Sunroof Cassette Removal - Nightmare - Help

#1

I bought my car already built with the cage in. Unfortunately they didn’t take out the sunroof cassette first. I am taking on the task. I have the sunroof out, and I have drilled out the 5 front spot welds and the two on the side. the problem is going to be drilling out the 10 (5 perside) spot welds by the B pillar. With the cage in the car, I think its going to be impossible to do. Does anyone have an alternate suggestion on how to cut those out? A long chisel instead of drilling? Any thoughts would be appreciated. I can already see that I am going to need to take a cutting wheel and cut the cassette in half to get it down and out once it is loose, because the top roll bar hoop will otherwise hold it up and in place. Any thoughts on getting this monster out with the bar in the car would be appreciated.

-Scott

#2

We got out the grinder and cut out the whole thing. tah-dah!

#3

since the cage is already in theres not a big need to mess with it. the effects of lowering your cg that much will probably not be measurable.

#4

I also used an angle grinder and did it after my cage was in. A drill with a cutting wheel and a dremel with a cutting wheel would give you alternate ways to get a cutting surface to the right place.

Might want to post a pic so we can better understand why your cage is causing a bigger problem getting this done then ours did.

#5

Jim Levie cut mine out entirely with a cut off wheel. I wouldn’t mess with those spot welds.

#6

The good news is that it is just glued in the back, I have never cut any spot welds but used different diameter cutting wheels, there is even a snake flexible tool you can get with drimels or drills I believe.

Maybe you can work out a barter deal with one of your clients?

Al

#7

We used an air powered cut off wheel and had about a 5’ long shower of sparks at about 100db’s ! Needless to say, it’s loud, messy and dangerous - but worked fine.