Rightly or wrongly, I made a removable panel sunroof way back in the mists of time (1979?).
I liked the sunroof idea because summers are hot here. I wanted something more discreet and “factory” looking. The fabric option always seemed rather too large to me.
The panel was sized so that it would slide into two ally felt lined channels which are affixed to the forward end of the front bonnet. It fits high up, out of the way, and more or less between the bonnet hinge bolts. It’s retained in the stowed position by a simple elastic strap. The elastic strap idea could be improved, but it was a quick method at the time.
In practice, it works well with minimal downsides.
I was quite surprised to find practically no increase in wind noise or buffeting of any sort.
In that sense, it’s a bit like when you wind down the side windows at speed. You can hear the outside world, of course, but there’s nothing remotely like the wind roar you’d experience in any “normal” car.
With no data on the subject, I’d expected to possibly need a deflector on the leading edge as seen on many cars, but, luckily, that wasn’t the case.
Yes, I’d also heard that a sunroof would suck in all sorts of rubbish, but that didn’t happen with mine. But you can feel the way the air moves anyway and in fact, the air seems to move in the opposite direction. I can attest to that because the one time I forgot to latch the sunroof, it blew off and landed on the side of the road behind me. Oooops . . .
Other stuff:
You can’t close a removable panel on the move if it starts to rain.
My panel was insufficiently sealed against water leaks - my fault.
Mine did intrude into the much needed headroom a titch but a slightly smaller one would be OK, I reckon. Remember that I sized mine to be stored under the bonnet and didn’t sufficiently take head room into account.
I glassed in a 10mm foam sheet to stiffen the panel. No structural issues in the roof were noted.
So, I’m of two minds. Perhaps I should just glass the sunroof back in and restore it to stock or put the effort into making it properly waterproof. Dunno.
I’ll second that, BDA.
I'd like to see a picture of Pfreen’s sunroof opened, too. It seems to be a very neat job. How much does it intrude into headroom?
