Was "Roof Problems" from
>Date: Sun, 22 Nov 1998 22:53:45 -0500
The recent posts regarding the t-bar hitting the rear louver brought
something else to mind that I have done on several cars - If you remove
the black plastic trim piece that holds the rear of the T-roof panel down
(like you would to get to the torsion bar adjustment) you will usually
notice that the (black) steel reinforcing panel to which the torsion par
retainers are attached has become unglued from the fiberglass structure
of the car, and often has started to bend or kink. This causes the steel
panel to raise slightly lifting the stainless T-roof panel a little so
that it can hit the louver. If you really want to scare yourself, watch
this steel panel while someone opens and closes a door. If it is unglued,
it moves around a lot. Makes you think about parking the car for the
winter with the doors UP.
The fix for this, while conceptually simple, is not for the faint of
heart since step one is to REMOVE the torsion bars. I'm not going to
detail this here, if you haven't done this get the assistance of someone
who has. There is no substitute for first-had observation. (DMCJoe -
this might be a good addition to your videotape if it isn't in there
already).
To remove the torsion bars just relax them all the way, then turn them
the wrong way a little farther to unstick them from the front hinge. Once
you have the bars out, put a rod (a 3' socket extension works great) into
the torsion bar holes and bear down. This will press the roof structure
back down where it belongs. With one person holding it this way, drill a
hole through the steel into the fiberglass, about 1 inch on either side
of the torsion bar retainer screws and install a #12 x 1" sheet metal
screw. I heave heard of people removing the interior panel and using
screws w/ nuts, but the sheet metal screw seems to hold up and is a lot
less trouble. When done you will have installed 4 screws, two adjacent to
either torsion bar.
Now put everything back together - this usually drops the trailing edge
of the t-roof between 1/8 and 1/4 inch (!), and gets rid of a lot of
creaking noises when you open the doors.
Dave Swingle
>From: "DSS"
>Subject: DML: Roof problems...
81 VIN 5429
DOA, DMC, DMC(Midwest)