Steel sliding roof (sunroof) 1969 Delux - need help

[mark.mcarthur]

Hello all,

I was lucky enough to come across a '69 with a steel sliding roof - aka, sunroof.

The bus sat outside from 1990 till 2015 - when It found its way to me

During that 25 year time period, I suspect a lot of dirt and debris got into the sliding mechanism - so now the sunroof is stuck, closed.

Does anyone have good instructions on how to begin getting it open and/or off?

I'd also appreciate some good links for purchasing the hardware needed to get the sunroof working again.

Thanks in advance for the help.

Cheers,

Mark

[busdaddy]

Here's some reading to get you started, whatever you do don't force anything, most easily broken parts are NLA.
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/search.php?search..._chars=200
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[mark.mcarthur]

[img]https://www.thesamba.com/vw/

[Tcash]

The seal is probably stuck to the sunroof.
Spray the seal with silicon spray, wd40, soapy water and run a credit card between the seal and sunroof to break the seal.
Good luck
Tcash

Start a build thread and post some pix.

[mark.mcarthur]

It's been a slow process this far. The Delux Sunroof was off the road and stored outside for 25 years. I just finished getting the moss/lichen off it. Getting the sunroof working is my next step. I'll post some photos once I make progress on the sunroof.

Thanks for the info to help get me started.

Cheers,

Mark

[Tcash]

Paint is cleaning up nice.

[mark.mcarthur]

Thanks Tcash - I put in a good number of hours getting to that paint!

So I followed the directions from the link about sunroofs. Without those I would have been lost. And while I felt my evening was a struggle, I did make progress. The sunroof is now open 3 or so inches and thus far nothing is broken

Thanks again for the link to info on sunroofs.

Here are a few photos of my progress...

Cheers!

[eurodub]

sorry to hijack your thread but seeing your bus make me think of how my 75 was found...

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1960 1200 model 117 deluxe ragtop
1974 T2 Westfalia Campmobile
1976 MK1 Golf

[sodbuster]

I'm "lichen" what you have done with paint so far. And yes being slow steady and methodical will save that sunroof.

[SGKent]

[mark.mcarthur]

Thanks Sodbuster. I appreciate the encouragement

Eurodub - that Hightop must have been really hard to clean. Funny - the Delux Sunroof was a package deal from a friend that closed his VW business up here in Alaska. The other parts of the package were a '66 Squareback and a '68 Hightop! Fortunately for me, the Hightop is not nearly as covered in moss/lichen as yours. So you posted an 'as found' photo... Do you have any current photos of your Hightop? Did you find anything that works particularly well to remove the lichen/moss?

Cheers all and thanks for the further instructions for the sunroof on the other thread. Knowing the clips are similar to the clips used on the door cards really helps! If I have time to work on it this week I'll post some more photos of the progress.

[mark.mcarthur]

I was able to get the sunroof open a bit more and unsnapped the liner off the steel sliding roof.

Getting the clips out before I slide the liner back is going to be a bit tricky - not much room to get them out, a helper is probably needed...

[eurodub]

[jakokombi]