1977 Rabbit - 2.0L 16V - Sunroof Conversion

This page describes the conversion of the standard sunroof in my 77 Rabbit to a Tilt and Slide unit out of an 86 Scirocco.  A couple of points should be made up front, based on my research of this conversion:

• All of the sunroof cables are the same part number for all of the sunroofs for A1's and A2's from 1975 to 1992, regardless if it is a standard sliding roof, or a tilt and slide unit.
• You need the complete assembly out of the Scirocco to do this conversion, including the Scirocco handle (90% sure, still researching).
• The sunroof metal panels are all the same size, but are not interchangeable between the standard slide unit and the tilt and slide unit (anything CAN be done, but the amount of work to use a standard metal panel would be way more work than I would want to take on).
• The following procedure is one that requires making permanent changes to your sunroof opening in the roof of the car.  Even though it is possible to reverse the modifications if you want to go back to the standard sunroof, it is not easy, and your sunroof may not seal properly afterwards.  In other words, make sure that you want to do this before you make the modifications.

What has to be done?? 

I am currently about 80% of the way through the installation so far, and it appears that the only things that needs to be done are as follows.

1. Remove the ramp that pushes the standard sliding roof up into the sunroof opening.  See the following pictures:

Before the modification:

    

After cutting the ramp off:

 

The following shows the Scirocco sunroof assembly.  Compare these photos with the ones above, and you can see the subtle differences.

2. Drill a hole through the roof assembly of the car so that the second hole in the bracket can screw into the car.  Without this, the back part of the bracket, shown in black in the following picture, can come up slightly and interfere with the operation of the sunroof (plus it isn't a clean installation if you don't use all of the mounting holes that you can use).

Coming Soon

I will be showing pictures of the assembly process of the sunroof mechanism, and also the installation of the unit into the roof of the car.  Check back around February of 2002.