Carbon or GRP roof

[spewy555]

Does anyone make a carbon or grp roof for an E30?

[e21Jason]

yes

£1.2K for carbon

[Andye]

I tried to get a group buy going last year at £500 each but fell through for various reasons, if someone want's to pick it up again then there are companies out there making them for all sorts of cars now. If you just want the carbon look then 3M do a very good 'textured' film di-noc? that looks very convincing.

[spewy555]

It`s for a race car so real carbon for me, I`d go in for a group buy if it gets resurrected.

[Rallyprep_UK]

I can arrange a GRP roof if there are enough takers (5+) ?

Me being 1...

[UweM3]

I still wonder how this is attached to a E30 shell

[Rallyprep_UK]

I would personally only combine the grp roof with a multipoint cage to maintain rigidity.

If a lip of roof skin would be left (1" or so) I dont see why you could not bond and rivet the new skin in place.

I wonder how much the standard roof skin weighs !? (with and without sunroof versions).

Removing weight from that height will obviously improve your c.o.g significantly.

Will

[e21Jason]

If was weight saving it would be prepeg carbon as I have e30 m3 shell and the roof was removed to fit the cage so I only need a skin

I have a brand new roof skin and it is easy to lift I would say about 7kg the wieght saving on my shell is all the structure under the roof has gone and a a carbon roof would bond to the section of shell where the orginal roof skin is spot welded

Jason

[Rallyprep_UK]

I still wonder how this is attached to a E30 shell

or are uwe (sorry - could not resist !) refering to the finish at the edges ?

will

[UweM3]

I still wonder how this is attached to a E30 shell

or are uwe (sorry - could not resist !) refering to the finish at the edges ?

will

that's my point. Where do you "interface" the GRP or carbon roof with the E30 shell?
I don't think for the few kgs saved it's woth the hassle.

[Rallyprep_UK]

Yes, I realised what you meant afterwards ! I was just thinking of running a little seam sealer around it - ok on my cheapo spec m52 e30 track car but you would not catch me doing it to an M3 or a nice e30 !

[Andye]

I've had an e-mail from performance trim www.performance-trim.com about the E30 carbon roof skin. Theses are one of the companies that I originally approached when I was trying to get a group buy up and running and they say that they now have an E30 carbon roof skin developed, someone has commissioned one and paid the huge set up costs and deposit required but they then get 3 months exclusivity on the product so it wouldn't be available until Feb / March 2011. They will be £495 inc VAT and they have sent me a picture of how the front edge / pillar is finished. Front and rear edges are designed to fit under the screen rubbers. Bonded in place with modern sealents as per new BMWs etc and have never had a problem / failure with one that's been bonded in place apparently but I'm sure there will be detractors and people who aren't happy with this type of fixing but each to their own. I can't upload the picture for some reason so if someone wants to try then I can forward the pics to their e-mail? Thanks, Andy

[UweM3]

screen rubber is ok, but what are you doing at the A-pillar? There will be a line where GRP and metal meet.
On the metal roof this is brazed and sanded down invisible after painting the whole roof.
If you paint the roof then it will be ok, but who wants to paint a carbon roof?

[DanThe]

[GeoffBob]

I skinned my doors in aluminium and I used Tigerseal to glue the aluminium to a rougly 1" edge I left around door. That and pop-rivets. Now my doors look like the wing of an aeroplane.

[Andye]

I'm not doing anything, just passing on what the carbon suppliers are telling me, but from the pics (to be posted up soon) it does look as though there will be a slight 'step' on the a and b pillars. Although the edges are feathered and join at a knife edge rather than a 1mm step of carbon. I'm not selling these just passing on the info, if you don't like it don't buy it? I'll be cutting out the sunroof and putting one on my M3 as soon as I can get one. Thanks

[Rallyprep_UK]

I dont think I could be bothered to do it all for what its worth, maybe on a complete 5hitter for experimentation !!!!

[DanThe]

From Andy's email -

There is a gutter trim around the pillars and the roof will come down into these, similar to the mk1 golf that I have attached images of as the gutter seem to be the same. The roof will come down over the front and rear so that it tucks under the window rubbers and will come down the a and c pillars a few inches similar to the front of our mk1 golf roofs. Some customers who have had roofs previously leave the edge or fill and paint up to the roof to give a smooth seamless finish (as seen in image 05). The roofs are designed to be bonded into place but if you had other ideas about fitting we could see what we can do to help.

Best regards, Alex

www.performance-trim.com

07717418174
08458339690

It seems the roof skins come with a few inches of A and C pillar attached, this is blended in further down, filled and then painted up to the roof.
Looks a good enough finish for me, but I wont be having one anytime soon as ive just cut out the sunroof frame and welded/bonded the bare panel back in.

The pic was posted in jest GeoffBob
I used Sikaflex on my roof

[jaymos]

Surely they would be bonded with some sort of epoxy bond.

[e21Jason]

I am concerned about the gutter detail as when you take the rook skin fully on an e30 the gutter detail is part of the roof skin, that looks you need to slice the edge of the roof of to leave the 90deg return that forms the gutter.

Jason

[jaymos]

I am concerned about the gutter detail as when you take the rook skin fully on an e30 the gutter detail is part of the roof skin, that looks you need to slice the edge of the roof of to leave the 90deg return that forms the gutter.

Jason

suppose if the mold is made it would have to incorperate the gutter, dont think it would be hard to do, just need someone with a shell to make the mold.

[DanThe]

Im guessing you would leave the gutter on as its seam welded to the side rail, either grind the old roof skin down to the gutter seam or bond the new skin over a small lip of old skin left on as you can see in this pic I nicked off X works thread -

[Barx325i]

I reckon epoxy is too rigid & brittle Jaymos, the section needs to sort of 'float' ideally on something that won't transmit excess vibration & shock. An epoxy bond will bugger up pretty quick, & could (not so much with CF) damage the section.. You'd need a fair few tubes of epoxy too - good for mtec2 kits tho

[UweM3]

That doesn't look too bad !
when cutting the A-Pillar I would weld some sheet inside the pillar to form a face to glue the panel on to. this would avoid to feather the GRP.

[DanThe]

That doesn't look too bad !
when cutting the A-Pillar I would weld some sheet inside the pillar to form a face to glue the panel on to. this would avoid to feather the GRP.

Oh yes, lapped joints FTW!

[ross_jsy]

Ah damn, that price is all too tempting! Need to respray the roof and sort out a dent I put in when putting the cage in anyway...and theres a spot of rust on the inside

This can't end well

[ross_jsy]

Made enquiries and I am on a mailing list waiting to be released so I can get my order in, however it has just struck me, will a carbon roof meet blue book regs? Can anyone confirm as I can't find my copy.

Cheers

[martinpallot]

Cant have a carbon roof under blue book regs. Unless the car has a composite bodyshell or one fitted from the factory it must be a of a metallic substance, preferebly the same material as the rest of the car.

[ross_jsy]

Balls, thought as much. Remembered Wayne mentioning it when he plated my roof up.

[Barx325i]

Cant have a carbon roof under blue book regs. Unless the car has a composite bodyshell or one fitted from the factory it must be a of a metallic substance, preferebly the same material as the rest of the car.

Well the way I see it, vague regulations are designed to be adhered to with the same degree of clarity

In response to such, I'd get some pritt stick & lightly bond a film of kitchen foil to the underside so it can make contact with the shell. There's nothing saying that the word preferably means anything more than preferrable.

No mention of structural integrity, no requirements for anything more than a sheet of tin foil IMO.

[martinpallot]

Must be of a metallic substance is the key, they also go into thicknesses too so that would catch you out anyway.

In motorsport If you try something like that on then you may get away with it once until the next scrutineer comes along and rips the car to pieces because of it, simply not worth it. Especially given the fact that the weight difference will be negligable.

Also, if I was in a roll, the last thing i would want is to have to worry aboout fibreglass or carbon splinters in my eyes.

[Barx325i]

don't roll then ;)

you can only go by what the regulations state but you didn't mention gauge requirements, in which case a sheet of alloy should come in at a fraction of the weight, ugly but even mingers have a use

[TRACKM3]

I would love to see how rigid that roof is if it is just single skin with no inner frame, my worry there is the amount of movement you will get in that large panel unless it is either made of lots of layers of carbon or Autoclaved ?

[jaymos]

I would love to see how rigid that roof is if it is just single skin with no inner frame, my worry there is the amount of movement you will get in that large panel unless it is either made of lots of layers of carbon or Autoclaved ?

Would be better to use a foam or honeycomb core to strengthen it.