sun roof

November 14, 2023November 13, 2023

Passenger Side Rear Wheel Well Rust – Part 1 (Post #631) 11/14/2023

Now that I have the Range Rover flopped in the shoppe I can start on the rust abatement. But first, I thought I should get some oil and some other fluids and do some fluid refreshing. That was a great idea if I had done that BEFORE I started the Big White Bus. But the fact I was doing it AFTER I ran the engine, -2 points.

I loaded up one 5 gallon barrel of oil and headed to my favorite O’Reilly’s. When I got out of the truck my folly was apparent. I had successfully done an Exxon Valdez [Wikipedia] imitation. The metal barrel had rusted through the bottom and dropped 5 gallons of used oil all over the back of my F-150 and on to their ~~Prince William Sound~~ parking lot. I ran in and bought two bags of kitty litter/oil soaker stuff and with the help of one of the guys we spread all that all over their parking lot. I haven’t been that embarrassed in a long time.

I finished up the clean up of the back of my F-150 when I got home and started getting the rear passenger wheel off to start the investigation. The video shows I had a mostly optimistic view when I started scraping the rust. In comparison…the passenger side is no where near as bad as the drivers side wheel well. The rear window is another issue entirely but let me attack these one at a time.

I’ve got two holes SO FAR. I still have to get the wire wheel out and take the rubber back to metal where there are brown spots. The worst looking SO FAR is the bottom of the C Pillar is rusted out. The reason for the rust there is the sunroof drain hose exits there and the crappy plastic grommet did not keep water out. And it is entirely likely that there was nothing inside the C Pillar that would pass for paint. So that was an obvious place for rust.

I’m going to replace the sunroof drain tubing and possibly fit a “Hose Barb Thru-Bulk Head Hex Union 90 Degree L Right Angle Elbow Barbed Brass Fitting with Flat Washer Gasket Water/Fuel/Air” fitting. Something like this….

I’ll add a rubber washer to assist in keeping the water out. I’ve got to measure the tubing and get the right one ordered. They can be found on Amazon.com. Not sure if they are using ID (inside diameter) or OD (outside diameter) to determine if I get 3/8″ or 1/2″.

This may be complete folly but what the hell right? If it works, I’m a genius. If it doesn’t work, I’m still a genius, just a terribly misguided one. Half of me says extend the drain line to behind the mudflap. It would not be that hard to add a little more distance to the hose and NOT put it back in the same poorly designed place. I mean seriously, lots of water and ice and mud and road salt and roadkill chunks (mostly opossums and armadillos and skunks) and all kinds of crap fly off the tires at extreme tangential velocity [Study.com]. The fact that plastic gromet is even able to not be dislodge is a miracle. So…let’s try to make it better!

The headline came out also so I could get the sunroof drain. It had to come out anyway, because it needed to be replaced…again. This will be the third and final. If this is needed again while I own this rig, it will be painted and forgotten.

More next week. Like and subscribe my Youtube channel. Send me a comment too…I love to converse with you.

Thanks for reading and Happy Rovering.

patreon.com/okierover

April 16, 2013May 15, 2023

Sunroof Troubles (Post #330) 4/16/2013

I was out checking on a transmission repair shop yesterday. I was driving around with the windows down and the sunroof open. When I got home I proceeded to close up the Range Rover.

Windows closed with no problem. I went to close the sunroof and got no response from the motor. I checked the fuse and it looked good.

I had to use the key to close the sunroof. It worked surprisingly well. If you don’t have your key a thick headed screwdriver will suffice. You just drop the access panel, insert key, and give it a spin.

On a completely different note, the dash clock failed. I was sure it was working this weekend. So it seems the spring will be the spring of electrical gremlins.

Looks like Saturday will be spent chasing errant electrons with my volt ohm meter. I also intend to check the electrical conductivity of the ABS sensors in a random attempt to find one “that is not like the other”. It is amazing to me that the things we learned from Sesame Street still apply as adults.

Thanks for reading, and Happy Rovering.

May 23, 2011May 15, 2023

A Lazy Sunday (Post #258) 5/23/2011

Ah…a lazy Sunday in Oklahoma. Spring is upon us and each day we wonder if we will get some our famous southern plains weather. Saturday night Mrs. OkieRover and I enjoyed a steak, asparagus, and an adult beverage for me and watched as the thunderheads anvil out as they trekked across the state. I tried to capture a panoramic picture of the storm. Eh…I’m obviously not a photographer.

Panoramic due east to SSE

Sunset reflecting on the clouds

Fortunately for us they stayed to the south and east of us. We had 5 inches of rain this week, more on that later. We got more on Sunday tonight but again they are east and south of us.

Sunday morning I played hookie from church and wanted to work on my Range Rover. I went out to the garage with a cup of tea in my Rover’s North Coveted Mug, 1 each, and The Cars Greatest Hits.

First, the garage is a WRECK. Several factors have contributed to this fact. We bought a new couch and loveseat and that meant that the old couch went to the garage.

Also the city of Norman gave away rain barrels to the first 90 people to show up at Forest Lumber. Forest Lumber is my new hardware store. I won’t need to go all the way to Lowe’s now. That place was awesome. My pal Larry and I took the Range Rover down there and hauled the barrels back. When we were looking around Forest Lumber we were discussing America’s First Sergeant’s Zombie Apocalypse Preparation Post. We found a wrecking bar that would make a great zombie deterrent weapon. You can see how impressive it is. It has an awesome name too, the FuBar III. FUBAR is a familiar acronym to all Marines. After a few applications of this tool most things it touches will be FUBAR.

Also currently located in the garage is a TV, a dead TV. It previously graced the entertainment center until it unceremoniously fell due to the affects of gravity on a shelf. I’m not happy. The budget took a big hit this week. The rest is the normal condition of the garage…cluttered.

Sunday’s Range Rover project was the sun roof. As you may have read, it was working when I went to Fort Washita. When I came home from Fort Washita, it wasn’t. So I started by taking the headliner out. I’ve taken the headliner out so many times it takes only a few minutes using a powered drill with Phillip’s bit.

Once out I started by unbolting the sunroof. The sunroof system is kinda heavy so if you can get help you should. Again I’ve done this a few times so it’s no biggy. You can use the head rests as supports and leave the front bolts that hold the motor connected to the roof structure as one point and the head rests as the other.

Once I got it lowered I started trying to figure out what was causing the problem. I futzed with it for at least an hour. Once I got it working I bolted it back up only to find it was not working again. When you pressed the button to retract it would stop as if something was blocking it.

I could not figure it out. Finally I decided I should lube up the tracks. They looked pretty dry. So off to the chemical shelf and out with the silicone spray lube. I hosed it down and the window moved better but not great.

You can see in the above photo the red spray hose, it is important to control the spray as not to hose the interior with silicone lube. After a couple of trial refits and more and more silicone spray the sunroof works. It still has a little catch but it slides back and forth on its own. In the process I ran the battery down and had to jump the Range Rover with the Honda Civic. It was shameful but necessary.

Now, back to the rain. We had five inches of rain over night on Thursday and Friday this week. That is enough rain to tell me if there is a water problem with the windshield. There is. The pads were wet…as usual. I pulled them out to dry. I will probably throw them out. The windshield is obviously the problem. I’m not sure if it is the seal or rust.

I’m going to start with the windshield seal. The good folks at Binswanger Glass told me I should test it with a garden hose. It wasn’t necessary as I didn’t drive the Range Rover in the rain so it had to be from the seal. With the pads up, the rust is back on the floor pans.

Its probably surface rust or staining from the bottom of the pads. Either way it is annoying. Considering the trouble I went through to remove the rust and cover the panels with layers and layers of paint. I’m now thinking bedlining spray and more sound deadening material like I originally planned.

I buttoned up the Range Rover and went on to the other duties requiring my attention. With that much rain the grass went nuts. With the drought we’ve had this year, I’ve only had the mower out twice. I think we are still behind overall for the year on rainfall, but the grass hasn’t noticed.

I tried to organize the hardware and parts shelves but I ran out of steam. I need a budget infusion to do anything else on the Range Rover this year. The first money I’m going to use will be to sort out the windshield seal issue. I can’t move forward on the interior until that is all sorted out.

Thanks for reading and Happy Rovering.

May 6, 2009May 15, 2023

Not much going on (Post #143) 5/6/2009

Just a post to let my readers know,

I’m not dead
Not much is going on
Still have stuff to sell from my Discovery
My beloved Big White Bus is nearly mine again

We have one more payment on the now wrecked-totalled-dead Discovery 2 and it’s off to the auto lots to buy my wife and possibly my son cars. I also have the rims and some other bits I need to sell from the Discovery. And, I get to begin driving my beloved Range Rover Classic again.

A few projects wait for me.

The sunroof is malfunctioning.
Rust on the lower tail gate.
Headliner will need to be replaced again.
Viscous coupler needs to be replaced/rebuilt.
The fluid in the passenger side floor board needs to be sorted.
New radio.
Tint the windows.
Air condition needs to be repaired/recharged.

The sunroof will be a chore I’m afraid. It drops down to slide and then slides about an inch and then stops. I’m sure it is fixable, I’m not sure what it is causing the problem. This will be easily accessible when I pull the headliner for a replacement.

The rust on the tailgate is another of the normal problems with Range Rover Classics. I have all the stickers to repair and repaint and rebadge the lower gate. I’ve watched Edd China do this type of job on Wheeler Dealers so many times I’m sure with a little guidance from JagGuy I should be able to sort this out in a single Saturday in his shop. I need to protect my upper lift gate while I’m back there and will learn what he did to prevent his from rusting out. I will post the procedure when I have it done.

The viscous coupler failure is a very annoying problem. And could be the most difficult of this list to fix. I’m thinking the repair will be a used replacement. I will then have one on the shelf to rebuild in case the used replacement fails me.

The wet floor boards is most likely a leaking wind screen seal. There are some small holes in the floor pan that need filling as well. I will pay a auto glass company to replace the seal and refit the window. It’s not worth it to mess with this when doing it wrong could cost me a wind screen and more wet floor boards. I will pull the carpets and seal the holes most likely with welding.

Tinting the windows is a necessity of driving in Oklahoma. The afternoon sun can bake you like a cake. The air conditioning since it was converted to R134a does not cool like the R12 did before. I will replace the expansion valve and get the system recharged. Hopefully it won’t be a continuing problem.

A new radio will be a nice addition. The stock unit has a famously failed display. A used replacement unit is a couple of hundred dollars. There is a fellow in Arkansas, Roverville Radio that refurbishes your unit for less than 200$(US).

If I can’t find a good unit on eBay, I think I’ll just buy a new “modern unit”. That way I can get Sirius OR an iPod OR a memory stick OR Bluetooth my phone OR whatever is available right now to get tunes in my Classic. I’m sure what ever I buy the next technology will be release a week after I have it installed. So get your money together this summer for your own sound system upgrade.