Moonroof

Topic: Moonroof (Read 3400 times) previous topic - next topic

Reply #15 – January 03, 2006, 02:07:49 PM

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I love moonroofs. There's just something about being able to look up and see the sky.

Agreed...a very few select people have the "really big power moonroof" option.

The drainage tubes can be manually run, no biggie. Just use windshield washer fluid tubing from the parts store. The tubes were used in both sunroof and moonroof cars. They run from the perimeter ring around the sun/moon glass, then on the roof panel above the B-pillar, then run straight down to a factory body grommet directly below the rear quarter glass.

Moonroof

Reply #16 – January 03, 2006, 02:48:52 PM

what the 'ell is the diff between a moonroof and a sunroof? either way, t-tops own them both :)

Moonroof

Reply #17 – January 03, 2006, 03:01:18 PM

T-tops...okay.

A sunroof is a non-electrically opening piece of glass. All of them flip open at the back; most are removable (factory and aftermarket).

A moonroof is opened by a motor. On most higher-end vehicles, the glass slides back into the roof (between the metal and the headliner). This requires a lower headliner and also takes away from headroom. A few imports have glass that slides over the roof, which is cheaper to produce but also intrudes less upon interior headroom. Occasionally, and this is going back 15 years or so, a moonroof could be made of not glass but metal, and painted body color, but that was mostly imports (BMW comes to mind).

So...flip up only, sunroof. Motor, moonroof.

Moonroof

Reply #18 – January 03, 2006, 03:10:08 PM

Okay that is not the story I have heard in the past. I found some information about what I thought the difference was:

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Back in the days of Yore, when the air was clean and shag was dirty there were two types of cars, open cars and closed cars.

People who bought open cars were sporty types that liked wind in the hair, bugs in the teeth and all that. People that drove closed cars knew that into each life a little rain must fall and having an open top in a rainstorm is not fun. People that drove open cars thought that people that drove closed cars were in a word, boring.

The people who drove closed cars didn't like being boring so they went to the car makers and said, "Give us something to make our closed cars not so boring." The car makers came up with a sliding metal panel which they called a sunroof. They said to the closed car crowd "Look you can crank this handle and lo you will have an open car [sort of] you will no longer be boring, you will be the envy of the closed car crowd"

Soon sunroofs were selling like hot cakes, and everybody had one. Now the avant-garde of the closed car crowd went back to the car makers and said "Even the most boring closed car guy has a sunroof now we need something better."

So the car makers went back and replaced the solid metal panel that sides back into the roof with a tinted tempered glass panel that opens and closed like it's metal cousin, but also has a sun shade that pulls closed when you don't want the light to come in and a tilting function that will kick up the back edge of the moveable panel about 1" above the roof for those in-between times when you want a little ventilation, but not a lot. [very handy when parking the car on a hot day will allow hot air to escape.]

And the car makers said the the closed car crowd "Look here is the best thing since sliced bread. We call it a moonroof."

"Why a moonroof the masses asked?"

"Because you can slide the shade open and see the moon." came the reply. "Also we can't call it a sunroof, because that is the name of that boring metal panel, this is an exciting GLASS panel."

And there was joy among the closed car crowd.

The open car crowd just laughed under their breath because they knew that there was no substitute for an open car.

So sunroofs are the metal panels and moonroofs are the glass ones. :raspberry

Moonroof

Reply #19 – January 03, 2006, 03:37:36 PM

lol, thanks. :D

Moonroof

Reply #20 – January 03, 2006, 04:33:51 PM

OK Jim.

Sunroofs may have started out as metal but in the modern era they are almost exclusively glass. Glass is cheaper to produce, plus it won't need painted like a metal panel.

Moonroof

Reply #21 – January 03, 2006, 05:18:02 PM

Example: 1999 Mercury Cougar sunroof.

Outside:

Inside:

Moonroof

Reply #22 – January 03, 2006, 05:43:45 PM

...and here is the correct factory version:

Moonroof

Reply #23 – January 03, 2006, 06:23:04 PM

Now on the 07' Ford "edge" and the 08' lincoln MNX, the "sunroof" or "moonroof" is now called the panoramic roof as it has two opening's. The one in the front is large, and the glass and shade operate like a standard moonroof, the one in the rear is smaller, and only the shade moves back and forth, the glass is stationary.

Moonroof

Reply #24 – January 03, 2006, 07:55:12 PM

OK, I dug out all of my Cougar brochures from 1983-2002. This is exactly how Ford described the hole in the roof, by model year:

1983: FLIP-UP OPEN AIR ROOF. Easy-to-use feature filters in moonlight or sunlight year-round. Pop open for freah air whenever you want it. Or remove the glass completely for open air driving.
1984: Roof, flip up open air
1985: None listed in my brochure, printed 7/84
1986: Power moonroof (not believed to have made production)
1987: None listed in my brochure, printed 8/86 (most likely due to a slightly late production timeframe of 11/86)
1988: Power moonroof
1989-97: Power slide/tilt moonroof with sunshade
1999: Power tilt/slide moonroof (inconclusive from photo)
2000-01: Power tilt/slide moonroof (solid metal panel pictured)
2002: SUNROOF - Power tilt/slide sunroof (solid metal roof panel pictured)

Obviously Ford had some sort of identity crisis going on with the descriptions and products. :) Again, it is typical for smaller or imported cars to have a solid metal roof but that is technically not a sunroof if it is power operated...it then becomes a moonroof, whether it has glass or metal. It is also possible that the New Edge Cougars had both glass and metal available at some point, or perhaps the glass roof was aftermarket only. The NECO site was down a little bit ago so I couldn't check.

Moonroof

Reply #25 – January 03, 2006, 09:28:28 PM

Just to continue I pulled out a few of my old ones

1980-81-82 Flip-Up Open Air Roof. Flip it up part way for ventilation. Remove it completely fot the open air feeling of a convertible
1979 Power Moonroof treats you to the "open air" feeling
1978 power Moonroof. Your window to the sky

And just to make it confusing

1975 Power-Operated Glass Moonroof AND Power-Operated Sunroof available

Also just realised I dont hava a 1985 brochure:mad: gonna have to go find one now...

Moonroof

Reply #26 – January 03, 2006, 10:02:50 PM

huh...lol. i always thought of a moonroof as a power retracting unit reguardless of what it was made of and a sunroof as a manually tilting peice of glass weather or not it was removeable....

Moonroof

Reply #27 – January 03, 2006, 11:54:26 PM

Quote from: cougarcragar

I love moonroofs. There's just something about being able to look up and see the sky.

What about the drainage channels in the a-pillars? Do they exist only with moonroof-equipped cars from the factory?

my 87 has large drainage tray on the lower side of the roof. and 3/8-1/2 id drin tubes that run into the rear quarter panels.

Moonroof

Reply #28 – January 04, 2006, 02:05:10 PM

I'd like to add to this discussion, as I've studied sun/moonroofs for several years now.

Sunroof: A sunroof which can be electric or manual, glass or painted steel. It can flip up to vent, be removed, or opened by sliding back over the roof (spoiler or topslider).
Think of the newer Cougars, Cavalier/Sunfire, Probe (topslider).

Moonroof: A sunroof which can be electric or manual, glass or painted steel. It can flip up to vent, but retracts under the roof when opened. It's also known as an inbuilt sunroof.

Trust me, I've done a LOT of research on this.

Moonroof

Reply #29 – January 04, 2006, 02:42:53 PM

...Except that Saturn used to market their topslider as a moonroof

I can't believe so much energy has been spent on deciding the difference between a moonroof and a sunroof