Advice on adjusting BMW E36 convertible roof.

[Vince70]

I wonder if anyone could give me some advice I've gone and fitted a secondhand roof and frame on my car and the new roof is sitting to one side and I can't get the roof over to the centre of the car so one of the roof arms is hitting on the inner tray on one side.

 

Has anyone had similar problems when fitting a new roof on a cabriolet and is there some adjustment in the mechanism.

I've tried putting the spacers in correctly and it still won't move the roof over.

 

 

And I didn't put the roof on upside down lol

[Braddon81]

Do you know what car the roof came off? I'm saying this due to perhaps the frame has been twisted due to accident/impact damage from the doner vehicle. I'd take some measurements from your old hood mechanism just to make sure. It's not unknown sometimes.

[Vince70]

I did see a picture of the car and it looked in good nick but it might be a pre accident picture but the seller seemed a straight bloke.

 

I was going to have another go today but it's to cold to use my fingers as I will just keep dropping the spacers lol, luckily the other week I bought an expensive unused cover for £15 off Facebook so it's come in very handy but I've now put a bag of sand on the front of the boo net to hold it down so I've made it grubby lol..

 

I'm now wondering if It's because I fitted the hood arms first why the roof didn't fit.

So I'm going to undo the arms then remove all the spacers then start again.

 

The living room is starting to look like a scrap yard now though as its gathering more of the interior but the seats are comfy lol

[Vince70]

Braddon was right.

I decided to give up on the roof today as although I managed to shim the roof correctly and get it to fit one of the shafts for the front locking roof motor decided to snap so I think the roof has come off a badly bent car..

 

I will just have to put the £150 down to a bad experience I guess, I was going to fit the passenger side motor driveshaft off the old roof onto the new one but I don't want to risk it really as if that one snapped I'm going to have two broken convertible tops to contend with so once I've found someone to help me lift the old one out I will get the old one fitted and phone around for quotes for a new cover on that one..

 

Shame of it is is the cover on the bent roof is as good as new.

[Noel Tidybeard]

take hood off bent frame and put on your good frame

[Vince70]

I've just looked into that and it's not an easy job and requires drills and pop rivets and apparently lots of man hours and patience which for me is out of the question lol.

 

I might be tempted if the hood was brand new and out the packet and it was just a case of installing it on the old frame but getting an old hood off the bent frame when it's most probably shrunk slightly and lining it up will see me putting a hammer through the thing lol.

[Vince70]

The roof is all up and working now.

I put the old roof back on the other day and it was working fine apart from an almighty bang due to the tension straps being knackered so the car was going to have to take a trip to get a new cover sometime but today a roof specialist came out and had a look at it for me and said he could get the bent roof working (as it wasn't bent but needed adjusting).

 

He said to use the new roof as it was a revision 3 frame which apparently a lot stronger than the original and he really did know his stuff and he also installed a set of new tension straps also, so now it's all up and working and when I have time I will put the interior back in the car now.

 

It still has a slight gap at the back of the roof and we have to rest a hand either side to get the front motor to engage but he said that was due to the new/old roof being stored away (the guy I bought it from did say it had been in storage for a awful long time) and it will stretch and sort itself out over time once the weather warms up.

 

So my father will be having another car from me again soon.

Obviously I wouldn't want to make any money on it especially as it's my father so I think it will owe him about £1100 with all the repairs and a full service etc.

 

But for that he has an immaculate low mileage (65000) fully loaded example with Bmw full history and you just don't find decent ones at that price.

 

Obviously the history will be out the window now as I just do the servicing myself.