S14 sunroof tray rust

[JRC]

Anyone have an idea about how to salvage this sunroof tray? Ive searched for similar topics on here and nico and can only find dead links or posts related to the actual chassis surrounding the sunroof rusting. Any advise will be much appreciated.
https://imgur.com/a/5LwTck7
https://imgur.com/a/N9d23AJ
https://imgur.com/a/N9d23AJ https://imgur.com/a/5LwTck7

Edit: I decided to repair this with a wire wheel, some metal filler, sand paper, and patience. Will post updates as I progress.

[S14rebuild]

Looks pretty much gone...

[JRC]

So I decided to try to repair the rust myself. I first carefully removed the already cracked fiberglass trim and weatherstrip using a very flexible putty knife and a razor blade. This isn't very difficult, but very time consuming. You have to go slow and pry it off very gently.
https://i.imgur.com/CHUrRDj.jpg
Once finished you should have the glass and the tray as one unit. With the glass still attached I took a wire wheel on my grinder and just started grinding at the rust until I was left with bare metal.
https://i.imgur.com/cRasDgE.jpg

I'm now on my way to the auto parts store to grab some more materials. I will update when I have more progress.

[Kingtal0n]

thats NOTHING lol
Compared to my sun roof yours is mint rofl

on rust like that, use wire wire wheel if you can (its the fastest but can be destructive), a wire brush delicate touch, try to scrape out the rust, cut it out, pull it out, wire it away. Remove it completely if you can.

Any rust leftover, treat with something, I favor POR-15 but any kind of rust convert/inhibit etc... paintable surface or hard candy coating
Something like POR-15 you can put on all the nearby metal surfaces to keep them from every rusting again. Just be sure to follow the directions and use the proper preparation for the surfaces.

then paint it whenever

To keep that from happening leave a small (1/4" or so) gap in the sunroof cover so water vapor can escape into the car. By leaving the sunroof cover closed fully, water is trapped in that space and if there is sunlight it also gains energy(velocity, kinetic energy). Water can enter the sunroof through several areas and get into that space naturally by design; this was not the flaw. The flaw is that it has nowhere to go once it enters that space between the cover and opening. In other words, it functions like a trap for water vapor. Large mass of water can flow into and be exposed into that space and it has a partial pressure which allows many water molecules to evaporate into that space, where they simply bounce around with elastic collisions as gas molecules are want to do. If you imagine that space filling with bouncing balls, try to imagine how easy it would be for them to actually hit the exact tiny opening in the sunroof superior (top) portion in order to escape. Try to imagine how hard it would be to aim one of those water molecules at the opening from which they came in. So, many will enter, few will leave. Instead of leaving, they eventually hit a surface and stay there (absorb into the cloth or precipitate onto the metal surfaces). As the day and temperature changes they go back and forth from liquid to gas, always attaching or attacking surfaces.

Water can be a very destructive force depending on the scenario

[JRC]

Thanks for that advise Kingtal0n, I will start doing that. As of now I have stripped the weatherstripping off of the fiberglass trim and am prepping it for paint (have a few cracks in the trim to JB weld and sand down). As with the weatherstripping, it is very old and has shrunk to leave about a 1 inch gap on the rear side where the 2 ends join. Should I leave the gap as is when I reassemble or fill the gap with permatex?

[S14rebuild]

Mines the same...gonna fill it in with silicone

[Pacman]

The sunroof seal is still available from Nissan and not too expensive. I have one sitting in my basement but I'm very nervous to remove my uncracked fiberglass trim. I'm surprised no one has made new trim pieces, especially with 3D printers.

Do you have any pictures of the channel the seal wits in and the top of the sunroof without the trim?

[S14rebuild]

^seen the trim popup a few times on ebay...kinda expensive but guess thats what u get for 1 off peice

[JRC]

I don't have many more pictures, I got in a hurry trying to finish it and forgot. Here is one, not a very good one. https://i.imgur.com/rxMA1NC.jpg

Where the glass ends, a small J shaped channel continues.

[Kingtal0n]

Thanks for that advise Kingtal0n, I will start doing that. As of now I have stripped the weatherstripping off of the fiberglass trim and am prepping it for paint (have a few cracks in the trim to JB weld and sand down). As with the weatherstripping, it is very old and has shrunk to leave about a 1 inch gap on the rear side where the 2 ends join. Should I leave the gap as is when I reassemble or fill the gap with permatex?


I thought that gap was supposed to be there lol

they all have it. I'm pretty sure water is intended to flow into that area and down the sides, there are some kinda tubes in there to carry it out.
Whether the gap is normal or not, water still goes in.

I think they did this because theres no way to create a perfect seal all the way around. They probably figured it was better to assume the sunroof would always be leaking, and to give the water a place to go.

The thing is they forgot about residual liquid which gradually turns to vapor (gas state) that gets trapped between the glass and cover.

The sunroof seal is still available from Nissan and not too expensive. I have one sitting in my basement but I'm very nervous to remove my uncracked fiberglass trim. I'm surprised no one has made new trim pieces, especially with 3D printers.


I too have an un-used brand new seal. However upon reading the instructions to replace the seal, I felt like it would be easier to just buy a whole new car lol.
I even took it to a guy who I know regularly paints and body work, show quality cars. Hes done over 20 (twenty) 240sx cars that I know of, engine bay and body work paint clear gorgeous.

he wouldn't change it either, wanted nothing to do with that seal.

Sooo.... Everywhere the top portion of the seal was damaged, I 'glued' (Permatex grey or black) a new strip of plastic material down.
Been fine since (3 years ago) not a drip. The material I used actually came from the wheel well plastic cover (tire 'dust' shield plastic) rofl

[jedi03]

+1 on that rust being near nothing...another method we used was sand or soda blasting (baking soda essentially) the sand is also very destructive but good at removing all issues, soda less destructive and more friendly to the environment to boot...then would repair/weld/bondo whatever was needed to bring it back to original and paint with rust preventers and regular paint then reinstall...im really surprised we haven't moved to some of that from factory with the rust belts being very well known to manufacturers unless its a continued planned obsolescence...