Help reattaching Devon roof...

[rustbucket]

A few months back I was driving my t25 down the motorway and the roof decided to open up at 55mph - not too great. The roof must have twisted round, and a slightly rusty hinge couldn't handle it and it got ripped from my roof (not the entire roof, luckily)...

So now I'm stuck with this:



And here's the hinge close up:



What do you guys think is the best way to reattach it? Obviously the rusty metal underneath is no good to reattach, and I currently don't know how to weld. I was thinking to knock back the existing metal and bolt in a new metal patch about 6" wide, then attach the hinge to this? What metal is best for this? If it's too thick, I'm worried it will cause problems when the roof is opened... if it's too thin then I'm worried the roof will come flying off again.

Also, the hinges are causing me brainache because they were riveted in to the fibreglass roof, and the back one has been pulled out, taking little chunks of the roof with it, meaning I can't rivet there. Do you think just drill through, then bolt?

[jed the spread]

You need some welding done

Its not a Westfalia roof you have but thats the least of your problems, hope you get it sorted.

jed

[delinkwent]

hello there, i'm new to t25s myself, but i've been around vw's for enough years to put a dent in my kids inheritance

i have the same roof and the same hinges fitted to my van. here are my thoughts about what i would do if i were you:

first off, get the ripped/rusted hole in the roof repaired properly - if you can't do it yourself, and don't know anyone you could ask to do for beer tokens, get your yellow pages out and give a mobile welder a call

secondly - happy to be corrected here - i think the hinges we both have are either aftermarket or incorrectly fitted- if you look on the inside of the roof you will see some mouldings in the fibreglass - i think the hinges should attach to these and then to the roof so they are on the inside, not the outside - don't know if this is correct as i'm still trying to ascertain myself, but i'm fairly sure i'm right and i should have a definitive answer next week as i've managed to source a copy of the vw service workshop manual covering camping interiors and body repairs

re thickness of metal - most vw body panels use 20swg (1.2mm sheet steel)

re the fibreglass repair, if done okay, you will be able to put the hinge back in that position. you could run the risk of using self tapping screws, drill a 2-3mm pilot first and don't over tighten them though, but you're better off finding someone with a rivet gun and offering them a beer token; don't use bolts

out of interest, which fastening toggles do you have on the otherside? i'm guessing they are either loose or knackered. some on here suggest adding the fastening toggles to the inside of the van at the front and rear screens and above the b and c pillars on the inside - i'm still thinking about the merits of this one myself

i hope this helps you

cheers, billy

p.s. if you add your location to your avatar, you may find one of the kind folk from here may be able to help with the welding

p.p.s that's a devon roof, moonraker i think, not a westy - again happy to be corrected here

[leonard]

hi i have a devon roof the same as your hindges are right fix from outside my rivits broke from roof cant work out how to rerivit without taking canas off to get rivets in

[billybigspud]

Hi,
I have had my roof off in the past year or so and reattached it with large rivets. The biggest thing is getting that rust sorted anyway. If you undo/drill out all 2/3 hinges and undo the struts then you will hopefully be able to slide the roof over enough to get the work done without removing the canvas and about 2000000000 rusty little screws. You will need to take them off anyway to attach the all the hinges to the roof as you cannot do one at a time as the roof is in the way. Then slide your roof back into position, redrill or open the holes up and re rivet. use stainless if you can ( bit harder to pump though ). give you a chance to clean in the gap as well. Dont wory too much about an amazing paint repair as you will never see it

[rustbucket]

Yea, well I'm heading to a VW show in Stansted at the weekend and my aunt said she's got a fair few friends who can help me. I got quoted £300 in a VW resto garage the other day. I thought that was a rip off, so hopefully someone will help out for a fair bit cheaper.

Gona get the roof out of the way, get out the rusted metal, hopefully it doesn't spread too far. Then re-weld in a new patch. Drill out all the hinges from the roof, and reattach with some bigger rivets to strengthen it.


Bill[quote="billybigspud"Then slide your roof back into position, redrill or open the holes up and re rivet. use stainless if you can ( bit harder to pump though ).[/quote]

What do you mean by stainless... the new rivets?

[billybigspud]

yup, stainless is the way forward.
£300 to have the rust cut out and roof reattached is a great price i think.

[rustbucket]

Yea, but I think he was saying he would just bolt a patch over the top which I could do myself.

How many hours work do you think is there just getting the old rust out and welding in a new panel?

[sannepit]

Hi!
Here a message from Holland.
I have the same problem, or worse: the rust has gone "into" the roof.
I have to replace the steel part which is sandwiched between the two polyester covers.

Does anyone have a building draft of the roof? So I can see what the roof is like under the polyester?

When it comes to the T25's roof itself, I will replace the part of the roof AND add a metal strip on top, to make it extra strong.

Good luck,

Sanne
http://beachbusje.wordpress.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

IMG_3607.jpg

[sannepit]

@rustbucket

The hinges are not just attached to the fiber roof, there is metal inside. If it came loose it must mean it is rusted on the inside.
No way of securly reattaching it without replacing the metal within the roof.

[AllenTheHat]

I repaired my rusty roof and hinges around a month ago. This is what I did......
Roof up and detached the roof canvas at the botton so I could access the back of the hinges in the roof (mine was attached by small rivets)
Then proceeded to drill out the four rivets on each if the three hinges.
This freed up the roof to be pushed over slightly so I could drill out the rivets from where the hinge is attached to the existing van roof.
Grinded back all the nasty rusty holes and treated the rust.
Spot welded new plates over the holes....grinded, filled, sanded, primed and painted to protect (does not need to look too pretty as you wont see it)
Re-inforced the fibreglass roof where the hinges attach with new metal plates and bridging filler. Sanded and painted to look pretty.
Where the hinges attach to the roof on the first and third hinge, the roof is reinforced. The middle hinge does not take any weight, it simply keeps the middle edge of the roof in place.
I then re-aligned the roof back in place and pop riveted it all back together. Hinges to the camper roof first, then hinges to the fibre glass part of the roof.

If I remember correctly the rivets where 4.8mm. They could have done with being a little bit longer though, so may re-do at a later date.

You may not need to take the bottom of the canvas off, but I wanted to see what was going on behind the roof once it was all back together.

[sannepit]

Re-inforced the fibreglass roof where the hinges attach with new metal plates and bridging filler. Sanded and painted to look pretty.

Good job. Could you tell me what the size is of the metal plates?

[AllenTheHat]

I just used some sheet metal from a local car spares place. I think it was 1.7mm thick and then just cut to size and put in place. I made sure I sprayed it with primer and paint to protect against the elements.

[sannepit]

I was anticipating that it was connected to a steel frame within the roof, but that is not the case, then?

[sannepit]

I worked on repairing the roof and wrote something about it on my web-log, especially in English for you guys:
http://beachbusje.wordpress.com/2012/06 ... reparatie/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The Devon Moonraker was also produced and sold in the Netherlands, under the brand name of Eurec Cassandra.