S70 Rusted Sunroof Repair

[Fernandomiguel]

no images to show???

[N_D]

Hello everyone.
Just updating this post with working image links.

Just wanted to share my experience attempting to repair my leaking sunroof.
*I do not claim that this is the proper way to do this*

Since I purchased the car a year ago the sunroof had been leaking progressively worse until last month when the headliner began getting wet after rain.

I first removed the sunroof and peeled the gasket off. For those who don't know the S70 has a different style of gasket/sunroof than the 850 (S70 has single piece gasket while 850 is multi-piece). The gasket has a folded metal core in it so I tried not to deform the gasket too much. There are also two plastic shims that serve as a kind of wear plate between the wind deflector and the gasket at the front corners of the sunroof, be careful not to bend and snap them as they become brittle.












^A cross section of the sunroof gasket.^

After peeling off the gasket I discovered that the metal sunroof frame was severely rusted and had begun to separate from the glass. The glass is bonded to the frame with a very hard rubber like sealant, water seeps under the sunroof gasket and sits in the depressed area of the frame causing it to rust.

To repair this I first scraped/filed off as much loose rust as I could and pried the frame as far away from the glass as I could without breaking anything using wooden wedges and continued to clean as much rust out as possible. I then applied a rust converter to the remaining material.







Once the rust converter had dried I cleaned off and roughed up the old sealant on the glass with a file to promote adhesion. I then applied a VERY heavy bead of silicone to the frame and clamped the frame and glass together for 24 hours.









After allowing the silicone to cure fully I trimmed the excess off with a razor blade. I then cleaned any chunks of rust and dirt out of the groove in the gasket itself. When re-installing the gasket I started with one end of the gasket its original position at the back centre of the sunroof and squeezed silicone into the gasket as I pressed it on to the metal frame. When I reached the two plastic shims in the front corners I first squeezed silicone into the gasket, then pressed the shim in, then layered some silicone on top of that before pressing the gasket onto the frame. This was a two person job for me, one holding the gasket while the other applied silicone. I used a rubber mallet to make sure the gasket seated all the way on to the frame.









Once the gasket was fully installed I lightly clamped down the two ends of the gasket. I used the flange on the metal frame as the other contact point for my clamp so as not to crush the front section of the gasket.





After letting the silicone cure 24 hours again I trimmed the excess that squeezed out. I did not apply a heavy enough bead in some areas and the silicone did not squeeze all the way through to the top of the sunroof so I filled those areas in afterwards. I believe this is the most important step in resealing as any gap between the top of the gasket and the glass will allow water to seep in and cause the same problems again. Having a completely watertight seal between the gasket, frame, and glass are critical in forcing water around the outside of the gasket into the sunroof drains, rather than into the frame and onto the occupants heads.

Due to the excess amount of space being taken up by all the extra silicone behind the gasket there ended up being a small gap between the two ends. This could probably just be filled in with silicone if some time was taken to mold it properly but I instead went to a wrecking yard and got a short section of gasket and cut the proper thickness to fit the gap with a band saw.



Once all was said and done there was a considerable mess left on the glass by silicone smears. These are a pain to remove but can be helped by using a silicone removing gel and gently scraping with a razor and rubbing with a paper towel.



Sunroof is now reinstalled pending some adjustment and cleaning but has weathered its first rainstorm successfully.

[FlyingVolvo]

Thanks for fixing the pictures! My sunroof is leaking inside a bit and has some rust, so I'll probably get to work on it in the near future with these steps.

[wizechatmgr]

Any advice or instructions for adjusting the sunroof? I have a '99 V70 and believe it to be darn near identical.

I'm almost tempted to contact RSPI to get a replacement when he returns to the desert. I have a feeling that I have the same thing going on - I'm just unsure how much labor I'm willing to expend to fix it if I can basically get a decent piece of glass from him that hasn't had any corrosion yet - then I can disassemble and rust proof the entire assembly with a lot less prep.

[Laparoso]

This is what I'm searching for!! I just hope to have the enough capacity to do it properly!

[Laparoso]

I can't see the images... is the problem widespread or just happening to me?

[matthew1]

The photos are gone, unless @N_D still has them.

This is what happens when people use 3rd party image hosting like "Imageshack" or "Photobucket". I don't care what the hosting service says, don't care what they promise, and it doesn't matter if someone buys the upgraded plan.

> the images will one day disappear <

So please, everybody reading, use the built-in MVS Forums image upload capability.