Replacing the 110 escape hatch

[trfh]

Folks,

I have a 1991 110 TUM that I am restoring. The original escape hatch was leaking badly, so I found a complete new one for a modest sum.

I have removed the original - with some difficulty as the screws were severely rusted in. Now I have it all out, I find the original external trim piece was fixed to roof with some sort of black sealant/mastic. This sealant was not the rubbery sort of stuff that is used to seal domestic window frames in walls - it had set fairly solid, and needed to be scraped off (which was easy).

Anyone know what this black sealant is? Its not shown on my parts lists (either the miliary or civvy one).

Failing that - anyone have advice on the kind of stuff to use to reseal the outer trim to the roof?

thanks

Richard

[Les Brock]

The new one that I've just fitted straight out of the sealed box , came with a 10mm wide x 3mm thick sticky backed closed cell foam !

[trfh]

OK - that doesn't help much as my new one - which admittedly I bought at a LR show about five years ago - has nothing like that in the box.

I will assume that the good old silicone will do the trick - and keep my fingers crossed.

Richard

[M.I.B]

I have heard it called a sunroof by many soldiers, especially to wind up officers, but escape hatch - that's stretching the imagination a little.

It's neither - it's for soldiers to stand out of with their rifle pointed to the sky to ward off MIGs and HIPs and HINDs.... "Air Sentry" it used to be called - not a pleasant job in winter in Germany, driving down dual carriageways.

Then when the Cold War ended, and we only fought bad guys after their airforce ( if they had one) had been neutralised by our own. So the need for air sentries died out, so we stopped ordering sunroofs on our Rovers.

No-ne ever called them "landies/landys". Always Rovers.

[Snagger]

I'd use either Dumdum, if you can find some, or black RTV silicone sealant, which is better at dealing with heat, chemicals and vibration than domestic silicone. But at a push, guttering mastik should work - if it seals plastic guttering, with all the UV, frost, ice and heat expansion they suffer, then it should work on the hatch frame.

[Anderzander]

I've used gutter sealant in a few places and it seems to have done a good job and lasted well. I definitely wouldn't be using silicone.

Closed cell foam with an adhesive backing is pretty cheap on eBay - so making up the strips like in Les's kit would be a doddle too. You could probably cut a gasket in a single piece from a larger sheet.

[pete3000]

Silastic black windscreen sealant rings a bell from the old BL Austin Rover days. Used it to glue up leaky sunroofs and mini windscreens for years. Now made by DOW Corning

[Snagger]

Windscreen sealant is probably too strong an adhesive - you'd never get the frame off without damage to it or the roof panel should you need to take it out in the future for any reason. I'd only bond in anything that had no mechanical fixings, but this hatch frame does, so I'd recommend something that can be removed if and when required.