Sunroof weight reduction

[aston@ultrasw.c]

86 Carrera with sunroof.

One fine day I will weld in a panel and re-finish but until then....

Anyone removed all/most of the mechanism but left the sunroof in place and secured in the closed position?

What weight reduction did you achieve? Any clever bracketry for keeping it in position.

I will most likely dump the headliner at the same time, how will it look, pics would be great.

Cheers!

[GaryR]

Unless you remove the whole sunroof sub-assembly it's a waste of time IMO, you are only talking a couple pounds for the cables and motors. The real weight is in the big under roof panel and supports. If it's a track car (and not PCA stock class race) the right way to do it is to cut all that out and bond in a FG panel, but I would only do that with a full cage and a roof crossbar (for PCA race bond in the original steel panel), then just fill in the gap with black silicone so it looks like a sunroof. The BEST way is to replace the whole roof. Welding in the panel will not get you a coupe roofline, the sunroof roofline is squared off slightly and requires a bit of filler to look "ok".

[jevvy]

I'm part way though removing the sunroof and replacing it with some polycarbonate sheet as an interim solution and having ripped all of it out its now apparent that its the actual sunroof panel thats one of the heaviest bits. The motor/runners and tray dont actually weight too much but the sunroof plate is mostly double skinned and pretty heavy in comparison so you would be cutting away the lightest stuff and leaving the heaviest bit.

Below is a copy of my post over on Impact Bumpers and a link to the thread if you are already registered:

---------------------------------------------

Managed to get a bit of time on Saturday to fiddle with the Git and decided to dig into the sunroof. I couldnt tell if the new cage would fit as it was hitting the sun-roof tray inside the car so knowing I was going to cut it out sometime I just cracked on. First was to gut the roof all all rails etc and pull the actual sunroof, a little fiddly and the roof was surprisingly heavy being double skinned:






Once the roof was gutted it was time to start cutting - not being a huge fan of the angle grinder and the misery if can cause I took my time with this and tried to keep my options open as to how the new roof could mount, heres the first easy cut of one of the side supports:



And then the first no turning back cut:



After a beer to calm my nerves I set about cutting all the other bits I could reach with the angle grinder then finished the awkward bits off with my mate Dremmel:



It was then a case of getting the heat gun on the black gloopy stuff that holds the rest of the pan to the roof then it all falls onto your head





This is the cage I picked up the other day, its an OMP jobbie and I'm very impressed with it so far particularly the fact that the rear struts mount on the rear parcel shelf allowing an easy hook-up to the rear suspension points, here is is on the grass:



And here it is test fitted to the car



I managed to get all the holes cut for the cage backing plates but then ran out of time - might try to get the welded in this week

With the absence of any decent welding skills and a Tig I have a few alternative ideas on how to sort the hole in the roof - I think i may try some different routes before trying to persuade Perks or TB to Tig me a panel in.

Loving the Git - worry free car carnage, cant beat it.

------------------------------------------------

Plenty of threads on here about options too - get a search on the go.

Good luck

[aston@ultrasw.c]

Forkin' hell John - you had to cut the bastard out!

So if I cut out the frame assembly, like you did, could I then mount the sunroof panel in place, with brackets of some kind? It looks like I could - could you take a pic?

Thanks for the info!

[juanbenae]

there are a few threads here >>>>> Pelican Parts Technical BBS - Search Results my plunge thread & paul G's spec build thread offer ideas on removal & resetting. we both went with the fiberglass repro unit that tre sells. hope these help.

t

[jevvy]

What do you need a pic of?

Yes you could just re-fit the roof with a bit of welding & brackets fabricated but I bet once you get it in your hand you wont want to put it back.

Heres a few useful threads:
Sunroof Removal/weld Shut

sunroof to non sunroof

I'm doing something a little like RSA's:

[aston@ultrasw.c]

The linked threads had the views I was looking for - the L brackets holding the panel in place, etc...

Thanks again

[GaryR]

Just use 3M body panel bond, the roof will rip open before that stuff gives...