Removing a stuck canopy

Hi all,

I'm trying to remove the canopy off my ute. It has been stuck down with a thick silicone bead all the way around the wellside and has pretty much become one with the ute as a result. After undoing all the bolts holding it onto the wellside, it won't budge at all. I tried getting a stanley knife and cutting under the canopy join, but not having any luck. Also tried pulling fishing line back and forth at the join, but it's pretty adamant it was never meant to be separated ever again. I'm also wondering how on earth I'd separate the side at the front of the canopy if using these methods, as there's no way to access the join on this side (the lip of the canopy folds over on the inside of the wellside, meaning the canopy/wellside join can only be accessed from the outside...the ute cab makes this impossible).

Does anyone have experience getting a stuck canopy off a ute (preferably without destroying the ute and canopy in the process)? If I'm unable to do it myself, who would even do this sort of job? A panelbeater? Mechanic?

Cheers in advance!

If it has a deckliner, is the canopy bonded directly to the liner? If so, and you can access the bolt-down points for the liner, you may be able to remove it all as one unit?

Sounds like a pain of a job anyway.

Thanks Striker, yeah actually it does have a liner (over rail) and that is what the canopy is stuck to. I was planning on replacing the liner as it is pretty stuffed (hence removing the canopy), so your suggestion is a really good one. Cheers.

Sounds like flat deck time to me

orange base citrus cleaner like desolve-it
wont be quick but will be bugga ll damage

How about the wire rhe windscreen guys use

hair dryer maybe bit of heat then belt in wedges and work your way around ??

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. Might try a combo of all of the above. I've got a heat gun so will try get it started with that. Have some steel wire/cable traces that would probably suffice as a windscreen remover too. And can easily obtain some orange citrus cleaner. Failing that I'll just go with Ryan's suggestion and start again with a flat deck haha. Cheers! :thumbs:

If replacing the deck liner use a skull saw to cut the liner just below canopy on inside and remove the you can get to the join easier after turning canopy up side down .

,Had to help my son same senerio, heat gun and a 25mm putty knife. Heat putty knife and work into the silicon takes a while but you will get there in the end.

50 to 80kg braid should go through it like a hot knife through butter.......

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Originally Posted by Doon

,Had to help my son same senerio, heat gun and a 25mm putty knife. Heat putty knife and work into the silicon takes a while but you will get there in the end.

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Lube the knife with wax (not silicone crap) and it should peel straight through. Wedges to get access for the knife is a good idea too.

Big hammer.

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Originally Posted by m101a1

If replacing the deck liner use a skull saw to cut the liner just below canopy on inside and remove the you can get to the join easier after turning canopy up side down .

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Attachment 267784
skull saw

we have done the same in the past using a water blaster to cut through the silicone, along with piano wire as others have mentioned.
Drive a wedge in at the end and start cutting your way around.

dont believe you will need to cut anything - heat will be your friend - bout the only thing that will break down that silicone - wedges yes keep constant pressure on the gap opening up - heat a chizel big one or putty knife - I would suggest something sharp - real old knife may be good - dont be afraid to tap it

Depends on what sealers been used. If it's something like silaflex 291 or something like that, you're going to have the devils job cutting it off. Air knife and soapy water used to work ok for us. Wire with toggles if you can get a straight pull at it

Sikaflex. Damn corrective spelling

It will be a 291-equivalent bedding glue, elastomeric rather than a 'silicon' like a sealant. Once it starts to go and split/tear, it will keep going and it's just a case of getting it started and keeping it going in the way you want.

As noted, nothing much short of solvents or heat will clean it off but being that it's on a liner that will dissolve or melt at a similar temperature to the poo holding it - your solution is mechanical removal of some form or you'll have a massive cleanup afterwards. Wedging it, tapping the wedge forwards then using a knife or wire to slice the tensioned compound will cause it to just peel apart. It will go, once you get the knack of it it isn't too hard and you'll wonder what the drama was. It's one of these jobs that the hard bit is working out the methodology, once you've got it the actual job is fairly quick. Then once you've replaced the tub, refitting the lid is actually not hard either. A strip of poo on each side, place it down and lightly fit the retaining bolts to hold it in position and it will settle under it's own weight. When the poo has cured, tighten the bolts and good to go.

Thanks everyone, really appreciate all the tips and suggestions. I know what you mean, No.3, about the hard bit being figuring out the best way to do something. So many things you attempt for the first time are an absolute mission, but by the time you've almost finished the job, you've gotten so slick at it and it's gotten easy as. At the end of the job you think "if I ever have to do that again, it'll be a piece of cake". Installing a new kitchen and laminate flooring was one such job for me. Absolute nightmare at the time, but I reckon I'd smash it out no fuss if I had to do it again.

Gonna tackle the canopy/liner this weekend. Thanks again, legends!

Use this stuff. It's a pretty good citrus spray for unsticking stuff.
It may still need time to work and an edge opened on the silicon to do it's job

Attachment 267869

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Originally Posted by Shearer

Big hammer.

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I was thinking driving under something (at speed) which is just a fraction higher than the cab should do it.

ya dont think perhaps thats a little terminal overkill but it would get it off

Yep that's pretty good stuff but depending on the poo that the people that fitted the canopy used it might or might not work. If it's the Sikaflex 291 or another elastomeric bedding compound which is a chemically setting rubber product you might find that the Peel Off just peels off itself and doesn't do anything to the bedding compound. It will work if they have used a silicon based adhesive I would think though.

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Originally Posted by 7mmwsm

I was thinking driving under something (at speed) which is just a fraction higher than the cab should do it.

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Last one of those I saw on a plastic type canopy it just peeled a bit of paint of the top and made a hua of a bang. Funny as f**k when it wasn't your vehicle or fault haha.

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Originally Posted by csmiffy

Use this stuff. It's a pretty good citrus spray for unsticking stuff.
It may still need time to work and an edge opened on the silicon to do it's job

Attachment 267869

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its good but d-solv it is way better

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Originally Posted by gonetropo

Attachment 267784
skull saw

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Would be a bugger guessing what to set the depth at

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Originally Posted by No.3

Last one of those I saw on a plastic type canopy it just peeled a bit of paint of the top and made a hua of a bang. Funny as f**k when it wasn't your vehicle or fault haha.

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I can't see how it could be anything but funny if it wasn't my vehicle.

A wee progress update.

Thanks m101a1 for this awesome idea. Got the oscillating multitool and cut around the length of the liner, sliding a piece of wood between the liner and tray so I didn't go too deep. Then, worked my way around gently levering it and cracking the seal between tray and liner (thankfully, no glue/seal used there!!!). So, she's ready to lift off. Going to get a couple of extra pairs of hands and lift the whole shebang off on the weekend. Then it will be a case of flipping the canopy upside down on the lawn and dealing with the canopy/liner join using any combo of heat/braid/piano wire/wedges/orange cleaner/water blaster/whatever works! Cheers again!

Attachment 267874

Like I said, easy huh?

Now it is worth noting here that those tray liners are easily plastic welded up - if you can get the rest of it off a plastic welder can repair the old one and you might be away again without much cost. Having said that you might pick up a minter second hander for next to nix and save the hassle...

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Originally Posted by Bow Out

A wee progress update.

Thanks m101a1 for this awesome idea. Got the oscillating multitool and cut around the length of the liner, sliding a piece of wood between the liner and tray so I didn't go too deep. Then, worked my way around gently levering it and cracking the seal between tray and liner (thankfully, no glue/seal used there!!!). So, she's ready to lift off. Going to get a couple of extra pairs of hands and lift the whole shebang off on the weekend. Then it will be a case of flipping the canopy upside down on the lawn and dealing with the canopy/liner join using any combo of heat/braid/piano wire/wedges/orange cleaner/water blaster/whatever works! Cheers again!

Attachment 267874

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Ahh crasshopper you listened , funnily enough today I had remove a metal flue for a coalrange I had sold, out with the fillet knife and wedges for an hours work for a mt of bostik sealnflex urythane and job done thinking of you . ya just gotta take your brain out and do it , bit like a post hole .

Extra thought when putting new liner in mark the metal rib high spots as they dont match the liner ribs as I found out but comes in handy if screwing things down to deck as I have just found out , also ranger liners are 1mm thick , toyota n70 are 3-4mm thick .

Cheers guys. Yeah no3 unfortunately once I started with the multitool I really got into it. Consequently, the old liner is in about 20 pieces of varying size and shape. But I'll definitely look out for a second hand one. Thanks m101a1, great idea about marking up the new liner with where the ribs on the deck are, gonna do that.

And now...behold!

Attachment 267931

Haha, was real easy in the end. Sat there thinking about ways to slowly lift it on all sides and then gently gently lift it off...then proceeded to just get in there, stick my back up into the roof and stand up. The thing came off piece of cake! Gonna deal to canopy tomorrow.

Final update: And that's a wrap, folks. Liner pulled away from the canopy easy as, used heat gun as several of you suggested and just worked my way around pulling it off. De-solve made short work of the rest (shoutout to gonetropo!). I suspect it was some kind of silicone afterall because the citrus cleaner really ate it up (by the way, where on earth has de-solve it been all my life???). Thanks again everyone for your help and input, honestly I googled this issue for ages but within a day you guys had me away laughing. This forum is full of top notch crafty buggers! Cheers NZHS :thumbsup:

Attachment 268001

Found out about desolve it when getting dressings removed from my head after plastic surgery in the burns unit in lower hutt , awesome stuff and cheap fromm bunnings .

You would of smelled lovely & citrusey

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Originally Posted by m101a1

Extra thought when putting new liner in mark the metal rib high spots as they dont match the liner ribs as I found out but comes in handy if screwing things down to deck as I have just found out , also ranger liners are 1mm thick , toyota n70 are 3-4mm thick .

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Thats really annoying - some of the liners have ribs that run the same way as the tray (lengthways) which is great for getting things like water out, but if there are different numbers of ribs in a couple of places on the liner it's fully unsupported by the metal underneath. I stuffed a lease ute's liner like that once, got told to go and pick up a doohickey with six feet on the bottom. You guessed it, they sat right over the two parts of the liner that weren't on a rib underneath. The lease outfit really didn't appreciate that, they also did not take my explanation on the lease return damage report that well either (defective product, design and material failure and not my/our problem as it was a light object and it's a ute that was built for that exact purpose).

Some people, no sense of humour. Didn't have to pay though so that's something.