After gluing down the sheet metal on the sunroof frame, I had to lay a tarp down over the whole roof, while adding some weights in order to hold the sheet metal down while keeping the whole works covered due to the fact that rains were coming. It's a good thing too because the rain came down hard as hell. It was bad enough that we were concerned that we might not get a break from the rain to be able to go outside and finish things up with the sunroof, especially since we both had to hit the road. I ended up deciding to bring the car up to the garage, and despite the Dodge taking up most of the garage, we were able to pull the car in enough to have the sunroof protected from the outside. The rain did slow down to a drizzle as well, so that added break made things a little easier on us. The first thing I had to do was eyeball where the front glass supports made contact with the corners of the sheet metal so I can mark those areas to cut out the metal. Since the sheet metal is thin, it would not be able to apply the force necessary to push down the deflector glass without distorting the sheet metal's corners. After tracing out the edges I started cutting with the angle grinder, after opening the sunroof back up so I can stay clear of the deflector glass. No need to risk hitting and breaking that glass too. It took a little trimming to get things right enough that the edges of the sheet metal wouldn't make contact with the deflector supports when the sunroof is opened and closed. With my cuts, I still had plenty of metal covering the weatherstripping so when the sunroof is in the closed position it would lay on the rubber good enough to not leak any water. Besides, the deflector glass would serve as just that, a deflector to keep any rainwater from making it under any gaps that may be present between the bottom of the sheet metal and weatherstripping. I also had to slightly bend the overhanging metal downward some to ensure that the metal rested on the rubber even better than it did originally. Again, being temporary, the thin sheet metal had to be manipulated to keep it down as needed. As for the inside, there was still a matter of the pinholes in the weld seam where the two pieces of sheet metal joined together. As stated, I planned on sealing these with hot glue. Again, since this is temporary, there is no need to get too involved with the level of work. After drying the inside of the panel (since it was raining after all), I applied the hot glue over the holes, sealing everything up. Now, the sunroof is sealed all over. Other than a slight air leak, the bootleg sunroof is done and ready to go. As you can see, even though the inside of the panel has surface rust and rusty water stains, once the cover is slid closed, the driver will never see this. Of course, I could've painted this but to spray paint over the whole surface would've made it difficult to stick to the glue, since it would be the paint that would be sticking, more so than the actual metal. Only other option would be to apply paint with a brush. Trying to spray paint now would only make a horrendous mess with overspray on everything. The outer surface was sprayed gloss black to make things match up pretty good to the rest of the car body. At least now, unless one knew better, they may not fully question the nature of this sunroof. Until then, I can stand by and wait to see what happens as far as compensation for a replacement sunroof. But if I manage to source one from a local junkyard, then I will just say fuck it and replace the damned thing and move on.
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