Sunroof

[foggyjames]

Hi all,

You can tell its car fixing season! My sunroof has been getting rustier for a while now, so I decided to attack it today. It was fairly quickly apparant that it was a very dead sunroof! Its a double skin affair, and (on breaking the welds and splitting the skins) proved to be deeply rusted on both inner surfaces (where a repair would be impossible). So I now have a bent sunroof (doesn't matter, as it needs replacing anyway), albeit a less rusty one.

It hasn't opened properly for years. Tilting was ok (although it went 'loose' latterly), but it would scrape on part of the inner side of the roof skin, and fail to close without a shove with a hand when slid. I put this down to something being broken, as the whole thing moves best part of an inch up and down when pushed. Nothing is visually broken, but then I don't know what I'm looking for. The small metal runners in the tracks look far too small for their tracks (except at one end, where they fit perfectly).

So.....do we have any sunroof experts present?
As I see it I have a number of options....
1) Obtain 300 series sunroof in top condition, and adjust correctly.
2) Make Alu sunroof, and brackets to fit 360 fittings (as Kevin Strong has just done).
3) Convert to electric roof from 440 or 700/900 series, if compatible

Any thoughts? I will start researching the electric option - I know Pettaw's 360 has an electric sunroof, which as far as I know was never a factory option (I'd have seen one by now....although they did a trip computer, and I've never seen one of those on a car...). Care to chip in Mr P? I can compare to a normal one if you email me some pics (please!)?

cheers

James

Oh No! I hate sunroofs, anyway yes I've been down this road before.

They pretty much stop working after 14 years or so. Should be able to get parts form a scrap yard, less rusty etc.

I actually bought a car once (360 GLT) that the sunroof started flapping on the way home, it turned out it was held up with a piece of wood, managed to rebuild it with web help.

Its hard to give advice on it but I'll try.
Figure out how it works on a good example
Dissassemble from below
Replace worn bits with new
The lower interior cover is half the battle, watch for the rear clips catching on the wrong side of the roof latching pins.
If it closes, leave it closed and don't touch it, or just used the tilting bit if that seems reliable.

My preference is to weld on a new roof and forget the sun-roof.
The car I'm keeping has no sun roof. Better rigidity anyway.

My 940 has an electric sun roof, and at 8 years its thinking about getting sticky, and already leaked due to poorly fitting (loose) drain pipes, again I wouldn't recommend it, can't imagine it would fit anyway.

[foggyjames]

I'm off to the scrappers tomorrow, but there isn't such a good source of cars here in Torbay, compared to up in Derby, where I have been all year! I am certainly going to start with a 360 sunroof, and take all the parts to compare for wear.

cheers

James