1st Gen RX7 Sunroof Weight

ishod

ishod

New member
Does anyone know the approx weight of the sunroof in a 1st Gen RX7? If I'm understanding the rules correctly it appears that the sunroof can be replaced with shetmetal. Mine is bolted-in and wet sealed so I don't really want to remove it just to find that it wont save much weight if replaced. Thoughts?

Thanks!
 
I'd have to guess that the real weight savings would be to lop off the entire sunroof top and replace with a sunroof delete top. There's a lot of structure in there IIRC... course, it's a lot more work too :shrug:
 
Thanks you so much for that info. Seems like it may be worth the effort. I'l post my results if I do it.
 
Before you start removing the sunroof roof structure including the multi 90 degree formed bends part of the roof buy yourself a Chicago Pneumatic (or cheaper) 10,000 stroke per minute air saber saw for approx $90.00. Makes ALL metal cutting so much nicer, cleaner, faster & you can use it for other coting projects. At present I'm vinyl siding my garage & it's a great quick cut tool.
 
Here's what I did. I took the sunroof out and used a bench grinder around the periphery of the sunroof. This effectively split the upper part of the roof from the reinforcement structure. I weighed the reinforcement piece that was removed and it was 5lbs. Considering that this is in the worst possible position for extra weight on a race car I thought this was a very worthwhile effort. The advantage of doing this rather than simply replacing the roof with a piece of sheet metal is that 1) There's no question that this is "the same material as the original surrounding roof material" and 2) It has the correct size, shape and curve.

I have found that the piece is easily pushed up from incoming air when driving at speed so make sure you secure this to the surrounding roof completely, not just with four bolts like I did initially.
 
I took a similar path. I too kept the original sun roof panel after removing the inner structure. I also cut out the "tub" that the sun roof set in on the car. To reattach the sun roof I built a frame out of .060 aluminum and riveted it in place. Doesn't leak - looks okay

The materials I removed only exist in a Sunroof car. But I couldn't get it all because the cage was in the way.

You can see it in this pic at the link below:

http://gotcone.com/pgallery/?level=picture&id=30613
 
Simple way to reinstall skin is to use a thin strip of metal around the perimeter and use fusor or similar bonding agent. Bond from the inside and it will be smooth with no distortion.
 
I took apart the sun roof of the last car and saved the skin for any body work needed on the new car. I did not mic it but that is some really thin sheet metal and proved unsuitable for repairing the rust at the wheel wells.
 
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