Accessing the Roof Lining - Dents

judder · Feb 17, 2010

Hi,

I have a couple of dents in my roof that have occurred from a couple of pine cones dropping onto it. I went to my local Renault Garage and they wanted nearly a grand for a full respray etc. I contacted a local PDR man and he has giving me a very good quote to remove them. He says that one of them should be fairly easy to remove externally but that the other one may require to press out from the inside.

My question. Is the roof lining glued in tight and is it easy to access? What I'm getting at is that I wouldn't want the dents to be removed only to find out that the guy has bodged the inside of the car which will rattle over every bump etc etc. The interior of my car is mint at present.

Any help or advice would be appreciated.

Thanks

Jungle_Jim · Feb 17, 2010

roof lining comes away ok but some of the trim parts like the grab handles etc which you have to remove, have plastic fixing which can be easily damaged as they are kind of a one fit deal.

James

James.f · Feb 17, 2010

The roof linning is a git to remove because the clips that hold hand rails on the roof are the main issue. once you get them off you just pull the roof down and towards were the back seats are its glued so just pull slowely and use your hands..

Phil_172Cup · Feb 17, 2010

I had some pikey walk over my car and it had a few dents in the roof. I took the lining out so the dent guy can get the rods in and he carefully pushed them out. You can't tell it was dented at all. I would recommend you take the lining out.

You need to carefully undo all bits like sun visers, and carefully remove trims and panels etc. Big problem was the stupid plastic clips which hold sun viser / grip handles screws into the metal. I Knackered a few of these in so had to make new brackets and you can't tell at all. You will need some glue to put the roof back in.

Make sure you don't chip out or remove the glue strips holding the roof lining in as these sort of keep your roof in shape.

judder · Feb 17, 2010

James.f said:
The roof linning is a git to remove because the clips that hold hand rails on the roof are the main issue. once you get them off you just pull the roof down and towards were the back seats are its glued so just pull slowely and use your hands..

James,

Thanks for the quick reply. So I am right in thinking that the roof lining is only glued towards the rear end of the car and that the front and middle sections rely on the grab handles/sun visors to keep in place?

judder · Feb 17, 2010

Phil_172Cup said:
I had some pikey walk over my car and it had a few dents in the roof. I took the lining out so the dent guy can get the rods in and he carefully pushed them out. You can't tell it was dented at all. I would recommend you take the lining out.

You need to carefully undo all bits like sun visers, and carefully remove trims and panels etc. Big problem was the stupid plastic clips which hold sun viser / grip handles screws into the metal. I Knackered a few of these in so had to make new brackets and you can't tell at all. You will need some glue to put the roof back in.

Make sure you don't chip out or remove the glue strips holding the roof lining in as these sort of keep your roof in shape.

Phil,

The guy I am using apparantly has 20 years experience so hopefully he will do a good job. Are the plastic clips prone to break and if so can I get replacements easily from Renault? And the glue, is this for the rear section of the roof lining?

Cheers

judder · Feb 17, 2010

Jungle_Jim said:
roof lining comes away ok but some of the trim parts like the grab handles etc which you have to remove, have plastic fixing which can be easily damaged as they are kind of a one fit deal.

James

as in you cannot really remove them (grab handles) without breaking them?

James.f · Feb 17, 2010

James,

Thanks for the quick reply. So I am right in thinking that the roof lining is only glued towards the rear end of the car and that the front and middle sections rely on the grab handles/sun visors to keep in place?

^ Correct,

When i fitted mine back i didnt put any glue back in purely because theres no need for it again imo as the trims hold it in place

& Yes the bracket for the grab handles are a right pain, you will brake them without noticing,

judder · Feb 17, 2010

James.f said:
^ Correct,

When i fitted mine back i didnt put any glue back in purely because theres no need for it again imo as the trims hold it in place

& Yes the bracket for the grab handles are a right pain, you will brake them without noticing,

Cheers. Did you manage to remove all necessary clips without breaking them? as other posters say they can break easily? Thks

James.f · Feb 17, 2010

nope i broke some, my driver sun visor has one so its hanging on a angle at the moment,

The awkward part is they have like a small square washer which has a thread in it, so if that keeps falling out your screwed tbh, because that keeps it night and tight

judder · Feb 17, 2010

James.f said:
nope i broke some, my driver sun visor has one so its hanging on a angle at the moment,

The awkward part is they have like a small square washer which has a thread in it, so if that keeps falling out your screwed tbh, because that keeps it night and tight

Thanks for the advice.

mmmm, the price that you have to pay to remove a small dent.... I take it that you can by replacement brackets from Renault should my PDR man break a few in the process?

James.f · Feb 17, 2010

Yee ovcourse you can buy replacements from Renault, its just we dont know how much they would charge for them, il have try and find out how much they are cant be more than a couple of quid each

Jungle_Jim · Feb 17, 2010

the reason they are so hard not to break is the shape of them. they have a captive nut and plastic housing which once is in the hole does this <> so you can pull it out, if you remove it, its really hard to bend the <> back into a positon that it will fit through the hole.

Phil_172Cup · Feb 17, 2010

I glued my roof lining in just to make sure it stayed there as wasn't sure it would stick in the middle.

I cut off the broken plastic bits that fit in the metal work and managed make metal brackets and nuts that I could position and fix in the holes. I also drilled out and countersunk all the screw holes in the plastic trim and used larger countersunk screws, which look quite smart. Much better than the rubbish torx ones by renault.

Phil_172Cup · Feb 17, 2010

here's a photo of one of the new screws.

judder · Feb 18, 2010

Phil_172Cup said:
here's a photo of one of the new screws.

Phil,

Thanks for this. Much appreciated. I'll see how it goes this Saturday when the PDR man will hopefully do his magic.

judder · Feb 20, 2010

I dropped the car in. 1 1/2 hours later job done. Spotless repair and he didn't even have to rip out the roof lining to sort it out. Worry now over. I keep trying to find the 2 dents but I can't!!. The guy has been doing this PDR stuff for over 20 years and it shows.

A very happy customer.

Cheers for the pre-guidance though.

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