This morning I drove the car to the sunroof shop, handed over the keys. Unloaded my road bicycle (both seats flat, front wheel off), and rode the 17 chilly miles home. And waited. And tried to nap. And waited. 4PM I called to see how we were lookin'. "Looks good, they're cleaning it up now".
Now I'm waiting to be picked up so I can go get my car back. And enjoy the autumn chill and gray dreary sky. Boo. Supposed to be nice tomorrow. I'll get out and take pics and maybe video too and post for all to peruse.

I got the now discontinued Webasto Hollandia 524 Grandview panoramic sunroof. There's a replacement model to be introduced at SEMA tomorrow. In a conversation I'd had with a rep at Webasto, he told me I was better off with the 524 than its replacement. He said the 524 was tried and true, and just too costly and limited in application to make it worthwhile producing. He suggested I get it while I could, since they're going to continue supporting and warranting all the 524's that are out there. There might be some old stock available at sunroof shops, but Webasto has none. I hope he led me in the right direction. I've seen lots of positive feedback from those that have one installed.

I'm so excited. Watch this spot... Sunlit Fit coming your way. I might have to change my user name to Sunlit Fit!

UPDATE 2: Early morning the next day, Sunlit Fit in the autumn mist Good morning everyone. Didn't sleep very well last night, trying to remember what the thing looked like, mulling over if I'd done the right thing, cutting the first new car I ever bought myself. Got up this morning and went outside to look. Took some pics. Here they are, so you can enjoy along with me...










Now for the corners I was talking about in my update from last night. The roof has a couple of body lines in it where the roof dips down (see the arrow in the dew and the line I drew over the body line itself), and the very corners of the sunroof could not follow that downward slope so there's a bit of a gap that the shop filled with the bonding sealant. I think I'll give it a chance to cure, and then either go back and ask if they can build it up and fill it a bit more, or do it myself with some black silicone that I can then put a matte finish one so it does not stand out as much.




More pics will be taken today when I take my son down to the beach. A good backdrop for some more pics of the Sunlit Fit. That and the dew will have blown off. And maybe I'll remember to actually open the roof panel for pics. After all, it does open. Doh!

 

cant wait for the pics.

 

 

It's like a movie trailer that does not give you much...
(said in the movie trailer guys voice)
"In a world, where small cars are boring, one car maker gives you the Fit. One man, takes that Fit and cuts a hole in it. That man is:

da da da...

 

Ahahaha... sounds like the Geico commercials..



Congrats... today is the day...

 

It should look awesome...
if anyone has seen the Japanese Active Fit model... the panaroof... just looks amazing!

 

It truly does.... The only thing I don't like about it, is that it doesn't open(afaik). Only the shade opens, and closes.

TKZ's panoramic sunroof opens.

 

I like the movie trailers that give you the whole story so you don't have to pay 10 bucks to go see it and its instant gratification.

 

Updated the original post of this thread with initial impressions.

Photos tomorrow.

 

Ditto

 

Love this one!!

 

SEE original post for update 2. This is UPDATE 1: SUNLIT FIT IS HOME: from the night I got it back, when it was hard to see and appreciate More like streetlight lit Fit, but the car is home. 1st impressions: It is huge. It takes up a good 3/4s of the roof. I noticed that at the front, and over the front door area, it follows the contour of the roof pretty well. At the very back, the roofline dips a bit and the rear corners of sunroof do not follow. As a result there's a small gap at each corner that was filled with bonding sealant. It's a good thing I asked them to put the sunroof as far forward as possible, or that gap would be longer (with the back edge further into the roof's dip). I pushed down on the corners, and the sealant is still soft, so it's probably going to cure and shrink a bit. Once it has, I'll probably follow with some artfully applied black silicone to fill the contour a bit more. Perhaps while the silicone is still tacky I'll press on it a little with something that will give it a dull appearance like that of the sunroof frame. That's really what drew my eye to the gap; the sealant they used is shiny, and it stood out under the street lamps. There is a slight waviness to a couple of spots along the sunroof rails, but I had to look for them by shifting my view and letting a streetlamp reflection bounce across the roof. This deformity is probably an unavoidable thing, when you cut a thin steel roof and then brace a huge rigid sunroof frame to it. When you walk up to the car, the big giant black glass thing on the roof will probably jump out at you. I'm not sure how I feel about how the way it looks as you stand along side the car. A Fit's roof is domed, and the glass of sunroof is - at night anyway - appearing flat. We'll see. That's the outside, now for the inside.

Sat behind the wheel and looked up to find the headliner material is now more like plush fleece than canvas on board with no foam. The map lights are still where they were, installed on the motor housing and sunroof switch thingy. Because the sunroof opening is as far forward as they could put it at my request, the headliner angles down from the switch housing around the area of the sun visors, resulting in the visors not being totally flat against the headliner at the outer edges. I don't mind that much. It's now easier to get your hand above the visor and swing it down. The dome light is over the back seat. Not my first choice, but at least I still have it. If I need light up front, I've got my map lights. What I might do is find a way to wire the map lights into the door circuit. Not sure I want to be pulling on my new headliner. As for the opening of the roof - WOW. There's so much of it. It extends from a couple of inches behind the sun visors to over the back seat. The headliner - from what I can see in the dimly lit night - seems to be done pretty well. I'll leave the virtues of the opening for the photos to express.

Driving the car with the sunroof closed at highway speeds is only slightly noisier than with the solid roof. I am pleased with that. Roof closed and radio on, and you wouldn't know they'd cut a hole. Except for the light. But at night, it felt the same. Except for the occasional flash of light from a streetlamp. With the sunroof open around town, it's quiet. No wind rush, no turbulence. Under 40 or so, it's about as loud as having a window open, but with no buffeting in your ears. Above 40 things get a bit louder. A wooshing noise as air travels over the wind deflector at the front of the opening. Different sounds depending on how far open the roof is. At 60, it's pretty loud. There's also a booming subwoofer enclosure effect if you don't crack a window too. Factory sunroofs do that too. Again, these things change in severity with the roof open in different amounts. I only took a short ride, and these are my first impressions. Gotta figure out where the comfort zone is. When the roof is opened, a built in deflector at the front pops up, and that's where the wind rushes over and makes noise. I'm going to look at it to see if there's a way to adjust how far it pops up, or if it has to at all.

I started to have some remorseful feelings after looking at it. But that's probably because I just had someone cut a huge hole in the first new car I've ever bought myself. I'm sure that after I take a drive in the daylight tomorrow, with my 6 year old boy telling me about all the stuff he can see in sky from the back seat, I won't feel this way.

I still think I'm going to get some black vinyl and black out roof around the sunroof. I've got a neighbor with a sign shop and he's got a vinyl cutting plotter, maybe I can map out the roof and cut some vinyl to fit. We shall see.



SEE Original post for pics.

 

That looks great.

Willing to spill the beans on how much?

 

Aesthetically, I don't like it.

If it followed the roofline (having an even gap between the sunroof and the black roof strip), it would look so much better.

 

$1250 out the door.

 

What I want to know is how much structural rigidity is lost... does the car feel much floppier in the corners?

 

I know what you're saying. The Fit tapers to the rear, so nothing rectangular could accomplish that. If there was a roof with rails that did that, the glass couldn't slide back.

But aesthetics is what is driving me to black out the sheetmetal between the black roof strips, so the disparity is not that obvious.

I hear ya.

But inside, it's nice to have all that daylight.

 

Last night I took some hard turns and it felt the same. More turns to come. Taking a back road drive today.

 

From the pics it doesn't look too bad... From the way your first update was describing it, it sounded worse... I'd take it back to the shop to touch it up a little. I think that middle cross bar between the 2 panes adds back some structural rigidity.

It looks HOT!!!!!!!!

As for the roof looking at the pics now I'd say have the whole roof painted black.

 

I've had a sunroof in all my previous Honda/Acura's also, I was vexed when I found out the skyroof wouldn't make it to the US but it doesn't open. Atleast the aftermarket ones open.
The price is listed in a previous post

Check webasto's website and these threads for more info
---> https://www.fitfreak.net/forums/2nd-...5-sunroof.html & https://www.fitfreak.net/forums/gene...-navi-way.html & https://www.fitfreak.net/forums/2nd-...-roof-u-s.html they have some good information and pics.