What would you do? (Sunroof issues)

[moroza]

Let's say your sunroof is jammed almost closed. Let's also say that you've used your sunroof maybe twice in the 2 years you've had the car, and generally find it pointless. You have a headliner with a somewhat sloppy black vinyl reupholstery job on the slightly cracked headliner, and regardless of what happens with the sunroof, you're eventually planning on getting a new headliner and a professional reupholstery on it (possibly in leather).

What would you do?

1. Get a 4.5mm hex key, try to force the roof either closed and tilted, or open. Remove the headliner intact, take out the sunroof cassette, figure out what went wrong and fix it, replacing a minimum number of parts. Risk breaking sunroof components further.

2. Remove the headliner by breaking it around the sunroof, and remove the cassette, without trying to crank it. Get a new headliner from some partscar, and get it reupholstered like you will eventually anyway. Try to fix, realign, and reinstall the sunroof.

3. Same as #2, but throw out/sell the sunroof cassette and motor, try to find a headliner from a sunroof-less E34 (or modify a regular one), get it reupholstered. Get a bodyshop to weld the sunroof hole shut, stuff sound insulation underneath, and have one less useless gadget to worry about.

4. Other (please explain).

By the way, does anyone have any info on sunroof-less E34's in North America? Any Canada-spec 1989 525i's with cloth and steelies and such, and no sunroof?

Any body-shop people have words of wisdom about welding a sunroof shut, and preferably seamless? The car's getting stripped and repainted anyway.

[Binjammin]

If it were me, and I had access to a cheap sunroof like I've got, I'd buy my sunroof. I've got one in bronzit and one in white. I'll make you an offer you can't refuse dude. Super cheap. In fact, if you need it, I might even be able to wrap the headliner that's on the car in new material and send it to you, but that would probably cost a buck on shipping.

Seriously, let me know if you need it, I won't rake you over the coals on price. Bust that bad cassette out and slap the new one in.

[robmpulse]

i WOULD CLOSE MY SUNROOF WITH THE KEY REGUARDLESS OF WHAT YOU DO.

WHY CAUSE DAMAGE TO YOUR CAR FOR NO REASON?

[moroza]

Bump.

Hoping some of the bodywork-savvy people could chime in on the feasibility of welding the roof smooth.

[Binjammin]

Duder, seriously it's no biggie to weld the roof shut. Any decent welder should be able to take care of it for you. Hell, I could do it for you if you really wanted. It wouldn't take too long to do, maybe a couple hours to weld and grind smooth. The only thing to consider is that A: it's never going to have a sunroof after that without a LOT of work :D and you'll have to either find a sunroofless headliner (never seen or heard of one on a sedan) or customize your own, which means glassing the hole shut, foaming and wrapping the thing. Not a terrible chore, but it's a chore nonetheless. The other thing is you will immediately need paint on the roof. Grinding smooth will remove paint, and the heat from the welder will remove paint. You can probably get away with just painting the roof, it shouldn't be too hard to do, but I don't know what color your car is, custom colors can be harder to match when you factor in fading. Let me know what you decide to do man.

[moroza]

The car is black, and tomorrow I'm visiting a few local bodyshops to inquire about a full repaint (more like a full exterior restoration). So I'm not worried about destroying some paint in the process.