Sunroof, no sunroof, vinyl top, or not...

[patrick]

It had to been one of the most interesting Thanksgivings ever. While a friend of a friend was checking out my '73 Road Runner, we discovered it possibly had a sunroof. Unfortunately, the broadcast sheet with the car is from a black on black Road Runner with a VIN # that is one digit off from mine, and the fender tag doesn't seem to indicate it... HOWEVER, I always wondered why my roof color was slightly off-color from the rest of the car and had cracks in it and somewhat of a flatness to it. I always just assumed someone had sat on the roof during a drive-in movie back in the '70s. Turns out, the roof area from the stripe forward is all bondo using the magnet method and gets very flat where a sunroof would be. Furthermore, running my hand underneath the obviously replaced headliner (it's in great condition) revealed what felt like a full sunroof lurking under there, sans glass perhaps? I am going to pull the headliner tomorrow. Unfortunately, the code for a sunroof is NOT on the fender tag, and with the wrong broadcast sheet, I'll just have to inspect it to see if it looks factory and if so, I want to return it to a sunroof car. It was probably leaking or broken so I'm guessing the previous owner simply bondo'd over it to give it a hardtop. Silly, silly.

Also, did all sunroof cars have vinyl tops? Mine currently does not have a vinyl top. On the fender tag, it has two JF1-code stampings which apparently decode as: "Pale Green Exterior Color" and "Pale Green Top Color". Does this mean it had a pale green vinyl top originally, or does that just mean it didn't have a vinyl top?

The full fender tag is as follows:

V9W 28 END
M26 N41 N42 R11 V8W
G11 G37 H51 J52 L31 M21
JF1 U .. A88 B41 C21 C56
JF1 D6XW EW1 B06 127848
E68 D21 RM21 P3G xxxxxx (VIN purposely omitted)

Also, the E68 is probably supposed to be E86 since it did have a 400 4-bbl originally.

[Lrdrunner]

See what this does for you
http://www.mymopar.com/index.php?pid=87

[patrick]

Already been there, but noticed the description for that area (which reads "JF1" on my tag) says "UPPER BODY COLOR OR VINYL ROOF CODES". I guess since "JF1" is a paint color (Pale Mint Green), I will presume it means the roof was simply painted JF1 like the rest of the car and it never wore a vinyl top.

[patrick]

Peeled the headliner down a little bit and examination revealed a very thin, rectangular metal panel (complete with faux wood) welded over the bottom of what could have once been a sunroof. The top part of the roof is all painted-over-Bondo. Sigh. It's never easy, is it? If I wanted to convert it back, presuming it even had a sunroof, either factory or otherwise, I would need EVERYTHING and probably some professional installation. But I want the sunroof back!

[72Satellite440]

well heres hoping you can find a donar car and maybe a new seal kit- prob why they sealed it off in the first place
72satellite440

[ILUV72RRs]

If it has, or had, a glass panel. Then it was an aftermarket installation. As the Mopar sunroof panels (American Sunroof Co.) were metal. If it was an aftermarket. Then maybe they got tired of leaks when it rained. I had a friend once who used to buy and resell Mopars. He went to this old man's house once to look at a '71 GTX that was listed for sale. It had a full vinyl roof. But he noticed when he sat down in it, and looked up. There was a factory sunroof panel. So he asked the old guy about it. He said he got tired of rain leaking in the car. So he had a full vinyl roof put on to cover the hole up. My friend bought it, and had it fixed so that the sunroof was functional, and resold the car.

[patrick]

I'm gonna hate myself in the morning: took a big drill to where the suspect area was and and it's about a 1/8" of putty in which the entire sunroof area was sculpted from to form a roof. No metal was used, except a very thin panel tack welded to the underside of the roof beneath the headliner (I'm guessing to support the bondo). Guess I need to either fix it right and find an entire sunroof assembly, or fix it right and get a section of roof to have welded in. Damn, people do weird things to cars, and I think I just made it worse.

[rr6pak]

Could the roof be re-skinned from a donor car that had a sunroof?

[ILUV72RRs]

What you have to remember is that the factory sunroof cars had drain tubes that let the water drain out the bottom. The rubber hose snakes down through the A-pillar to a hole drilled for the rubber hose to go out in the bottom. My friend is restoring a sunroof '71 Super Bee 4-speed Hemi car for a customer. He was trying to figure out why the floor board on the front right side had rusted out. As he thought at first that it might be from a leaky heatercore. In the process of restoring the car, and tearing it all apart. He discovered that the rubber hose for the right side drain they put in wasn't long enough to reach the bottom. So every time it rained, or the car got washed. Instead of the water going out the bottom of the car. It ran onto the right side floor. So much for quality work from American Sunroof. As Chrysler didn't do the work.

[patrick]

Still have not found any evidence of drain tubes, so I'm beginning to wonder what the deal is. Some say they ran along the A-pillars, some say the C-pillars; however, if they're just rubber, they could have been ditched when he reinstalled the interior. Seems pretty mickey mouse; the usual short-cuts, mismatched screws, etc. Any way to tell for sure, such as by examining the under-roof bracing, et al, if it had a factory sunroof? Also, anyone have any close-ups, interior or exterior, of the various types of sunroofs (manual, powered, etc.)?

[72Satellite440]

Hey man, welcome to the site btw

hope this helps- from the 72 body service manual-I assume their prob the same design
If you need any other info just ask- hope this helps you resolve your sunroof prob.

http://img43.imageshack.us/g/003uxw.jpg/

72Satellite440-Dan

[patrick]

Did all sunroof cars have vinyl tops?

I know my car once had an opening for a sunroof, but I don't know if it was stock. I want to return the car to stock, sunroof or not. There's a roof on E-bay right now, so that looks like a good candidate. Just don't want my roof made out of a 1/4" of bondo.

[patrick]

Would it be wrong to state, as a general rule, all electric-Sunroof cars had vinyl tops and all manual-Sunroof cars were made of body-colored metal? The body manual seems to vaguely indicate such. Also, it would explain why two of the same body color codes (JF1) are listed on the fender tag (unless they all did that?)

[72Satellite440]

[QUOTE=ramairthree]
Ok, try these...

http://i649.photobucket.com/albums/uu22 ... runner.jpg

http://i649.photobucket.com/albums/uu22 ... or/042.jpg

http://i649.photobucket.com/albums/uu22 ... or/149.jpg

http://i649.photobucket.com/albums/uu22 ... CN4359.jpg

http://i649.photobucket.com/albums/uu22 ... CN4360.jpg

http://i649.photobucket.com/albums/uu22 ... CN4362.jpg

[/QUOTE]
72Satellite440

[patrick]

Umm, doesn't work. Also read at another site that my fender tag's order # should have a letter in it, indicating special handling (it doesn't), and my door tag should may have a later date than the fender tag (it doesn't seem to).