Fixing front of Harmony roof

Hi. I've had my 1992 Talbot Harmony for just over a month & have been sorting various issues, as its my 1st camper it as been interesting. My lastest test is that the front of the fibreglass roof as lifted of the metal cab just above the windscreen. I have spoken to a helpful man at Autosleepers who said it would be the pop rivets breaking or pulling thru' and suggested lifting the rubber seal to see if this had happened, sure enough he was right they have all broken. His suggestion was to re rivet the front of the roof with extra flexible non adhesive sealant under & or around the existing rubber seal. Any pointers with regards to this such as sealant type, cleaning, do's & dont's or leave to experts will be gratefully looked at. Sorry for being long winded. Cheers Phil.

I'm not sure I would go with A-S advice on this. Sure, they made the conversion, but I'm not so sure about their ability to advise on such long-term wear and tear.

If the pop rivets have broken, it would be good to understand why. Two possible reasons occur to me - chassis flex may have continually flexed the aluminium rivets and caused them to shear off, or the holes in the steel may have corroded, allowing them to pull out.

If the former, it may be worth considering getting replacement rivets in something other than aluminium. When I last looked you could get them in stainless steel for example - though I recall that you needed a pretty good tool to set them in place.

If the holes have corroded then you may need to go up in size and drill out.

Either way I'd be looking to use an adhesive sealant such as Sikaflex 221 to improve the strength of the join, rather than an extra flexible one which is going to let it move and break again...

Hi Mojo. Thanks for that info. I have an almost full tube of Tiger seal left over from fixing door window caddy last week. That seems to be a strong adhesive sealant so I might try that. ( Its good on repairing old waterproof working boots as well!!!) Cheers Phil.

Hi
I've just done one of these.
Firstly is the rubber infill strip still there,drill the tops of the pop rivets and they can then be punched downwards and will drop into box section,remove the rubber infill.
Clean the area and using a small screwdriver scrape out old sealer and debris from under grp then wipe with meths or surgical spirit.
The holes where rivets went through body can now be rubbed down,de rusted and painted with a good de rusting paint,allow to dry,clean area again and clean the rubber insert on all surfaces,allow to dry.
Modern sealers are now so good no need for rivets.
Fill holes with tigerseal and gap under grp then slide rubber infil into place,run sealer along on top of grp and push rubber onto sealer,
Clean off excess and allow to cure.
When cured run bead of sealer between windscreen rubber and sealing strip and again clean up.
Any other help please send pm
For sealer I used Stixall in black
Pete

Hi Pete. Thanks for that most helpful. Yes the rubber infill strip is still in place & appears to be intact. I was wondering about removing it & cleaning but I am worried about the sealing at each corner where the roof starts to run down each side as the GRP is still tight on the metal cab.
Also I was thinking of using good quality self tapping screws instead of the rivets, which can be a pain if they don't take up, to pull the GRP down onto the rubber seal & metal cab (someone as suggested to me to try self drilling screws, don't know about these as I've never used them & don't know if they might be too aggressive).
I have Hammerite smooth paint, would this be suitable de rusting paint or is there something more better?
I assume this is better done as a 2 person job or did you do it by yourself?
Cheers Phil.

Hi Phil,
I did this myself but I'm used to this type of job.
Re rixing roof down,no need,if you remove the filler rubber and after cleaning up till the space under the GRP with the sealer,when it is cured it will be more than strong enough.
At the ends the rubber seal is trapped by the roof,it can be carefully eased out,I did cut the bottom piece that goes under the grp back a bit.
The main thing with this job is removing sealant and residues with the spirit,also wear plastic gloves.I also ran a strip of masking tape over screen rubber and on roof at line of rubber seal ,this makes cleaning up easier.I also squeezed some sealer under screen rubber.I also clamped the rubber down at the end till sealer set
Re paint,Hamerite contains some slow curing components which may not be compatable with the sealant,I used a celulose based rust paint,will post name later but also de rusted with one of the chemical treatments first
I hope you can understand all this,if not PM me and I will give you a ring or will let you have my number

Pete