1949 mk 6 sunroof drains

[mcneillian]

Many thanks for all the replies regarding the oil pressure problem I had. The next problem is, where do the sunroof drains exit the car. I have tried clearing them from the top without much success. Should I, as one the members at Kelmarsh Hall suggested, seal it completely.

Regards
Ian McNeill

[Nicholas Simons]

If you seal the sunroof completely you will not be able to open it. Do you really want your car to be sub-standard?
The front drain should be able to be cleared from the sunroof well when the sunroof is open. If the back half of the roof is screwed on then you can remove this panel and get to the rear drains.

[Christopher Carnley]

The mild steel drain gutters are rusted through by this time.

Remove the fabric "seal" around the edge, and fill with "Sikaflex"

[Jan Hirsch]

(removed)

[Jan Hirsch]

Hi, I have a 1951 Mulliner Mk VI. I do not think that this is very different from the Standard Steel sunroof. It looks like they used parts from the standard steel saloon here.

About 10 years ago ago I removed the wood trim, and took the sunroof panel out. There is a long flat piece called the "sword" that goes from the middle of the sunroof straight backwards and prevents it from coming lose. The sunroof and the "sword" look like a T with a very wide crossbar. There are descriptions in some of the the forums about removing the sunroof panel, maybe search for "sword"?
The whole mechanism is very greasy and one has to be careful to contain that mess well.

It is good to label the position of the hinges of the sun visors, if one puts them together wrong the visors won't stay up.

Then I very carefully pulled out many, many small upholstery nails to take off the front part of the headliner. It did stay aligned well and did not tear. The nails and most screws just attach to some wooden bars under the metal skin of the car roof.

Below the headliner the decomposed natural rubber hoses were readily accessible.The drainage hoses start from studs at the L and R ends of the forward edge of the sunroof and go towards the A pillars, where they attach to some bronze or copper tubes in side the A pillars. I had to do some very light fabrication due to corrosion at the edges of the sunroof to attach the new hoses. If I remember correctly I just attached and sealed additional smaller hoses inside the studs and hoses to keep everything double tight and compensate for slight size differences. Otherwise I just replaced the old red natural rubber hoses with new black rubber heater hoses from the car parts store. The new hoses connected quite readily to the studs at the sunroof corners and the bronze or copper pipes that go down the A pillars. The pipes connect to some other red rubber hoses that end in the front wings. These were in good condition in my car, maybe because they are less exposed to heat.

Upon reassembly it is important to use the same length and not longer screws for the chrome trim at the windscreen, otherwise there is a risk to pierce the bronze tubes inside the A pillar.

Then I used new little stainless upholstery nails and put it all back together.

There are reports of wrongly assembled sunroofs becoming airborne, especially if half way open, so one has to be careful to put it together correctly. The locking mechanism is easy to test.

The whole repair turned out pretty good, but it was very time consuming. One has to be very careful with the headliner (dirt, tears).

I am using the sunroof quite a bit, and driving with it open adds a lot to the car. So I think the repair was totally worth it.

I would advise against just closing the roof permanently. There was not much wrong with mine and the sunroof adds a lot to the driving experience.

If you would want to close the roof permanently, a rubber seal is in my experience not sufficient (the previous owner had one put in, and it leaked quite a bit). Sikaflex can be really hard to remove (depending on the type). Maybe removing the panel and putting butyl tape in there would be an option, it stays flexible and can be removed. Then putting the panel back in, of course. But at this point you are already a quarter of the way to doing the repair.

Once you have made the channels accessible a good body restoration shop should as well be able to help you if metal repairs should be needed. The largest part of the cost is probably the time for removing and reinstalling the headliner, and if you do this yourself it becomes much more affordable.

My 2c, I hope it helps!

Cheers

Jan

(not sure why I cannot remove the older version of the post...)