sunroof

These 2 little items can mean life or death to an Integrale sunroof. These sliders allow the sunroof panel to slide or open as a vent.

Alan has rebuilt and repainted his red Lancia Delta, his car is fitted with a sunroof and he wanted to fit it back.

This proved tricky, and caused Alan some trouble!

To remove an Integrale sunroof you must remove the interior headlining and undo the sunroof sliding cassette,

then lower the whole unit into the car and take it out of the tailgate. You must undo the wiring and unstick the sunroof cassette

from the front end double sided fixing tape, then the fun starts.

Alan gave me a call and asked my advice, I wasn't much use, trying to describe an action which I have trouble understanding myself wasn't much help to Alan. One of the little slide/vent end stops had broken and to replace it was proving difficult. The things themselves are made of a cast Dinky Toy like material which isn't very strong, they break quite easily. Their action when working is impossible to see because they are upside down tucked in the sunroof panel, I'll hand over to Alan to continue his description.

When I first asked how to attach the sunroof panel, nobody could tell me how.

I did break a few bits on the way, I changed the regulators and the end clamps that locate the recorder at the forward end of the sunroof panel. To connect them to the wires I undid the clamp on the wire at the end of the cassette to push the wire to the front of the rails.

This was a big mistake, I could never get the wires in line again, I undid the wire clamp a few times until I eventually snapped one of the studs. I realised I needed a complete replacement cassette, I got one without the rails from Keith at Auto Integrale, if you do need to replace anything on the rails the best way is to take out the pop rivets holding the rails to the rear of the cassette, and then re pop rivet it back in place. The control wires are factory set, so do not disturb them.

I then broke an end stop.

Looking like a wounded animal or a prehistoric museum exhibit, Alan's broken sunroof tilt and slide unit.

The slider end stop, this isn't a durable item and can break quite easily. With unhappy results!

After breaking the end stop (82458449) I contacted Reproclassics,

and I had an end stop 3D printed in aluminium. Louis Hirtenjohann was very helpful,

he also drilled and tapped a hole in the part.

Louis's email is reproclassics@gmx.net.

I then also broke an arm (82458474), Jim from Chester provided a used replacement.

Jim and Pala (lancia racing) both sent me videos of cassettes moving, although we couldnt see exactly what was happenning.

Once the guide (82458451) and end stop is attached to the roof panel, open the end stop

place the recorder on the panel into the end clamp, lower panel down over the bush sitting on the arm, wind the roof back a touch so the bush is in the guide, then release the end stop and tighten.

Now operate the sunroof manually, wind the roof back carefully using the hand operated point. You can then check if the sunroof panel will catch on the car roof hole edge, the motor goes too fast to stop in time if you see it catching, the cassette can be given a little adjustment to make sure it doesn't catch.

The only way to fit it to the car is via the rear hatch which is a very tight fit.

This is the end stop from Reproclassics, it's made of aluminium, and is probably stronger

than the original part. Below is a description of the alloy from Reproclassics's site.

Aluminum (AlSi10Mg) is a strong, low weight material with good thermal properties. It’s printed by sintering aluminum powder together with a laser to produce metal parts that are equally as good as machined models. 3D-printed aluminum doesn’t look like traditional shiny milled aluminum. Instead, it has a matte gray finish with a slightly rougher and less defined surface. The subtle sparkle you’ll notice is caused by the presence of silicon in the alloy.

The top picture on this page shows the dust cover plate fitted which runs along the outside edge of the panel,

Alan removed this so that he could see the bush, pictured above, drop into the guide.

I thank Alan for sharing his sunroof troubles and solution, and I'm glad it works well now. Shown below is a tranquil video

allowing us all to see Alans sunroof working, and working well!

Here is a last message from Alan, making sure we understand what he has done, so we are prepared when we have to do the same job. Which is only a matter of time!

Thanks again Alan for your kind contributions.