Sunroof panel R&R, any hints??

[Rigmaster]

Guys,

I need to swap out a sunroof panel from a parts car to my wife's car (both E34 535i's- Islandgrun). Seems the PO of the wife's car had the sunroof panel repainted at some time, and now the paint is cracked + peeling off, basically looks like crap. I have removed several E30 sunroof panels before, but never an E34 panel. The biggest problem I've had with the E30 panels is the damn interior headliner panel on the sunroof panel- it's a bitch to get it off without messing it up. I usually just tear the hell out of it when I'm pulling the panel from a parts car- but I can't do that to this one!

I have the Bentley, and I've read the procedure as outlined in there, but there always seems to be some detail that's left out that would make the job a whole lot easier. Any hints are welcome- I need to do this job this weekend for the wife's B-day!!!

Thanks!!

Bret.

[winfred]

if i remember right the liner panel just slides back, it's a friction fit on the front, i can't remember how the rear is atached, i think it's springs that hold it up and you pop up the back of the roof and reach in from outside to release the springs then slide back

[Rigmaster]

Update, here's how to do it...I started out with the parts car- it turned out to be really easy. The sunroof panel has 2 pins on it on the underside of the front edge and the interior headliner panel has 2 clips that snap around these pins. I slid the panel back a couple of inches and then was able to unclip the clips and slide the interior panel back into the roof. Once the interior panel was out of the way, I turned the sunroof motor in the opposite direction, so that the rear of the panel was popped up- then it was a simple matter of taking 3 torx head screws out of each side of the sunroof (from inside the car) and lifting the panel out of the car.

All in all, I'd say it's about 100% easier than an E30 interior panel to remove...

Bret.