You get bubbles in the sail panel because the glue is coming through the fiberglass. There is no way to clean up the old glue, the panel is ruined.

 

Well son of a B... thanks for the info man. this sucks. My car is also having issues with the clear coat on the hood as well... are these related. It starting to flake off in big spots

 

No, not related. Sounds like just clear coat failure. It requires a repaint to fix but you don't have to replace anything.

 

My 99 with 26K miles on it is starting to get bad. It sat out in the sun yesterday, about 85 degrees out. When I came out to my car after work, it was bubbled up all the way around the whole panel and was oozing some nasty ****. I know where some junk LT1 cars are, and I have a battery powered sawzall. I am going to cut the roof off one of them....

 

Well after 9 years and 75k miles my 02 TA finally started exhibiting this problem last year. Its taken me till now to do the research to figure out what's going on. I am replacing the nose with a new one in a couple of weekends so I guess I'll be replacing this panel as well. Thanks to everyone here at LS1Tech!! As usual a wealth of information.

 

I have a friend who makes custom surf boards for a living. So he has a lot of experience with fiberglass. I told him about the problem that our cars have and he said it could've all been prevented by using the right primer. I think he said to use epoxy primer. Basically, he said the right primer would've sealed the pours of the fiberglass preventing the gases to penetrate. Mine is a 2002 and when I bought it, it didn't look like it had that problem yet. Any how, I yanked off the roof and scraped the old glue off. I'm also going to use the epoxy primer and a different type of glue.

Question....what glue can be used? Can I use the black glue made for the windshields?

 

There is a link to the original GM recall TSB in the first few pages of this thread. Where did you get your sail panel?

 

No offense, but I'd take the recommendation of countless auto body shops who have worked on these over a surfer.

 

I'll check it out. Thanks.
The sail panel that I'm talking about is the original one that came on my car. I'm going try and give his theory a shot.

 

For what is worth my local body shop guy said that there are sealers and primers now that very capable to deal with this kind of ****. He looked at my sail panel and said it was worth a try. I have consider it but have also been looking for a sail in panel just in case.

 

6LE has new ones, the only source for new ones as far as I'm aware.

I would think getting used ones off of cars at a junkyard in one piece would be rather difficult, but I've never dealt with anything like that before.

 

A junk yard roof panel will cost you $75-$100 the new panels that 6le has for sale are over $1000 with shipping ... they are nice but not that nice ... I'll get mine at the junk yard..I've seen a few that were aquired at the junk yard and they look perfect not to mention a much more attractive price...

 

The sail panels are nowhere close to $1000.

 

has anyone had luck with getting these replaced at the dealership with no cost out of pocket? Mine is starting to fail me and it's the only part of the car that is defect looking, let me know~!

 

Not now, the cars are too old. I had a Chevy Dealership look at mine back about a year and a half ago and even with 50K on the clock they wouldn't even touch it under warranty.

 

What does a job like this cost more or less to get done?

 

This would be absolutely impossible now that GM has discontinued the part and all cars involved are well out of any sort of warranty coverage.

 

Are you talking about a hardtop panel? Those are listed at $900 + $150 shipping on the 6LE site. But for t-top cars it's only $485 + $130 shipping = $615.....

http://6litereaterdesigns.com/store/...roducts_id=241

 

I used to work in a body shop and I have seen first hand what a pain in the *** fitting an aftermarket fiberglass panel onto a car can be. I will take my chances on a junkyard GM panel versus a $600 aftermarket one. I am not knocking the 6LE panel becasue I have never had my hands on one but I would just rather try the junkyard GM becasue I know it will fit. All I have to worry about is getting off the car in one peice.

 

Let us know how it goes for you. I still find it hard to believe that the adhesive GM used was so hard core that there is nothing on this planet that will keep it from oozing through the pores of the fiberglass. Someone is going to find the right sealant so we don't have to go through this ridiculous process.