Power Sunroof Conversion

[ldsbeaker]

THANK YOU for posting this.

[NC325iC]

alright, so today i took out most of my sunroof components to get ready for the headliner job and i noticed the tubes are only held in by 4 screws, 2 up top and 2 inside the cabin.

so i just replaced the tubes and copper plate, didnt take much time to do that. of course pretty much everything else from the sunroof was out of the car, and the headliner was out.

so, if you want to change from manual to power and you have to change your headliner, its really no extra work.

[NC325iC]

thank you fleece johnson

[fleece johnson]

no pictures, but this is what i'm using right now. it's a bit involved, but nothing you can't do with some patience and a drill.

http://www.e30tech.com/forum/showthread.php?t=44036

[NC325iC]

noone else tried this?

[NC325iC]

James, were you able to get all 3 motor mouting screws in there? I just tryed to do this tonight (taking pictures) and found that with the power motor i got which was said to be from an 86 (car is 11/85) and on a test fit after engaging the gear into the cables properly only the "top" screw would fit into the threaded hole on the cable plate.

did you have this problem?

[Kingb]

From what I got from Ben's forum. For those of you that don't know. BMWe30.net that is now down. The only thing that you have to do is cut a little bit of sheet metal so that the motor wil fit up there. It bolts right up and you just have to run the wire. I am about to do this to a friends but have never done it before

[Asbradley21]

Anyone have any pictures? What two rivits do I need to drill out?

[Japandrew73]

This is great to know! I don't know why everybody gets all excited over crank roof and windows. It's not fun:( I want to do this someday. Only bitch is paying for the headliner, everything else is very cheap.

Where did you get power from? If you don't have a check panel you have to run the wires down the A pillars right?

[mattdk318i]

i agree with the above that stated it was pretty easy, I never knew it was considered hard or difficult. I would perfer to do the sunroof 10 times over instead of Rear subframe bushings.

[hoveringuy]

anyone know the weight difference between electric and manual?

Yeah,

I'd like to convert mine from electric...

[Spinning Tires]

I had to take my sunroof out and change the mouting plate and tubes. Might be cause the power setup i used was from an older car. There was a slight difference.

To get the black panel off you have to pull the weather stripping on the doors and when you open the sun roof there is a black piece of plastic there held on by screws. after you take that off there are screws that hold the panel on

[guibo09]

anyone know the weight difference between electric and manual?

[MazterDizazter]

I'm quite happy that I have to crank mine...

You have a track car. So would I if I used mine as a track car. Actually mine wouldn't have a sunroof at all. But I'm glad to hear that this is pretty straightforward.

[E30SPDFRK]

If you guys are breaking cranks like that I'd say you have a bigger problem at hand. Mine spin nice and smooth.