Disco Roof Problem

I have a V8 Discovery. It is one of the last of the first generation models. The roof at the back has apparently come away from the shell of the vehicle. The spot welds seem to have split. A repair was done by an 'expert' who glued the thing back together. However, I seem to be getting water in the back once again. This may be a separate problem but the amount of water and it's location suggests the problem has returned.

Has anyone had a similar problem and how did you fix it. Any advice will be much appreciated.

Probably caused by leaking alpine windows mate

Common fault ........... and sounds like the so called expert fixed one problem but ignored the cause of the initial problem ...... hence it's return

Cant recommend the "glueing" back together of the problem area either as the roof joint forms part of the rear seat belt upper anchorage area and should be welded

Better check the alpine windows firat and then check any "suspect" previous repairs just to be safe

Thank Captain. Good advice!

McSteel said:

Thank Captain. Good advice!

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Your welcome

It depends on what it was glued with! Many cars these days have the bracing structures "Glued" (Bonded) to the outer shell (the method was developed in the Aerospace industry where it's called Redux Bonding), if the repair was done properly, with the correct bonding compound and preperation, it will be stronger than the original spot welding! If you have no paperwork telling you what was used to bond the structure then worth getting it checked out.

As for the leak, it'll be the windows! Or, in my case the boot floor was being soaked by the rear sunroof, not applicable if you don't have one! The seal was fine, it was the rubber seal around the roof/sunroof joint that was lifting and letting the wet stuff pour in. That one shot black gutter seal did the trick, it's bone dry now and we've had some serious rain so far this year!

Gareth

Spee said:

It depends on what it was glued with! Many cars these days have the bracing structures "Glued" (Bonded) to the outer shell (the method was developed in the Aerospace industry where it's called Redux Bonding), if the repair was done properly, with the correct bonding compound and preperation, it will be stronger than the original spot welding! If you have no paperwork telling you what was used to bond the structure then worth getting it checked out.

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If a vehicle is designed to have welded joints that is how it should stay ......... PERIOD .................. the manufacturer designed the shell to take particular point loadings and stresses and as a result any modification to that structure could well be weakening the area or at worse the whole shell.

I know that the bonding will be better than the rust that was initialy there but the fact remains that a PROPER repair done as close to Land Rover specs would be the right way to do it ........ otherwise (and just think about this for a minute or 2) people would be glueing patches to sills and chassis area's for MOT repairs and that would be totally unacceptable i'm sure you'll agree

On the other hand i've seen cars with rear chassis legs and sills made of newspaper and fibreglass before so i could be wrong LMAO

My point was it may be a manufacturer approved repair, and needs checking for this. If not, get it sorted!

Spee said:

My point was it may be a manufacturer approved repair, and needs checking for this. If not, get it sorted!

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See your point now mate ............... but i doubt it's manufacturer approved

I doubt that also! A bit high tech for Land Rover!

Spee said:

I doubt that also! A bit high tech for Land Rover!

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