Panarama sunroof removal

[Nivlek2525]

Afternoon all. A little help needed please with removing the sunroof from my manta. It's a panarama lift out glass roof I'm guessing is about as old as the car.

The glass lifts out easy and leaves an aluminium frame and seal fixed into the roof with no obvious fixings.  There is a rubber seal which sits between the glass and the frame and a felt closing strip between the seal and the headlining.  The only obvious ways of exposing some fittings is to remove the rubber seal which is glued in or to remove the felt trim which doesn't want to come out.

So...can they be removed? And does anyone know how? Thanks in advance.

K.

Edited October 12, 2019 by Nivlek2525

[Mike.]

If you peel back the headliner slightly around the sunroof frame  there should be countersunk screws holding the inner and outer parts together, this will involve removing the felt insert, possibly a small rubber seal between the outside of the roof skin and the outer frame.

Edited October 12, 2019 by Mike.

[Nivlek2525]

Mike, many thanks. It was exactly as described. The only problem was the head lining was held in place by the felt/rubber trip I described and that wasn't easy to shift. It was a rubber T shaped trip which was obviously tapped in to place when the roof was fitted. It had little barbs on so didn't want to come back out. I've managed to get it out now.... almost in one piece. Headlining will need replacing. Which isn't the end of the world. The blue colour wouldn't have matched the interior I have. It's in one piece so a decent pattern if I have to have one made.

Thanks again for your response.

 

Kelvin.

Edited October 13, 2019 by Nivlek2525

[Mike.]

The sunroof looks exactly the same set up as mine but where you have the felt strip I had rubber strips, which were in 3 sections, one good thing with these types of sunroof is no rust issues with the roof. I did keep my sunroof frame in loosely during my restoration just to keep the shape of the roof, then it was removed again and painted separately along with all the other small bits and pieces, looks great again once fitted.

Regarding your headliner, I sent my original one I removed down to East Kent Trim Supplies, asked them to make me a new one using my original as a template and then send up the new one and the old dissected one just so I could retain the original template. The new one fitted perfectly and price was if I remember correctly approx £115. I numbered the roof rods to save mixing them up, I also removed all felt pads on the inside of the roof skin and painted the underside then waxoiled it with some thick paint on stuff, spread it out well, just a thin coat because I hopefully won’t be back in there any time soon. I did leave the foam padding on the exposed inner roll bar, you need to retain that to keep the shape of the headliner. What a difference it made when fitted, worth the spend. It wasn’t too bad to fit, stretched quite easily and creases came out relatively easily using a small convector heater inside the car while fitting. Never fitted one before so was pleasantly surprised with the results although it did take something like 4 evenings.

Edited October 13, 2019 by Mike.

[Nivlek2525]

Mike, that's sounds like a really good price. I'll keep that in mind for when I get that far. 

The sun roof is in really good condition. The seal I had to force out was in 3 sections like yours. It's now in a few more....but I think with a little bit of super glue it will be ok to go back in. Just a bit old and brittle.

There is no rust in the roof due to the sunroof. There is however plenty due to the vinyl roof that trapped water under it. I had to take the sunroof out the get all the vinyl off. Luckily what looked bad around the edge of the sunroof isn't bad at all, will just need cleaning up. Unfortunately, the leading edge of the roof is a different matter.

Onwards and upwards. 

Thanks again.