did blazers ever come w/ sunroofs?

[colbystephens]

my grandpa's 83 c20 has a moon/sun roof and when he gives it to me in the next year or so, i'd like to have someone put it in my rig (i'm not too good w/ body stuff). don't know if it would be best to just harvest most of the top of the cab and put it on mine... just thinking out loud.

 

[73k5blazer]

I don't believe it was ever a factory option. I know it was a dealer option for a while in the late 80's.
I put one in my '75 C10 I used to have. The deal with sunroofs is, noise and leakage. Leakage is harder to prevent than you think. The metal up there is very flexible and it's the cheap rubber gaskets on most aftermarket sunroofs don't seal very well. My '75 one I bought new and installed it, it lasted about 4 months before it started leaking, I ended up using siding caulk on it, didn't look pretty, but it didn't leak. Being a truck, you can't see the roof anyhow...
Factory sunroof options go thru alot of hurdles to prevent leaks and wind noise. I know, I was a body engineer (weld guns and weld spot engineering) for cadillac for a while right out of college. The caddies have a entire different reinforced roof panels, rain gutter inside the inner/outer roof panels, with drain tube running thru the body down the sail panel to the ground in addition to many other enhancments. So, next time you wonder why the factory wants $1100 for the sunroof option, you know why.

 

[colbystephens]

well, i was thinking that whoever installed it would cut the roof off of the truck and weld it in place of my roof - that way there's not much of an issue w/ leakage.

 

[ryoken]

well, i was thinking that whoever installed it would cut the roof off of the truck and weld it in place of my roof - that way there's not much of an issue w/ leakage.

I seriously hope your kidding...

 

[NYDIESELDAVE]

My first Jimmy had A/M one in it. The thing leaked so bad that it rotted the front part of the roof from the inside. I would advise against putting one in. Just my two cents ...

 

[beater_k20]

he's probably not.

 

[randy88k5]

I have a sunroof in my Blazer. When I bought it, it already had one in it. It leaked really bad, so I caulked it shut. That worked for about a year. I got fed up with it, so I bought another aftermarket sunroof (a lot nicer one too), cut the hole a little bigger, and installed it. Came out pretty nice and absolutely no leaks. Plenty of repair parts in the aftermarket too should I need them.

 

[colbystephens]

I seriously hope your kidding...

no, i wasn't. i've seen plenty of pics of people grafting pieces of blazer onto the back of suburbans to make them available to go topless, so i don't see what's so different from grafting a roof from one truck into mine - but then again, i know nothing about body work. i'm kind of starting to be swayed against it tho. maybe i'll be inclined to do the full convertable swap instead someday.

 

[ryoken]

no, i wasn't. i've seen plenty of pics of people grafting pieces of blazer onto the back of suburbans to make them available to go topless, so i don't see what's so different from grafting a roof from one truck into mine - but then again, i know nothing about body work. i'm kind of starting to be swayed against it tho. maybe i'll be inclined to do the full convertable swap instead someday.

I could install 10 sunroofs in the time it would take to swap a roof... At least.. Lot more work in a roof swap than your thinking...

Not to mention, that "unleaking sunroof" will end up leaking once installed from the process itself, of removing and reinstalling the roof...

A quality sunroof can be successfully done without leaking.... Windshield urethane is the product to be used.. But even the best install can't be gauranteed to not leak after some years...

All that being said, I'd never put one in my truck.. Too 80's too....

 

[73k5blazer]

A whole roof swap would be pretty involved, just for a sunroof. I'd de-install it and re-install in your truck, much easier. There's a alot more than the outer sheet metal you see. THe rear has a heavy metal piece in it, GM calls it the 'roll bar', it helps in rollovers. The front a-pillars have a couple of reinforcing pieces of steel in there, it's hard to weld all that back together, without compromising the saftey of an on-road vehicle.

 

[uberbeans]

I could install 10 sunroofs in the time it would take to swap a roof... At least.. Lot more work in a roof swap than your thinking...

Not to mention, that "unleaking sunroof" will end up leaking once installed from the process itself, of removing and reinstalling the roof...

A quality sunroof can be successfully done without leaking.... Windshield urethane is the product to be used.. But even the best install can't be gauranteed to not leak after some years...

All that being said, I'd never put one in my truck.. Too 80's too....

I don't know. I think if you had a modern color with lots of our types of modifications (body armor, tube bumpers, etc) it might look cool. Imagine a can back with a QUALITY sunroof in the front. I wonder about flex though. Might pop it out. I think it might be cool, especially if it was large. Roll up the can-back, down w/the windows, pop out the roof and go open air.

 

[muddybuddy]

ive got a sunroof in mine, and havent had any problems

 

[OrangeCrushK10]

I know it's super 70's-80's but I've always liked T-tops and wanted to buy a half top blazer and fab some T-tops into it.

I think it'd be awesome and a bit safer than full convertable if you reinforced the remaining parts of the roof.

 

[diesel4me]

naaa..I wouldn't!..

I had a sunroof in my 72 K5---it leaked like a seive,and always dumped a nice puddle right in your crotch each time you took a hard left on rainy days,making it look like you pissed your pants! ..I soon tired of it,and the sun glaring down on my bald head was uncomfortable and very distracting..

It also made the full convertible roof a whole lot weaker!..you could watch the roof wave up and down as you drove along..I caulked it shut and used roof patch aluminum tape to seal it shut permanently after I tired of getting wet every day it rained...a friend removed the exact same sunroof from his C10 pickup,and bought a higher quality one--he gave it to me in case I decided to swap it in my truck(his had better seals,mine were all dry rotted)--but its still sitting in the box,and I've had it since 1986!...

I've been tempted to put it in a few of my other vehicles,like my van or 82 K20,but I dont think I will..I liked the solid steel retactable "moon roof" in my 86 VW Jetta better--it blocked the sun when closed,and didn't leak a drop,at least not on my crotch,or inside the car!...