rooftop 109

OK, So it took some time to get done but the roof is on. I couldn't get help with the insulation and liner until Monday when my daughter was able to come over. She couldn't spend all day so while she was here to help things went well. It truly is a 2 person job. When she left things turned crappy. That adhesive, the 3M general adhesive #8088, really sticks if you follow the instructions and let both sides get tacky and put them together. I couldn't pull the wrinkle out. And for some unknown reason I got a bubble formed overnight under the insulation over the cab area :^( I started by cutting out the insulation to fit and was able to glue in the back section by myself. Then I realized I needed to get more glue. I called my daughter and told her to come over an hour later than planned. Getting on my 2008 Suzuki DL650 I rode down the forested Hwy 9 six miles to Felton and then another 5 over to O'Reilly's Auto Parts in Scotts Valley. The closest supplier of this 3M product. I got the last can at $19.00. And headed home. Soon after getting home my daughter and family arrived, it was good to see my new granddaughter again, now a month old! So you know how it is working with adhesives, get busy and don't waste time. Well I didn't remember to take any photos of the stages. I just have the one of the completed roof job. Marette and I glued in the final insulation pieces and went to work in the heat of the day on the liner. The liner was in some ways easier to do as the width was six feet. I just measured out the length needed and cut it a half inch longer. Spraying down the glue we started on one side and went across to the other. This finished off the back section. I opted to keep the ribs in the roof exposed to facilitate any future mounting of stuff. And then Marette had to leave................. Now I realized I would need yet another can of adhesive to finish the job. It was 5pm so I waited for the rush hour traffic to die down and once again I was off on my motorcycle. This time I needed to go 13 miles down Hwy 9 to O'Reilly's in Santa Cruz. Returning home I put in the front liner. The roof slants and I failed to account for this when I lined up the liner.. I had to pull it out and trim it to fit the corner. You can do this if the glue is wet, but when I laid it back down the glue was very tacky and stuck to it's self with a wrinkle in it. I tried to lift it off and the liner started to tear so I just pushed it back on and smoothed it as well as I could. I'm not happy and it is getting dark as I finish the front piece. I trim the next corner and then glue it in place. Lastly there is the middle section to do. By now I thought this would be easy it is just a rectangle to lay in and I had plenty of material. Something happened and it got cocked at an angle so I fought it to get the edges lined up all the way across. Thankfully I had cut the extra width and the material stretches. Here is the finished job the next morning.

The next morning I removed the old weatherstripping from the top of the windscreen and glued down a new piece with some 3M weather strip adhesive. This went well!!!

No one was around so I waited until my new neighbor, Joe came home ( just met him the day before). Intercepting him on his way in from the car he agreed to help. We carried the top over to the 109 and set it on.

Soon I set about to bolting it down. Putting 2 bolts in the windscreen on each side I then proceeded to line up the holes by the drivers side with a prybar. I got 2 more holes and realized that I didn't have the new roof to sides seals in. *$**^#&*!! I took out the 2 side bolts and dug out the seals from the garage. Then lifting up the rear of the roof I put a block of 2x4 on each side. With the roof out of the way I could put in the seals on both sides. Due to my sides being 2-piece I had to notch the seals at the junction to fit and also cut to fit at the ends. Then I removed the 2x4 blocks and started bolting down the roof again. It wasn't easy all this! I'm by myself in 85F weather and the inside of the roof was 106F! I was really sweatting! I lined up the back corners of the roof and sides and loosely bolted them in and then worked my way down the sides. I used the prybar to align most of the holes but there were 2 or 3 that I had to run a drill bit thru to get the bolt in. I used 1/4-28 SS with SS nylock nuts. After it was all bolted in I retreated to the cool of my house and a comforting glass of iced tea!