Our Classics

Summer wouldn’t be much fun with a barely operating sunroof. Keith needed to take action

When I last left this car with you, I was getting it ready for its MoT after getting a bunch of jobs completed on it. With working wipers, a decent two-tone horn (retro-fitted from a more modern car) and great demisting capability, I was confident the 80 would be in fine fettle for the test. I duly shuttled it up to my regular classic-friendly garage

(Pete Dane at Motorvation in Barnack, 01780 740631) to give it a check-up and put it for test. I still wasn’t 100 per cent happy with the carburettor settings, so asked him to play with those and then let me know what’s what.

He called me a couple of days later with some good news. ‘It’s tested,’ he said. ‘ We found a split driveshaft gaiter and sorted that, along with some surface corrosion on one of the brake lines. It’s running much better now, too. She’s all yours!’

So, at the end of the day, not a bad result for an 80 that’s lived a life of more than 128,000 miles if you ask me. That done, it’s looking good for the future as it gets closer to its 40th birthday on 1 August 2022.

With the 80 back home and everything as it should be, I should be in for a nice summer ahead. One thing that has been bugging me, though, is the state of the sunroof – and although I’d already got it working again after years of inactivity, I wasn’t happy with the state of the interior lining, nor how stiff it was to open. Time to crack it open and see what’s what…

The most common approach to failed sunroofs on classic cars with my friends is simply to leave them shut. And when they leak, stick Gaffa tape over them. But that all seems a bit defeatist to me – and inspired by an old episode of Car

SOS that saw Fuzz pull the sunroof out of an Audi quattro in the blink of an eye, I decided that it would be good to do a light resto on mine.

So armed with my tools and a sunny day, my son Michael and I (well, mainly Michael) decided to take it apart and give everything a thorough clean, lube and rustproofing. A quick note to Fuzz for some guidance was straightforward ‘just take pictures as you’re disassembling’, then we were on our way. Like all jobs on the Audi 80 (so far, at least), it wasn’t too bad because the car is simple and seems to be engineered for relatively easy disassembly.

The sunroof panel unbolts from the mechanism, then the rails unbolt from the car, and although it sounds simple enough, you must be methodical. The sunroof panel was in decent enough condition, but the drive for the crank handle was damaged. We were lucky enough to find the missing chunk inside the sunroof mechanism so we glued it back together and re-fitted it.

Then all of the old grease (which by now had the consistency of clay) was removed (a very tough and dirty job) and the components thoroughly re-greased.

The worst part of the sunroof was the interior trim, which was so damaged that it was fit only for the bin. It was discoloured and snagged inside the roof cavity and the only cause of action was replacement. Time was against us on this, so after de-rusting the sheet metal backing to which it’s mounted (and, boy, was it in bad condition, as you can see from the pictures), we re-lined the trim panel with white stick-on vinyl in lieu of getting the correct headlining felt (which has now been bought – a tenner a roll online) and started putting it back together.

As it says in the Haynes manual, re-fitting is the reverse of removal, and this was done very carefully so as not to get grease onto the (temporary) vinyl liner. A subsequent quick and gentle test revealed that the sunroof was opening and closing as it should.

But we are going to have to get it out again. As you can see from the picture, there’s rust on the roof panel where the sunroof mechanism has damaged the inside of the roof panel that needs sorting. I’d also like to get that headliner material fitted, and have it looking 100 per cent.

But maybe after I’ve enjoyed some summer runs in it first! SENIOR CONTRIBUTOR

OWNED SINCE September 2019 MILEAGE SINCE LAST REPORT 165 TOTAL MILEAGE 128,600 LATEST COSTS £146

Making the most of the summer means making the most of the sunshine, which is why Keith has prioritised repairing his Audi’s sunroof.

Much better! Roof panel is thoroughly rust-treated before being re-fitted.

To say that the sunroof panel was a bit rusty is a bit of an understatement!