Phenoms Howtos : Sunroof gasket seal rebuild for only 10$

[JonnyPhenomenon]

anyone who has a sunroof probably wants to check this out, as the gaskets wear out and soggy roccos are no fun.
This post is a refined/abridged version of an earlier thread that can be found here. http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=3234527

Sunroof seals cost way too much. . 120$ for a sunroof seal is BS. but the bastard companies know they have you over a barrel, and they charge whatever they want and snicker about it behind our backs.

well not anymore!

I decided I would rebuild my gasket, as there is no reason why it couldn't be repaired with a little time and energy. turns out it was really easy, and now that I've done this four times I can do one in about a half hour of actual work, plus drying time of course.

here is how I did it:
first I took the sunroof itself off. not the whole mechanics of it, just the lid. follow timbos guide to get it apart.
bring the sunroof inside and place it on your couch/bed whatever.

on my 88 rocco my sunroof had these two plastic trim bits that would keep me from removing the seal so I pulled those off.

I pulled off the seal and examined it. not a whole lot too it. its really just a peice of "U channel" plastic with some felt wrapped around it. and a rubber strip inside to pad it out and make it squishy.

a trip to the fabric store with a 10$ roll of quarters (yes I was that broke).
I knew what I was after and went right to the ribbon section.
they had the exact material in stock, and it was even in black.

basically, you are looking for a black felt ribbon. it will have felt on one side and regular old fabric on the other. get 3 Full yards of at LEAST 1" wide ribbon. anything smaller will not work.
IMPORTANT, make SURE you get THREE YARDS of it. I considered only getting 2 yards, but three yards was just barely enough. I ended up trimming only 8 inches off when I was done.

NOTE: scroll to the end for a internet source for this material.

I took all of the old crap fabric off the gasket and cleaned it up with a bit of sand paper. I didn't go over board here, just cleaned up a little.

next, I tucked the edge of the ribbon into the groove of the gasket strip and put the gasket on the sunroof with the ribbon sticking up out of it. (felt side out)

Trim the length as needed and wrap the rubber cushion strip around the gasket.
(NOTE: I don't have any pics of that, because the first time I did this, I didn't have a rubber thing at all (it was lost). and I am editing this DIY to correct for the newly added rubber strip. )

then I applied a bead of glue along the top edge of it and another thin layer of glue where the other edge of the ribbon would stick to the gasket.

this is hard to describe, so I drew a picture to make it easier to understand.

"Cliffnotes Version"

the blue is where I put some glue. red is the edge of the sunroof. black is the gasket, grey is the ribbon. light grey is the rubber squishy bit, get it?

fold the ribbon over the rubber. Pull it nice and tight. keep in mind, the sunroof gasket is not water proof at all, it is merely a water deflector. so keep it uniform.

I used regular old GOOP silicone glue to attach it. it works really well. just a thin layer is all you need. you will want to work on one section at a time while doing this.

the pics were taken the first time I did this and you see that I ducttaped it down. the ductape was totally unnecessary, and ended up leaving goo all over my nice felt ribbon. now I do it without using any tape at all and it works perfectly.

in these pics i used a 1.5" ribbon and it was wider than I liked. I had quite a bit of extra ribbon overlapping the edge, so I just trimmed that off with a razorblade and called it good. now that I use 1" ribbon, I have had a nice clean edge and I am a lot happier. However. you might struggle with the narrow ribbon on your first try.

so yeah, your mileage may vary.

once the glue had time to set up, I brought the whole assembly out to the car,

it works!

got a good fit with no gaps around the edge, and it is even nice and tight around the corners!

one internet source was Hancock fabrics, which appears to have dried up, so here is another one I tracked down.
try this link http://www.mjtrim.com/Catalog/....aspx but if it doesn't work go to http://www.mjtrim.com click ribbons, velvet, 36mm imported, black or whatever color you want.

...And that my friends is how you save yourself 110$ in 2 hours or less.
any questions?

------------------------------------------------------
EDIT: I would like to compile a list of everyone who has done this mod, where they got the ribbon, and what they used for glue.
so to start,
Me: I've got the ribbon from Joannes Fabrics, Hancock.com, and mjtrim.com. I used regular goop for glue.
81S: used 1.5" fabric from Joannes and 3M 80 Spray adhesive.
wgirnius: used 1" black ribbon from Hancock and permatex gasket maker for glue.
rocconut: got his ribbon from Hancock fabric store after a long battle where the store people pretended he was an idiot for asking for such a stupid thing. did you ever get your seal rebuilt?
1nsanevwfreak: tried and gave up with the 1" ribbon. ended up going with 1.5" ribbon with much success.
MauG60: used this for his Corrado, but didn't give us any more details.
Jay4: got his ribbon at Hancock after much searching, and used regular GOOP as well.
third_attempt: used 1" ribbon from mjtrim.com and brush on waterproof cement. (and he recomends using 1.5" ribbon) Thanks Joel!

thats all that I know of so far. I hope anyone else who has used this DIY will share results too.



Modified by JonnyPhenomenon at 11:35 PM 1-31-2009

[third_attempt]

Thanks for this, I rebuilt mine a few months ago and forgot to post my results in the original thread.

I used the 1 inch ribbon from mjmtrim. I had some problems getting it tucked into the corners and wrapped underneath, though I'm fine with it and it's hardly noticeable. I would recommend the 1.5" ribbon and trim off the excess.

For glue I used a bottle of waterproof cement. I can't remember the brand but it was a small brown bottle with the brush on the cap. Personally I thought Goop might be a little thick to work with carefully but that's just me.

I found the first thread here after bidding $75 for a new seal on ebay. It sold for $150...wtf.

So again, thanks for the DIY.

[JonnyPhenomenon]

awesome man, thanks for the advice. Ive added you to the list of success stories

[impulse byer]

Wow great stuff i think i need to come around here more.

[JonnyPhenomenon]

update: thanks to jreed and driversfound for checking ebay for "Scirocco Sunroof Seal", there is now a seller (townehotel) who appears to be selling them for 50-60$ and shipping them from Germany.

here is the link http://shop.ebay.com/townehotel/m.html

Note: Mk2 Jettas and golfs use the same gasket as the rocco.

[87REDROCC]

update: thanks to jreed and driversfound for checking ebay for "Scirocco Sunroof Seal", there is now a seller (townehotel) who appears to be selling them for 50-60$ and shipping them from Germany.

here is the link http://shop.ebay.com/townehotel/m.html

Note: Mk2 Jettas and golfs use the same gasket as the rocco.

the audi 4000cs also uses same gasket but needs to be trimmed 4-6 inches... i got mine on ebay for $46 last summer

[pLx]

Pulled my panel off today after talking to Mr. Phenom. And here was what I discovered.






At least 65% of my rubber bead is missing. Now to find that elusive rubber thing at a craft store or a junk yard.

I also discovered that the driver side guide bracket had snapped from being misaligned and the PO forcing it open.

I even got Johnny with this one, looks good right?




Wrong....

[loveformetal]

i have the same broken bracket. i just bought the car a month ago and pulled the sunroof off about 20 minutes ago and i'm not sure what to do about the bracket or what it's called or how to get another/repair but i don't think i can repair it since it seems to hold the properties of cast aluminum. my local junkyard never has mk2's for more than a day so if anyone has suggestions please let me know.

[MustangluvR1967]

Awesome thread