750il sunroof woes...

[CamE32]

Hey, I have a 1988 735il parts car with a working sunroof if you would like me to pull some parts.

[vwleadfoot]

Thanks but I have three sets of these rails sitting on my bench, all with the same problem. When you try to take them apart(much less put them back together) the nuts spin inside the old plastic and break it. Used ones are not going to do me any good. I appreciate the thought though. Thanks, trying to locate a new one, Brian

[vwleadfoot]

I called them again, after a year and, as suspected, my local dealer says that there isn't even a part number, or access to information about this piece, in their system. How the hell to they expect to be able to gauge the demand for this part when they don't even have it in their system. This is supremely frustrating.

[CamE32]

Ahh, I think I understand the problem now.

Have you tried ordering from here?

https://www.parts.com/index.cfm?fuse...-11%2F89-SLIDE

quite possibly not in stock, but worth trying!

[vwleadfoot]

Tried and ordered. We'll see, but I think they've told me before that their website is wrong in saying that they have one. nIt seems to happen a lot with this part.

[vwleadfoot]

As suspected.
Thank you for your order! Unfortunately the part/parts youve requested have been discontinued and our dealership does not have any in stock. Your order has been cancelled and no charges will be made to your card, any authorizations requested will be removed and should fall off in about 3 business days depending on your financial institution. We thank you for the opportunity. Thank you, Parts.com Authorized Supplier BMW Mini of Freeport 516 740-7009

My only hope now is to get BMW, who I think could really give a shit, to make more of them. Good gracious this really hits me where it hurts. I up until this point I've been able to get most everything I needed to do the restoration, but there's always one friggin part.....

[CamE32]

I apologize if I'm missing something, but why can I not remove the rails from my parts car without breaking them? It can't be impossible.

[vwleadfoot]

There are metal nuts embedded in the molded plastic. Over time the plastic splits around the nuts. When you turn the bolts that go into those nuts to get the panel out they spin inside the plastic and worsen the problem. Then you have to grind the heads of the bolts. Trust me, I had to do two of them out of the six on my car. Not a fun job.

To make things worse, the plastic is brittle enough that when you get them out and try to reposition everything they will often break in two. Trust me when I say that if BMW will not supply these to us the days on all of our sunroofs are VERY numbered.

[shogun]

Any chance to reproduce them DIY? From alu, or maybe one of the specialists which makes 3D Printing can try?

[vwleadfoot]

Any chance to reproduce them DIY? From alu, or maybe one of the specialists which makes 3D Printing can try?

The costs would be crippling because there is not only a metal bracket embedded in the plastic, but also the metal nuts. It really needs to come from BMW.

So in a last ditch effort I JB welded the snot out of the one cracked up rail I had left and put it all together. The sunroof now works and seems to be holding. But I'd really rather have a new gate. BMW is leaving us out in the cold here. The E32 chassis is old enough for them to stop making parts for, but not old enough to qualify for the Classics genre. Very frustrating and I am very angry with BMW.

[Singing6]

I have been milking this problem on my 95 E34 and finally started to look into getting new parts but it sounds like that is not possible. I have a CNC machine in my garage and have the capability to make these parts. I would be happy to make a short run of machined delrin or aluminum replacements for these parts. I just have a few concerns: 1) If I only make the updated part (post 9/1992) will it work for those suffering with issues on the earlier parts or do I need to fabricate both? 2) Can someone send me a set of the brackets (Its fine if they are cracked) from both pre and post update? 3) How many sets would I be making? The hard part is the initial CAD and CAM work and if I'm making more than 2-3 sets that would help a lot to motivate me to do this sooner. I dont want to make any promises about prices or quantity without having drawn one of these up first but I want to make it clear that I'm doing this to keep my own E34 alive and so profit is NOT a priority. PM me if you are interested.

Singing6