Anyone do a roof skin removal/replacement on a GD Impreza? Looking for some pointers, and pictures.

If chris walshes red suby was a gd, Pete at Cascade autosport replaced it recently (within the last 2 years). you might give him a call and see what advice he has.

---

Welcome to the cult of JVL drink the koolaid or be banned.

About 100 spot welds.

Get one of these:

http://buy1.snapon.com/catalog/item.asp?P65=&tool=&item_ID=15684&group_ID=951&store=snapon-store&dir=catalog

^^^ I got one of those for about $100 off the Snap-On truck. It has worked perfectly for about 400 spot welds on a single bit (3 standard size bits are included). And, I've used the other bits for odd projects (3 larger sizes included).

Drill really, really slowly and the metal stays soft as well as the bit staying sharp. I think my drill runs at about 100rpm. Some spot welds are easier to drill from the bottom (if your cage isn't in the way) most are easy to drill from the top.

In' my picture above the front and rear cross braces are removed. If you're just replacing the skin, you'll want to leave them... add another ~30 spot welds to drill

I use "GunK", the penetrating oil in a yellow spray can. It works well as a lubricant, it's cheap, and it sticks to the bit.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/12/2010 07:36AM by Daniel Buehler.

I noticed on my car the rain rails were so smooth it was impossible to see the welds. did you have to grind away all the seam sealer to get down to the welds?
I have to keep all the cross braces for the new one to mount back to. Funny thing is ive only been able to find pictures of the RS's doing roof skins not a single GD or 02-07 Impreza.

so then to get it back on, you just.....?

weld it back on, or what's the other half of that project look like?

---

Jon Burke - KI6LSW
Blog: http://psgrallywrx.blogspot.com/

Jon Burke Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> so then to get it back on, you just.....?
>
> weld it back on, or what's the other half of that
> project look like?
>
> Jon Burke - KI6LSW
> Blog:
> 'Holy Shit!' @ 4:10



Windshield adhesive and a couple of bolts...

It's not going anywhere. Really the Windshield and rear windshield hold it in as well.

Just just keeping the rain off your head when there is a cage.

---

Chris

VSC apparently paints the inside of it, and then just glues it down.

---

Welcome to the cult of JVL drink the koolaid or be banned.

I have a couple options for new skin, both carbon fiber, either one that leaves 1" outside rim of the existing oem roof and then just attaches to that via epoxy or a whole unit like oem that would require me cutting out the 100 or so spot welds. At this point im really suspect of the weigh savings these people claim. Some are saying as much at 16lbs the oem roof skin cant be that much. Next im going to call subaru and see what hte shipping weight is on one to get an idea. I smell some bs.

token-negro Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I have a couple options for new skin, both carbon
> fiber

Note Rally America's rule on body panels:

Bodywork:
a. Exterior panels, except for allowed flares, must be visually
similar to the original components, including bumpers. Except
for the roof and doors, bolt-on body pieces may be constructed
of an alternate material. OE or FIA homologated aluminum roofs
are allowed.

NASA Rally Sport
2. Except for doors and roofs, bolt-on body pieces may be
constructed of an alternate material. The A and B pillars
must remain original.

CARS rule reads almost identical to the RA wording.


No CF roof skins allowed.

---

First Rally: 2001
Driver (7), Co-Driver (44)
Drivers (16)
Clerk (10), Official (7), Volunteer (4)
Cars Built (1), Engines Built (0) Cages Built (0)
Last Updated, January 4, 2015

Quote
john vanlandingham
Blame is for idiots. losers.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/12/2010 02:24PM by Morison.

The non sunroof roof from a gc doesn't not weigh much. more than half the weight is from the the front and rear "beams" which hold the windshileds up.


I do not believe a CF panel, which leaves 1" of the steel roof, and glues over top will be a huge weight savings.

a 3 ft x 4 ft piece of 18 gauge (1.2mm) sheet metal is 3 lbs...

---

Chris

I'll weigh mine this weekend, it has the fore and aft rails on it and I doubt it's 16lbs...

And, the three center rails... If they're like the gc, they're not doing a thing, they are just gupped on there, you can cut them off with a warm paint scraper.

If I remember your car correctly, you've only got a half cage... Be vary, very carfull. The roff may not be very stong, but it ceeps your entire car 'squared up'. Tack your cage to the c-pillars if possible, don't let things twist.


All that being said, mine's a GC and there are sheet metal thickness differences...

Daniel Buehler Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>>
> If I remember your car correctly, you've only got
> a half cage... Be vary, very carfull. The roff may
> not be very stong, but it ceeps your entire car
> 'squared up'. Tack your cage to the c-pillars if
> possible, don't let things twist.
>

In fact, don't even think about removing the old roof skin until you have the entire cage welded as much as you can reach with the roof on. You can zap the spots you couldn't reach on the top of the cage (if you didn't do the drop it down, weld the top then shove it back up and weld the floor plates in last method) when you take the roof skin off. But if you remove the roof skin and then start welding up the cage (especially if you are tying it into the roof, pillars, etc, like you should) youl will find that the new roof skin won't fit properly anymore.

Ok, so with anything that costs this much and would require this much work to install i like to do some research first. So i made a call to my friends at the local subaru dealer, asked if they could find out the weight on an OEM Roof for a 2005 STI figured that would be a good year. No sunroof nothing special. Hour later in my fax's i get a sheet with the info on the unit. Part# 53600FE070 48x4x50 weight is 15lbs. So here it is 15lbs for a GD roof from the factory. Lets add in 3lbs for the version that leaves the 1" rim of the OEM roof to glue too. CF roof weighs in at 5lbs so thats a total of 7lbs savings for a CF Roof

Saving 7lbs...quit Starbucks for a week.

heymagic Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Saving 7lbs...quit Starbucks for a week.


Totaly! My car will never be a race car so this was my splurge part for the year.