Volvo 480 Club Europe

Okay, so it sounds pretty crazy

But how hard would it be?





The only difference as far as I can tell between the sunroof and non-sunroof car is the 'shelf' that it sits on and bolts to...unless something could be replicated I presume the "easiest" thing to do would be to unpick the roof skin and transplant that to the other car? (or at least have it done by a specialist) and then drop the sunroof in, connect the 4 drain tubes back up and connect the motor loom (I've still to trace it behind the dash) and fit the sunroof headlining?

Or would a Webasto offering be better?
Unless a sunroof fitter could drop the Volvo one in?



The OEM sunroof would be better though... crazy...but possible?

I think the roof panel is just glued on!

Sounds mental but I'm sure I read it on here. Jim?

jamescarruthers wrote:I think the roof panel is just glued on!

Sounds mental but I'm sure I read it on here. Jim?

GLUED?!

I hope that's true! That would make my life a lot easier!!!

Wouldn't surprise me.

You'd be surprised at the amount of stuff that's glued on modern cars.

Its not a glued panel.

I talk shite sometimes!

Damn

So I suppose it has many spot/plug/whatever welds in and all of them would have to be drilled out to remove the roof?

Is it still an easy/crazy-but-do-able job? Or is it ludicrously bonkers?

I read early today while looking some Hungarians done it to a Mondeo, and even here a guy retrofitted a panoramic sunroof into a recent Audi A3 by doing a roof transplant...surely it's do able?

Many thanks

P.s. Sorry for any poor wordings, I've just got home from work! An early day for me

I've been looking into the same matter recently. In short: a roof transplant is possible.

What you need:
1. Complete roof with moonroof, carpetry and electrics from a scrap car, preferably with a length of A-, B- and C-pillar left.
2. A new front windscreen. The old one probably won't survive the transplant.
You can cut the old roof out at the spot welds, and bring the "new" roof in. The wiring loom should be there, as they are all the same throughout the production (either with or without moonroof).

For the rest it's the usual time, money and quality tradeoff thing.

I'd cut the roof that has the sunroof out about 30mm bigger than the glass then cut a hole a wee bit smaller out of the receiver car. say 20mm all round to leave a 20mm overlap

you can get a 'joggle' edge tool that will allow you to offset the metal bay the metal thickness and then either mig weld in short sections or spot weld the new roof to the old, i'd NOT go anywhere near the pillars etc


once welded/spotted on in apply a skim of filler , but I reckon you'd always see the ripple???

Yeah, the problem with welding the roof skin itself, is that it would warp very easily from the heat.

Luckily, I still have the black ES donor car so I still have the entire shell! Albeit not for much longer, I may just have to remove the windscreen and rear windows and cut through the A, B and C pillars and retain the entire roof section, it's good to know it's not impossible, especially being a non-structural skin too.

It's also great to know that it's all pre-wired too! That saves me a lot of effort, but I presume the drain tubes will still need tracing, I can see the front ones appear to come out of the bodyshell behind the wing, but I'm unsure of where the rear ones go...

I suppose it's a case of finding the best method though, as I'd really love to have the moonroof on this car...

Yes, that's definitely the way to go, the entire roof section needs to be transplanted. Might as well try and save the windscreen of the donor car, in case the one in the receiver car breaks.

I have been myself in the original Volvo 480 Sunroof nightmare for the last year and a half.

The thing is surely screwed, not glued to the roof. Screws can only be seen when you remove the roof upholstery. I do recall aswell there are some metal parts sodered to the roof sheet.

Our Volvo 480 spanish Club administrator is going right now or has plans to transplant a complete roof sheet with it's sunroof into one of his cars. He his planning also to cut right on top of all pillars I think. I could ask him to share his experience this far.

The mechanism is a poor design. First of all you need to make sure that the "endless thread" (nº 16 on the image) that connects the motor with the lifting mechanism itself is both sides well aligned, otherwise if one side pushes harder that the other it will break one after another the damm "coupling piece" (part 15 on the image). I had to get me an entire oringinal one I found in german ebay, take this "endless thread" and most of the other lifting parts and do the transplant. Then made silicon molds of the coupling piece to get poliethilene replicas. The mechanism kept breaking piece after piece. I had then nylon 618 replicas made by some 3D printing guys. And is holding on this far.....finally !!




So my advice is to try an aftermaket one. It may be more expensive or a titanic implant on the car, but you'll get a working, even sliding roof!

the rear drainage tubes runn along the back of the roof above the windows and come out in the panel at the aerial and the same place on the the other side. I as well as others addedd a piece of tubbing to each side and ducted it into the rear wheel well drain hole.

I've taken my moonroof out of my donor car the other day to replace my faulty one.. It's not that hard to remove once the headlining is removed.. I firstly took the motor off along with the wiring.. Then the plastic piping.. The four big brackets were removed.. Then there are about 16 screws that you access through the holes in the black metal bars going across the roof.. It then just pushed up and I pulled it towards the front of the car from outside..
I hope it's as simple to fit.. I think not though...
I will try and take a picture of the inside of the roof tommorow before its scrapped..

After breaking one after another different material replicas of the damn moonroof couplig pieces I finally ordered stainless steel 3D replicas of the coupling piece to this dutch fellow through Shapeways

http://www.shapeways.com/product/479CFH ... d=58236740

90 eur for a pair p&p included.

I put them in yesterday. They're slightly thicker than the original so you have to squeeze them somehow inside the box. Te moonroof motor has some more difficulty to move the system now but It works fine and closes firmly. No whistling roof anymore on the highway.