good metalworker 60 hours + to make it look like it never happened.

the other thing you could do is a roof skin transplant. that would be a huge job as well
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[mikedjames]

Make the hole bigger. Get a plexiglass panel fabricated to fit the curve. Make it a feature.

Or fit a poptop.
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[danfromsyr]

really it depends on how far to 'never happened' or to 'doesn't leak'
you are looking for.

you could get a piece of bus roof metal from a parts/scrap/salvage bus and use 2part body epoxy to bond it..

or as mentioned prime time for a sunroof, or rag top or poptop

there are curved glass popout sunroofs that should fit just fine..

and then deal with it later. would be my take on it..
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[nemobuscaptain]

I have some of the same issues. Isnt that the standard rv vent size? I'd just get one of those. My only fear about the sliding sunroof kits is they are proprietary and made only by one company. If they go under, parts are unobtanium. 14" rv vents aren't going away. https://www.etrailer.com/dept-pg-RV_Vents_and_Fans-sf-Roof_Vent.aspx And you probably won't see it much anyway.
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[danfromsyr]

Orr

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[SGKent]

search harder for a shop that can do the job. Maybe someone here will know someone you can take it to. JTauxe has someone in New Mexico that did the body work on his cab. You might ask him if they are still around. Also Matt Curtis was working in a shop in CO that did bay work. Either are within a day's drive. One day there, drop it off and go home. When done go pick up. If you get in a hurry you will regret it.

[busdaddy]

You could glue in a flanged patch from below, no heat so nothing's going to warp like that, best if you can find a donor patch that's excessively large to allow for wide flanging after cutting away the screwed up part of your roof.

Back in the 80's the fix would be weld it up, bondo the shit out of it and glue on a vinyl top to disguise the butchery, the customer would think it was a cool upgrade.
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[Globespotter]

[busdaddy]

Woooooo...., that Maxaire is so compact and unobtrusive, almost like one of these:

If I had a gun to my head to keep the vent something like this would be more my style:

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[Globespotter]

The Max Air covers are designed so that you can open the vent fully and still have it protected from rain. You could just install the low profile vent without a Max Air but it's nice to have the airflow without rain coming in. They are designed for RV's and Trailers so normally high up and not as easily seen.

It's an option though.
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[SGKent]

lots of things would seal the hole but only repairing it properly will make it original. What the long term goals are for the bus will be a part of the answer for him. If cheap solutions were the goal, here is what some might do. Just stick the vent pipe thru and seal it with flashing.

[busman78]

Plans for the bus are to drive the wheels off it just like I do my 71 bug, it will be a daily driver or an every other day driver, camping, back woods adventure vehicle going where jeeps and fluffy SUV's dare not. Since the bus is all but stripped out with only the front windshield left in the event I found a local shop to do the repair, driving 9+ hours is not an option and my bug for as good as it runs is just not up to the task of towing the bus.

The hole is the standard 14x14 RV vent hole, I have looked at Ventline since it is metal and can be painted the same L90D color, as for the maxxair cover, well the first time parking in the garage would solve having it. The pop out danfromsyr shows is an option except I have not found a curved one, who's brand is in the picture?

Calling a tempered glass manufacturer today that does small jobs to see if they can make a piece of glass that is bent, prefer this to plex although plex is a good idea.

The sliding rag top and a pop top are not options since this is a standard tin top model and does not have the extra structure added that sliders. pop tops and high risers get.

I did snag a section of roof at the VW wrecking yard North of Freeburg MO in the event a shop would do the welding, even panel epoxy is a maybe if there is a way to clamp the panels together, but most of all the warp with flatten out.

A plead from a bus owner with a hole in the roof to any bus owner without a hole in their roof, don't make a hole in your roof. Please.

[richparker]

Use an umbrella in the meantime. Sounds silly, but works. I’ve seen it done a bunch on sunroof buses with no sunroof.
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[busman78]

Bus is a garage(shop) queen till the body work, paint and assembly is finished, one way or another it will not have a hole when it hits the road.

[consvws]

Build a cool little custom hatch. Make it out of old VW parts. Then make a roof rack that you access through the roof hatch.

[SGKent]

go on the bodywork and paint forum here, see if anyone is in your area. I do not mean to be rude but if you cannot travel 500 miles to get the work done, you are in for a very rude surprise owning a bus. My other suggestion would be to look at local welders in your area to find the really good ones. Some do sheetmetal repair and fabrication, but not bodywork. You may need to have a welder repair it, then a body shop prepare it and paint it. This is also how many professional restoration shops do it. The metal shop does the metal, and the body shop does the body and paint when the metal shop is done. Once you put the interior in you cannot do that work without ripping everything out again. Do not use plexiglass. If you dig here in the forum you will find people who have done that, and they will tell you that the summer sun will only make the bus more unbearable.

[alaskadan]

If you've already picked up a piece of roof from a donor then you are all set. Panel adhesive is your friend. You can cut you roof hole bigger to get rid of the screw holes. Suggest rounded corners on the hole. Cut the patch to fit within the hole. Cut strips to back the seam, 1 1/2" wide should do. You can glue them to the underside of of either the patch or the hole first. Then glue the patch in. No need for flanging or welding. No warping, waterproof, rustproof repair. BTW if you have a compressor pneumatic flanging tools are cheap. To avoid buying a two stage adhesive gun you could do all the prep and have a body shop glue it in. It's not necessarily as easy as just cutting open the adhesive tubes and mixing them together because not all are 50/50 ratios.

[busman78]

How can the patch be secured till the epoxy cures? clamps are not going to be long enough, rivets?

[skills@eurocarsplus]