37FC3S

I am probably going to permanently remove the sunroof in my 89 GTU and covert it to a non sunroof car. I need more headroom for my helmet on trackdays and don’t want to remove the sliders to get the extra clearance. I am planning to flatten the edges on the sunroof panel and the roof, cut the panel to fit, weld the panel back in, and install a headliner from a non-sunroof car. What other interior pieces need to be changed if any? Has anyone done this or have any ideal of what else I might need to do to get it to work.

jgrewe

iTrader: (1)

I did this to a GXL when I wanted the same thing. If you look under the roof from inside you can see the extra support metal around the perimeter(top of windshield, doors, and hatch openings) I cut the roof out so that the seam would be behind(on top) of all these areas. That leaves about an 2 inches at the top of the windshield and doors and about 3-4 by the hatch. The roof from the junkyard was cut to fit about an inch from the edge all the way around, that makes for easier bodywork later. Spot weld it slowly because the metal will grow and warp. As for interior, I don't know, I don't have any its a race car.

37FC3S

I was actually just going to use the sunroof hatch panel to fill the hole. Replacing the whole roof could be plan "B" if plan "A" doesnot work. I guess plan "C" would just to make it a convertable(JK).

jgrewe

iTrader: (1)

Body work will be a lot easier doing the whole thing. You could probably not even cut the old roof out, just lay the new one over it. Then you wouldn't have a big gap to fill. It's pretty funny, when I bought the car I did it to it was night time. It didn't run but it had brand new rims, tires and paint and the body looked straight. When I got it back to my shop I noticed a small crack in the roof! I ripped out the pimp-o-licious interior(black velour) and found a rusted out sunroof bonded into the roof with about, no kidding here, a gallon and a half of bondo! It was 2" thick in some places where there were big rust holes in the sunroof. The cardboard they used to support the bondo was still in there. Luckily that was the extent of the bondo loading.

37FC3S

I think if I flatten the ridge on the panel and the roof it should be enough to fill the gap. I can make a butt weld rather then overlap the pieces. I want to use the sunroof panel because it has the same shape as the roof. I plan to use as little bondo as posssible. I just need to adjust the new racing seat to verify I need more headroom to make the decession. The car needs to be painted any ways so, I should modify before it get painted.

staticguitar313

iTrader: (2)

Some days i really hate my roof and i've seriously contemplated welding it stock, its alot of work though, and down time is something i cant afford. I think itd be hard just to located a black roof from a coupe, seeing as how many sunroof 7's there are, you might be able to get away with welding the sunroof in though, if you do decide to go with that plan, take many pics. Good luck.