So I have a feeling this has been posted a bunch, but I picked up this car with the intentions of having it as a daily driver with a bit of pep, it came with a sunroof that the previous owner said was aftermarket... it doesn't appear that way to me I want to replace the motor for it as all the hookups are still there but I'm not sure what type of motor to use for it. Can anyone help at all? I looked through about two pages on sunroofs and came up with mostly people wanting to replace the glass, or put in a carbon fiber roof(huh?) but nothing about a source to get a sunroof motor. I don't want to just cover over the sunroof I'd like it to work, I'm about in line for my budget on the car ($800) and parts ($75 so far) but I was wondering if there's a good online source for this part. I checked google and came up with useless things....

Info: 1997 Mitsubishi Eclipse RS
2.0L engine
mild upgrades
custom sunroof of some sort.

here are a few pictures of the sunroof area:





I know I should of looked through the 30+pages of threads but if someone feels like answering that would be nice :)

oh and the headliner was like that when I got the car, I'm thinking of doing something with it just not sure what yet.

Sorry to break it to you but that does seem aftermarket. I can see in one of the int pics where they cut some sheetmetal, and the glass seems to be too big, it gets too close to the ridges on the roof.

should I just scrap it and weld over the top and just forget replacing a motor of any sort then? I am out of contact with the previous owner at this point now.

Well, I'm no auto body expert but here is my logical thinking:

-The "integrity" of the roof has already been compromised, so depending on some factors (read next point) it might be less expensive to just repair what you have now.
-If you were to want to remove the sun roof and return the car to its "factory" look and structure, to do this right I'de go to a junk yard and see exactly how much they hacked off, where and what. Then you could get the needed parts off of a donor car. If you were to just weld a rectangle of aluminum to the top of your roof it be the same thing as leaving the non-working glass... except you cant see through it.

Ill try to get Mike in here, to give you professional advice, what with his new baby and all, he might have his hands full.

Originally posted by edxmon
Ill try to get Mike in here, to give you professional advice, what with his new baby and all, he might have his hands full.

Lol. And what exactly does he know about welding roofs back on cars? or patching "aluminum" to a steel unibody? bondo maybe, steel no.

edxmon: thank, I'll prob. end up getting it welded over. It seems I did a stupid buy from the responses I got, i'm mostly getting fed up at this point and may just take the car to a junk yard after all...

dsmmyth: actually its a sun shade that normally goes on the side of a window, but since the Previous owner (read back in what I typed about him removing the headliner) has done all the interior things I'll be poking at it to get it back to normal. And also I won't be buying a CF roof, I'll prob. end up going to a friend's upolstery shop and having them redo the interior.

Originally posted by corivus
So I have a feeling this has been posted a bunch, but I picked up this car with the intentions of having it as a daily driver with a bit of pep, it came with a sunroof that the previous owner said was aftermarket... it doesn't appear that way to me I want to replace the motor for it as all the hookups are still there but I'm not sure what type of motor to use for it. Can anyone help at all? I looked through about two pages on sunroofs and came up with mostly people wanting to replace the glass, or put in a carbon fiber roof(huh?) but nothing about a source to get a sunroof motor. I don't want to just cover over the sunroof I'd like it to work, I'm about in line for my budget on the car ($800) and parts ($75 so far) but I was wondering if there's a good online source for this part. I checked google and came up with useless things.... Info: 1997 Mitsubishi Eclipse RS 2.0L engine mild upgrades custom sunroof of some sort. here are a few pictures of the sunroof area: I know I should of looked through the 30+pages of threads but if someone feels like answering that would be nice :) oh and the headliner was like that when I got the car, I'm thinking of doing something with it just not sure what yet.

Wow, that is some ghettoness. What is that thing? A bug screen under your sunroof?

If you took the headliner out, cool, I can direct you on how to recover and replace it. If not, you have no headliner and you MUST buy a new one and recover it, or buy a premade fiberglass or CF one.

There is a motor that's supposed to be there, and you're missing it. You can try buying a new sunroof motor from Mitsu and somehow rigging it to fit, but I'd search for any clue on whoever made your sunroof. Look on the glass and see if there's an etching or marking anywhere that can indicate so.

well if its the factory size pull the whole thing and get a new one try mitsubishigraveyard.com a few hundread for the parts.

Im pretty sure its not the OEM sunroof, you can see the cuts. And I just asumed since Mike works at a body shop, where you would usually take your car to have parts of the BODY replaced and welded, that he would know better than me atleast, but I dont know :shrug

Yeah its definitely aftermarket, I got a hold of the PO through email and he couldn't remember the original manufacturer. So I'm thinking of either leaving it like it is or sealing over it.