The CF Bedford Rebuild Begins

Part 10: The rebuild starts - roof

The roofs edge (once gutters removed) was quite rusty, because the roof is one big panel, sandblasting it was not an option, so only the edges were done.

The roof itself is not very strong, the Bedford has two inner braces which don't do much to stop that hollow sound, and so a third was added to try give it more structure.

Because there are no windows in the back a sunroof or something was needed (will have rear fan unit as well - maybe), the roof also has three flutes, channels or whatever you want to call them, running the length of the roof. Average Joe would just cut a hole and full up the gaps with silicone. I'm not average Joe ;), because of the roof chop, and keeping the original pillar angles I have to extend the length of the roof (60mm) anyway, so decided to use a pop up sunroof in the rear, but changing the design of the flutes/channels so as to redirect any water to the rear of the van instead of blocking it against the sunroof.

I have no idea if the actual design will work or not, as long as it doesn't whistle when I drive down the road lol. The rear channels are about rear door width so will hopefully disperse a bit of water away from the door itself.

As the roof was like the rest of the van - rusty, I had to make a bottom edge in some sections while patching others. The bottom edge was handy as it also gives it strength as well as being a mounting point to weld to.

I was going to add another sunroof in the front, was even thinking about an electric sunroof but have decided against it. The van will have air conditioning and the windows go up and down so hopefully wont need the front sunroof - can always add it later.
I am thinking about making a rear spoiler that is semi embedded into the rear of the roof, biggest problem is the internal rear hinges so will have to think about it. Oh and finally got a reversing camera so need to mount that somewhere too (is 25mm lens). The plan is to sink the rear spoiler into the roof section and have three supports, the outer ones being where the rear gullwing door is and the middle to set the reversing camera into, with brake light above it.