drivinexcitement

Does anyone have a sunroof in thier fbody, or know of anyone with one? I'd llike to know the pros and cons. If you have pics i'd love to see them, thx

WhiteboysZ28

Heres on I found with a sunroof doesnt look to bad , it looks like he got the big one!!I just know these are unibody & taking out that main support in the roof , I DONT KNOW??

http://memimage.cardomain.net/member...375_8_full.jpg


JOSH

Kataklysm

Hideous. Cut t-tops in.

LOW TRAC

Cutting that main support in the roof is death, the whole car will flex like crazy. Bad seals on windows, sunroof, ect.

That too.

drivinexcitement

where is a place that will do that? im in Fort Smith, Ar so i need to find somewhere in Dallas, OKC, or Tulsa

MustangEater82

Reasearch and do it yourself... its ALOT easier then you woudl think...

http://www.cardomain.com/memberpage/514505/4

Pics from my install and links to sites of other people that did it.


As for a sunroof... VERY bad idea. Would be hard to get the headliner to match up on the inside too.

97FormulaWS-6

Not completely true... there is a car on here with a Targa Top (Whistler I believe); where there is NO roof, like a Corvette with the removeable hardtop.

My bet is the subframes stiffened it enough to compensate, but personally I wouldn't do it without a 6pt bar if not a cage min. I know he measured it shortly after he did it, and got pretty much ZERO movement, but I don't know how it would hold up after time.

MustangEater82

Try to a point... I really don't think its worth the trouble of dealing with it for a sunroof, besides they don't look right imo... and I like sunroofs on cars.

6LITEREATER

T-tops are easy, sun-roof's are stupid (on 93+ f-bodies).

It's true, Chris (whistler) targa topped his car. With subframes everything is fine and would be the same on a sunroof'd car.

ALTHOUGH, you have to consider this, WHAT THE HE!! IS THAT THING MOUNTED TO????

Normal sunroof's are surrounded by solid metal. ALL 93+ f-bodies have a t-top style roof. The hardtops just have fiberglass covering them (which is why t-top conversions aren't hard).

That sunroof is either mounted to the fiberglass (which will crack if you ever push to hard opening the roof) or just the metal.

Picture a t-top car with the tops out and a sunroof mounted in the middle of the t-bar and that is what you have but surrounded by fiberglass waiting to crack, look like $hit, and leak water.

drivinexcitement

does the guy with the targa have a cage? bc it seems like it would collapse on itself w/ out one... i priced pop out sunroofs for a trans am and they are > $400 i just dont know how safe it would be to put one in /shrug

edit: are there any pics on the boards of the targa?

red blur

A guy I work with has a sunroof in his 96 RS, and I walways questioned it too. I do t-top conversions, but the whole sunroof thing kind of scared me. But the more I think about it, the more it makes sense. T-tops, when off, only have one support bar, in the middle. Put them on, then you have 3 support bars: one middle, two outside. On a hard top car, you have the two outside ones, and one in the middle. You can take the backbone out, leaving the two sides, and you still have a good amount of strength. Knowing what is between the headliner and the fiberglass roof, you can cut the size you need, mount to the metal bar that you cut out, and evreything will work.

I have NOT seen my friends sunroof open (just started working there), but I will try to get pictures of the whole setup. Hiw is power operated, and the inside has a VERY well done headliner. Someone very professional made this. It seals up nice, and he claims no leaks.

Cutting that main support in the roof is death, the whole car will flex like crazy. Bad seals on windows, sunroof, ect.

That sunroof is either mounted to the fiberglass (which will crack if you ever push to hard opening the roof) or just the metal

Both would be true, except that you forget you are not only adding back to the metal, but you are also mounting to it. It is not just disappearing. No way would a sunroof work on our cars if being held only to the fiberglass. I still have my roof I cut off, but it wouldn't hold too much weight.

All in all, I say do t-tops. Would I put a sunroof in your car? NO. In my car? Hell no! But if you like the convenience of a power top & being able to sit in your seat while it opens, go for it. As for me, I'll stick to t-tops.

HardDriver

I put a sun-roof in my 89 Formula about 12 years ago - have never had a leak. I always pull the whole glass out and pop in a wind deflector. I would of rather had T-Tops, but at the time this was my only option. I had Auto Ameristar do it and this was the largest size they could fit without compromising the roof strength. I think it was under $280. see my sig for pics.

DJ_951

Had a power sunroof in my '94Z M6. Drove fast but not 1/4 miled or autocrossed. The thing worked great looked good, worked better than t-tops in some ways. Have T-tops now and installed frame connectors because of flex. Didn't seem to be a problem in the '94Z go figure. Sold the car to a friend at around 100k and he drove till 140+K no problems with the sunroof.

Recommindations: Get a good one. Don't go to big. Not for racing then again if you are that hard core would you have t-tops?

MustangEater82

For structural strentgh I woudl not compare the side support bars to the middle one.

the middle one was made to be the backbone of the car, the 2 side ones are just welded on metal to hold weater strip channel, and roof in place, not to be a structural support.

YOu can make the car to handle a sunroof right, but its alot of work and money compared to a t-top conversion in my opinion. And I'd take t-tops anyday over sunroof.

As for taking the panels off, I do it all the time from the driver seat. I take my t-tops off and put them in my back seat

6LITEREATER

I took my passenger side one off without touching it while doing 60mph down the highway (it flew off) ! Luckily, Eric had an extra one for me !