Been 'tinkering' with a few odd jobs on the van today and Mrs G7 commented on state of rooflights. To be fair, they were a state (despite having given the van a darn good wash last weekend), but I'm ashamed to say they were grubby within the rooflight itself i.e., between the inner and outer shell where you can't normally clean.
So, how do you do yours? A really good wash from the roof could result in water dropping into the van and I also tried a soft flexible duster-on-a-stick thing, but that wasn't too good either.
So not to be outdone and on a mission, I removed and dismantled each rooflight (a fairly easy job to be honest) and once re-fitted as per above pic, they've passed her approval.
Thats how I did mine, its very difficult to give them a good clean from the outside. To be fair thought it was an old caravan that didn't have a fly screen or anything, so it wasn't too hard.
I do mine every year when I service the van they can be taken apart quite easily there are 4 screws holding the spring loaded arms remove them and the window can be lifted off the inner grill unscrews and it's just a case of washing all the parts in warm soapy water, mine come up like new Just be careful not to over tighten the screws when reassembling
I usually clean mine about once every two years. I unscrew the fixings and take them down as well then clean them with liquid soda crystal spray (shown in link) plus a soft paint brush which removes all that dirty grime. I then rinse them in a large bowl full of warm water with a level tablespoon of washing powder. This removes all the dirt in all the nooks and crannies and any dirt left I just work the paint brush in the areas to clean the rest off.
Fair enough, it seem's removing them was/is the only practical way then, which is exactly what I did in the same manner outlined by Phil76.
They are easy enough to remove, but just curious if any 'inventive' folk had come up with a means to clean that didn't involve removal.
Incidentally, once the rooflight was removed by unfastening the sprung hinges, the dome part itself needed dismantling by removal of a pair of screws that hold the hand-held parts of the catches on. On mine, these screws were TX25 torx screws, so anyone else who might be inspired to have a go, might want to arm themselves with one of these first.
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Topic: Cleaning rooflights - how`d you do yours?
