Last Updated on
01/30/2007
The Golde Sliding Roof system is somewhat of a mystery when it comes to
documentation. The factory shop manual leaves a lot to be
desired. I have been hard at work documenting this thing as well as
installing the system back into the car, to some degree by trial and
error.Hopefully you will find the information
you need here for your car. I have plans to write a complete
document on the sunroof that I will provide later when I have all the of
this stage of the car completed.
Note: these photos assume you have your headliner out of the car. The
bulk of what is here applies but the sunroof panel cover has not been
installed until the end of this article. In my learning and
installation process, I fit the sliding roof BEFORE I put the new
headliner in so it all worked. I would strongly suggest you do the same. |
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| The
sunroof parts were very anodized from years of neglect. I was able to
find a local company who does metal finishing. They were able to polish
these on a large scale buffing wheels to the polish level you see here. |
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| For
placement I installed them to ensure they were the way I wanted it
to look. |
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| They
were! |
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There are 3 types of seals in the sunroof:
1) the rear (never seen in normal use) which is like a rubber squeegee |
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| 2)
The rear which is sort of short and wimpy! |
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| 3)
And the front, which on an original car is probably dirty, loose and/or
worn out. |
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| All
of the seals are still available new from BMW. The front one has
the "P" shape which when the roof closes all the way forward, makes an
air tight seal. |
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| I
found the easiest way to get it right was to fold it in half to find the
center, then find the center of the sunroof and begin gluing at that
point. |
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| This
can is your best friend. Don't start this project with out some. It
blows that 3M weather stripping stuff away and it's clear, so no
unsightly yellow stuff to clean up. |
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| From
a placement perspective, make sure yours is just below the roofline with
the "P" pointed towards the back of the car. Done right, you should not
see any grey sticking up. |
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|
Carefully, but liberally apply the Rubber Glue against the front edge of
the cavity just below the roof line. You can use blue masking tape
to hold it in place while it dries in under 5 minutes. Do one side, then
the next. |
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| At
the rear, run the strip inside the car as shown under the roof opening.
Then when you're done with both sides, apply the rear seal by placing
the thicker edge just along leading edge of the roof. Bring the ends
down to meet the front seal as shown. |
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| Ok,
it should look like this now. Ready for the next steps... |
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| I
neglected to take a photo so I'll repeat the shot of the old roof from
before. The rear rubber seal is glued directly onto the roof. It spans
the width of the roof. The "hump" of the gasket goes toward the exposed
lip of the back of the sliding roof panel itself. |
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Hopefully you have saved your old roof gasket from the opening of the
roof because I don't believe they are available anymore. This is
fastened with the rubber glue also. It fits against the leading edge of
the roof opening. |
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|
These are the sliders for the front edge of the roof. They are still
available. The clear plastic part slides on the the track themselves. |
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| The
cables themselves fit into two round tunnels in the aluminum tracks.
Shown below is the rear of the cable slightly installed into the track.
The tab and bar piece lift the rear of the roof up to meet the top edge
of the car when it's all the way forward. |
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|
NOTE: Strong warning here... if your cables are not broken or bent
beyond repair, recondition them. The new ones are prone to breaking.
Give them a good scrubbing with a brass or plastic brush and then lube
them with moly type grease. I put a glob in a shop rag and pull each
cable through it 2-3 times and wipe off any excess. |
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| Ok,
next you put the brown track gaskets down which sit between the body and
the sun roof track cable tunnel shown below under the tracks. Then
attach both of the rear cable tunnel tracks to the body. You can
at this point slide the two sunroof cables, pointed ends first, not the
tracks as shown. |
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After you get the cables inserted in parallel to each other, put the
corner "J" pieces in and screw them down about 90% of the way. |
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Finish carefully placing each of the "puzzle pieces" down until the
track is completely covered. In this shot below, you can see how the
sunroof crank gear connects to the spirals in the cable to create a
transport system. |
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| From
inside the car, you should be able to move either cable freely forward
and back without the crank gear installed. Take the rear tabs connected
to the cables and position them as close as possible at the same
location just at the rear of the sunroof cavity as shown in this photo.
These will be attached last. |
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| From
outside the car, place the sunroof on the tracks, with the rear of the
roof entering first. Place the front of the roof to the front, where it
would normally be at fully closed. From inside the car, at the front of
the roof, there are two thumb screws. You can adjust the front of the
roof with them on either side. Ensure that the thumb screws are level as
you eyeball them. |
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| Take
the front sliders and connect them to the track as shown. Install the
two phillips head screws and their retaining clip as shown. |
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| At
the back of the roof, slide these two "red" metal clips toward the
center of the roof. Using the spacer and the two small M5 bolts, attach
the rear of the cables to the roof. |
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|
Slide the red metal clips over the tabs as shown. You should now be able
to freely slide the roof forward and back on the tracks. Be careful as
to not scratch the paint! If your cables were original, the
adjustment should be correct at the rear. If not adjust the slotted
screw as seen between the two M5 bolts until a gap of 1-2 mm below the
roofline is created, per the factory shop manual's recommendations. |
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The
sunroof crank can now be inserted and tested for proper fitting.
IMPORTANT: if it works freely, take the crank out and wind it all the
way forward in a clock wise direction. When it stops back it off 1 turn
and temporarily reinstall. Crank the roof as far forward as it will go
now. When you have it snug against the roof, remove it. Then back it of
1/2 turn and reinstall it. You should be able to travel the full forward
and rear length of the roof. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! |
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| At
this point I removed everything and put it away in prep for the
headliner installation. Things are done with the mechanicals. |
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| Now
comes the next tradgedy in the design. A piece of wood that holds the
dome light and keeps the moisture out of the headliner. Unfortunately,
they get wet and sag. It's a 1/8" piece of masonite with some clips on
it to hold the hoops for the headliner. This is supposed to be covered
with foam, but it all dries out and falls out with the headliner. |
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| The
water stains can be seen here. It also sags toward the floor board.. Not
good.. |
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| I
went to LOWE's and bought a piece of 1/8" marker board. It has a coating
on one side to keep moisture out. It works perfectly. |
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| With
my good helper Randy, we cut down the piece to the right size. It's 17
1/2" by 31" in my car, but make sure you cut yours the same size as your
old one. |
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| You
file down one edge to at an angle to make it fit into a sheet metal lip
spot welded to the roof. |
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| We
then removed all the old clips, measured where they went and drilled new
holes for pop rivets and the 5 door panel clips it uses to stay
connected to the roof. You also pop rivet the dome light bracket in
place. |
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| The
side that faces up towards the bottom of the sliding roof panel. Use a
file and smooth down the edges of all the pop rivets so you don't cut or
scratch anything. |
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| Ok,
here's your cavity before it goes in. |
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| And
when it goes in. You slide it in the front, fold the steel tabs on each
side. Then press the back in with the door panel clips. You may need a
rubber mallet to snug up all the fittings . You can see the wiring
harness connections here to the dome light. Test them before you put the
headliner in! |
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| A
shot of the rear. It fits really nice and snug now. |
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| This
is a close up view of the dome light receptacle. |
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| More
to come... |
