Spring project and then ....

My Spring project has been brewing for some time.
My car has BMW OEM PDC and it's as ugly as sin.



I'm going to get my friendly body shop to fill in the holes and then, while the rear is off I'll fit new modern small sensors. I'll need to remove the control module and put a new on in, but the sounder and various feeds can all be used.

My longer term project may be a bit adventurous, but having finally made my own rear spoiler I'm now on a roll. I like the light coloured headlining in my car, but want to go further and fancy a glass roof for the ultimate in "light'n'airy". There are various options and it'll boil down to price, availability, price, complexity and did I mention price?
I should be able to do most of the work myself (other than painting).
I envisage the whole top roof panel being sprayed charcoal to match.
What'd'ya recon?

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You may think I'm speaking out of turn a little but perhaps you could just do away with parking sensors completely - dunno about you but I'm not often reversing into very tight spots.

I take your point - will think about it. I suspect I may not be able to bring myself totally into the "less is more" camp - we'll see.

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ps: any chance of a pic or two of your headlining? Only seen black I think.

I had a quick look and haven't any pics of the headlining as such, but these two show the A and C pillars which are the same colour.

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How do you get to have a glass sun roof? didn't know they were available

They're not - so will be a real challenge if I go ahead

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UK zero - in the first of those pics, is that a woofer you have hidden away behind that screen in the centre there?

Yes - Gerry (8Tech) and I came up with the same idea independently - though his installation is top flight, including some truly monster kit and is featured elsewhere on this site.
Wandering off topic, but mine was a minor upgrade with new front tweeters (visible in the pic above), a tuned sub enclosure tailored to fit the boot with 10" sub and extra amp to drive it.
Here's the view from the boot.

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Interesting picture that last one.
Did you modify the amp enclosure on the left side of the boot at all?

And I assume your sub is mounted in the centre, behind the carpet thats showing, yes?

Please try recall how you fabricated the cover which is visible between the rear seats.. it looks EXACTLY as i want mine to look..i';d be very grateful.

Original amp enclosure came out.
A plywood enclosure was made to hold the original amp, the sub amp, cooling fans and the sub itself (lots of bracing so as rigid as MDF but a tiny fraction of the weight).
The sub is in the middle behind the first aid kit (removed) and is in a sealed, damped section of enclosure which extends to the right. The volume was carefully measured (polystyrene beads) to be exact for the sub.
The unit is not resting on the boot floor, so the carpet is uncut and can be pulled out.
The grill (or is it grille) was found at my local tip and cost 20p. All it needed was painting and nerves of steel to cut a hole in the leather not knowing if the result would be a triumph or a disaster!

Right - Glass sunroofs.
For the financially flushed, Webasto do a whole range of options - some quite large and fancy.
One really cheap approach may be to cut out the middle of the steel roof and do an insert - but that might look rather second best.
Another approach might be to measure up to see if one of the panoramic offerings on some newer Peugeots, Fiats or the like might come somewhere close.
I haven't really got my teeth into the idea yet.

Yes - a flight of fancy at this stage I know.

I guess what'll really inspire me is someone saying it can't be done
A neighbour once told me there was no way I could design and DIY build a decent swimming pool for less than £10K......
http://www.ukzero.com/g63.jpg

The overall size of the E31 roof will be the cruncher.
A relatively easy solution (and by relatively I mean not impossible) could be something like the Peugeot 206 roof that sits on top.

I need to go into a large car park with my tape measure, camera and an excuse ready if questioned

If any of you are expecting to see a swift result I'd better warn you - my rear spoiler took three years and three attempts

How about this as a retrofit?
Sits on the top of the roof.
On an all black roof it might look OK.
Might even be able to use original headlining uncut.

Would need to use filler to match profile, but I might do a bit of photoediting to see what it might look like.....

Have now got the car booked into my local friendly body shop.
They'll remove the old large hideous OEM PDC sensors and fill the holes.
I'll go in and fit the new much smaller discreet sensors before they repaint.
I'll also fit the new sensors in a straight line!

I did look to buy s/h rear bumper of the right colour, but none were near enough or cheap enough or in good enough condition to make this worthwhile.

I couldn't bring myself to reduce my delivery options list, so this mod just "modifies" it

Once this is done I'll be able to look at what I might do to the rear diffuser......

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Now this some thing I'm really waiting to see

There could be one quick solution - just mod the existing one like this

(Had to use "Paint" as at work, but kinda works..)