As a new owner of a 944 S2, I am very interested in the Saratoga Sun-roof. In spite of the obvious problems raised in the 20 or so pages of recent posts... I am interested in this sunroof but don't know how to join the project.
Are there any saratoga roofs available, is there a way to purchase via Pilkington or Rennlist?
How does one join the queue?
I live in the NW part of France with permanent weather changes and have maybe more patience than average for something useful like this.
Thanks for any help

 

Could someone clarify what Pilkington mean by this? This from their site

http://www.pilkingtonclassics.com/saratoga-top/

Reading through this thread suggests that these top are replacements for the electric (i.e., powered) sunroofs. So what's with the "non-powered" bit in the above quote? Have they changed the design, or are they still selling the same roof?

 

Call Pilkington in Ohio and order one. I love mine.

 

I'll try one for 199.00 but not 499.00

 

Good luck with that
Bud ... you will never see that price ...
So you wont have to worry about how it fits.... At least from the company
The GB was 300 + shipping and that was a steal (albeit with its problems )

 

So the current design they are selling is the same as the original group buy design, i.e., it works for late model electric power roofs, and is not a manual roof, despite their website description?

And have they released the kit for the failing rubber/plastic spacers that were prone to deformation yet?

 

I don't know what design they sold other than the one I have, which was for the electric sunroof. As for the kit ... you have a better chance of finding Jimmy Hoffa ... They completely dropped the ball and ran away ... There hasn't been an email on this from them in over 6 months...
Honestly I don't know how people who do this kind of $hit, and stay in business !!!!

 

OK, thanks for the clarification, I'll phone Pilkington to to confirm what's what, and point out the potentially misleading copy on their web page, if that's the case.

That sounds like it's a case of self-help, or no help at all. I'm surprised an enterprising soul hasn't already figured out a solution and offered it up to the community in the time honored fashion, though! From what I've read, it looks like a very modest engineering problem to solve... essentially finding a suitable replacement material for the deformable spacer.

 

Your correct it probably can be done as a DIY but they had told us numerous times that they were working on a fix .... I guess its time for Plan B

 

I re-glued the seal using weatherstrip adhesive. I also modified the clamp by removing the rubber piece and replacing it with a BMW hood spring that I cut to the right dimension. Not a perfect solution but definitely an improvement

Unfortunately, my car has been in storage since November so I haven't been able to test it much, especially at highway speeds. I'll post up some pics once I've had a chance to try it.

 

You need to get in touch with an eBay seller called fejjj. This fejjj person has the new Pilkington Classics tops at $130 more than Pilkington's price ($550 shipped); however the eBay seller will ship overseas. Link to an auction below:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/191517190843?

 

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It would also be significantly cheaper to use a reshipping service like shipito.com. There are quite a few companies that specialize in export shipping of goods that US retailers won't ship internationally directly.

If you read closely, that fejjj guy is charging and additional $99 for "worldwide shipping". A bit of shopping around and you would be able to find several services that would reship for much less than the $230 or so difference between the ebay listing price and the Pilkington price.

You'll also get a new sunroof, rather than one with (at least) two previous owners!

 

Isn't there someone, that posts at this forum, with the same name - fejjj? Wonder if its the same person thats selling the Saratoga tops on eBay?

 

Greg said - I also modified the clamp by removing the rubber piece and replacing it with a BMW hood spring that I cut to the right dimension. Not a perfect solution but definitely an improvement

Can you share a bit more details on this approach? A spring makes perfect sense - it keeps the tension on the clamps. Any concern about the metals tabs deforming any further? Which model BMW donated the spring?