Sun roof delete

#1

I am getting rid of my sunroof, and was wondering if anyone tried to use the factory sunroof sheetmetal skin to fill the hole. If you did that, how did you go about separating the skin from the supporting ribs?

TIA,
Alex

#2

Separating the skin from its reinforcement is rather a pain. I think most folks just use the panel as is.

#3

Search old posts. Everything you ever wanted to know about removing your sunroof is here. Several folks have done what you described. Send a PM to NatBlack and JBlack.

#4

Hi Alex,
are you talking about removing sunroof cassette (sunroof housing where sunroof lives and slides front and back), or reinforcement sheetmetal that is mounted directly on the sunroof plate itself. If first it’s PITA, but some heat, prying and occasional touch with grinder will do the trick. If second, I wouldn’t (and didn’t) bother with it - I have sunroof plate riveted to the roof with couple of straps.

Regards,
Igor

#5

Hi Igor,

I am talking about removing reinforcement ribs from the sunroof skin. Just wanted to see what approaches/tricks others have used to separate them, without butchering the skin.

Alex

#6

We did the skinning.

I don’t understand where the “this is so hard” part comes from - removing the cassette was 100 times harder than skinning the sunroof - in our experience.

We used a fine thin screwdriver blade to bend the edge of the sunroof panel down in a couple places, and treated the rust that we found in a couple places with Rustoleum. It was low drama - lay the panel down on a towel on the workbench, and work the edge with the screwdriver until the 2 parts are separated. We had the body shop tack weld 4 clips to the sunroof, and called it a day. Looks pretty stock, and does not leak.

#7

I skinned my sunroof and have tabs welded to the cage to support it and its still removable if need be.

#8

jblack wrote:

[quote]We did the skinning.

I don’t understand where the “this is so hard” part comes from - removing the cassette was 100 times harder than skinning the sunroof - in our experience.

We used a fine thin screwdriver blade to bend the edge of the sunroof panel down in a couple places, and treated the rust that we found in a couple places with Rustoleum. It was low drama - lay the panel down on a towel on the workbench, and work the edge with the screwdriver until the 2 parts are separated. We had the body shop tack weld 4 clips to the sunroof, and called it a day. Looks pretty stock, and does not leak.[/quote]

Dredging up an old post to add to the knowledge base - I separated the skin on my sunroof panel from the reinforcement panel underneath it this weekend. It was a pretty easy process, except there were about 10 places where the two panels were pinched or spot welded together along the edges (couldn’t tell which). I just ground out some 1/8 wide groves where they were, used a heat gun, putty knives and pry bars and had the panels apart in about 20 minutes.

#9

I just skinned my sunroof panel last night. From reading old posts, I knew there had to be two layers of material around the outer edge, but I couldn’t see the gap between them. I guess my eyes are going.

I finally got the panel under a bright light and was able to see the gap in one or two places. I used a short putty knife to fit between the skin and the support panel and worked my way around the entire outer edge bending the support panel in, away from the skin panel until the panels were separated everywhere but at the spot welds. I then used a wood chisel to cut through the spot welds. The wood chisel worked well because I could put the flat edge against the skin and the beveled edge facing in toward the support. That allowed me to cut the weld without damaging the skin.