Recommendation: Electric Sunroof Reassembly

[John H. Spille]

I'm in Ventura, CA and am looking for a shop that can reassemble the sunroof in my '65 356. I believe I have all the parts. When I received the car the sunroof was disassembled. Anywhere in So. Cal would be great. Thanks in advance.

[Tom Keating]

You can try Victor Miles in Ventura Concours Restorations 805 570 3972 or Jim Gordon Restoration in Paramount 562 531 4643

[Ben Wainscott]

John,

Sunroof installation is pretty straight forward with good details in the manuals. Even if you don’t want to do it yourself, I would confirm you have all the piece parts, as that will help whoever you select for the install. I would inspect the aluminum cover sections, condition of the cables for wear (with attention to the ends that move the roof down and up), condition of the flex drive from the motor to the transmission, condition of the gear drive in the transmission, electrical cabling from switch to motor, switch, operation of motor etc. These parts are detailed in the manuals and a few are available from vendors. Stoddard’s in particular has the cables and gear drive.

For items not available, there are some folks who can repair some of these parts. When my drive cable from the motor broke a number of years ago, Larry Markham manufactured a new one out of a flex cable (aka truck speedometer cable). Past posts discussed who folks rebuilding/rewinding the motors.

[Bob Forman]

John, I concur with Ben. Give serious thought about trying it yourself. It can only go together one way and assembly is pretty logical. The only ticklish part is shoving the frame and the headliner into the grooves for the final step. Good luck.

[JohnPierce]

John,

The assembly looks daunting, but very manageable. The above posts are very on point to go through the parts to make sure everything is there. If you need a detailed assembly process look at my posts at ABCGT:

http://www.abcgt.com/forum/14-356-Resto ... &start=942

HTH.

[jule block]

John,

I read through your sunroof installation, very nice, and wished I had seen it a few years back when I was figuring out mine. Amazingly enough for a basket car I found all but one screw of the sunroof parts. I did have to fabricate the interior pieces and now am trying to put the headliner material on. It appears there is some black padding on the back of the interior panel in one of your pictures. Do you have other pics as to how it is covered or any other links where it is shown as I can't find any. Thanks

Jule

[JohnPierce]

Hi Jule. Email me off-line with what pictures you need and I'll try to find if I have any.

[Doug Thomson]

John,
I would love to see your sunroof installation post on the ABCGT site but I can not find it for some reason? I have the same issue as Jule, with the black padding on the back of the interior panel. What is it and what is it for? how does it fit and work? Do you have any suggestions for duplicating it. I have only seen a picture of the corner of the interior panel which wasn't too clear.

Doug