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As WE did yesterday! Out of the blue, I received an email from Roy Lock, not a member of this Forum, and as far as I know, not a Tbird owner. He owns Porche's, with Golde Tops roofs! He emailed me to see if my email address was still a good one. I will let him tell you the story from here! He said I could share his name and email address with you.
From Roy Lock - rplock53@yahoo.com
"Hi Ray
While web surfing today, I ran across a series of old postings on the Thunderbird and the Golde Sunroof.
Strange as it may sound, I am a Golde sunroof car owner. But the big difference is that my car is a Porsche 356. We share the same heritage in our sunroofs.
The purpose of this is first to see if this is still a valid email address for you. Secondly, I have some Porsche documentation that may or may not help you and I would like to share them with you and your fellow Thunderbird enthusiasts. The first is a Porsche factory Service Bulletin which describes how to install (?) and adjust the sunroof panel. It's quite interesting and it applies to all Golde sunroofs. I've used it as reference. It is a little more detailed than what is available in the factory workshop manuals.
I am on my way down to San Diego for a long weekend, so you will not hear back from me for about a week if you write.
I have that document scanned and somewhere on my laptop. I will fire that up and send it to you. (He did and I just added it to the Technical Resource Library under Golde Top Information)
We too are always on the hunt for parts. As I understand it, we have someone who is getting ready to release sunroof cables complete with ends, etc. The cables have been impossible to find.
Our motors were 6V for 356's (1960-1965) and 12v for 911's. The drive cable has been hard to find also.
The VW and BMW guys had manual sunroofs. Mercedes had electrics too. Sunroof Porsche 356's are enjoying a renaissance. The price of open Porsche's has gone through the roof so everyone is turning to other alternatives. The sunroof cars are coming in to their own and their prices are now in the $70-80k range for nice drivers They are also much more drivable cars in colder climates.
I would like to share some of my documentation with you when I get home.
I live in Northwest Orange County. I spent many years in San Diego in the Navy. This weekend is the beginning for the celebration of the centennial of naval aviation and there are many parties going on. That's why I'm down here.
Try hitting up the VW and Karmann Ghia guys for stuff if yours are manual.
In 1980, I had a BMW 320i and it had a manual sunroof. I would suspect that some of the parts are still the same.
I will track down Brad Ripley for you and do an online intro to see how you guys can help each other.
I would like to share some of my documentation with you when I get home.
I will also go through the Porsche factory parts manual and pull out the pages which pertain to the sunroofs.
I also have a Golde manual on how to cut the hole for the sunroof along with dimensions. But that is at home. Email again to remind me.
Looking forward to further correspondence. Let me know if I can help by emailing me here. rplock53@yahoo.com
Roy"
Sometimes you live right! I will continue the correspondence with Roy once he gets back home and recovers from his trip. I am sure he will be able to provide us with a lot of good information. A Golde Top sun roof is a Golde Top sun roof, regardless if it is on a Tbird, a VW, or a Porche, or other car. They were all made about the same, so I am told. So the parts from one should fit on another even though it is a totally different make.
The .pdf file he sent me is posted in the Technical Resource Library. As for any .pdf file, as simplyconnected suggested, instead of viewing it from the web page, right click on it and do a Save As on the file, copying it to your Desktop to view. If you do not have Acrobat Reader, you can go to the Adobe website and download the free Reader file to view these .pdf files. This documentation was created in 1966 in Germany and has not been cleaned up by me. I wanted to get it out to you, so I left it in it's original condition. Enjoy!
From Roy Lock - rplock53@yahoo.com
"Hi Ray
While web surfing today, I ran across a series of old postings on the Thunderbird and the Golde Sunroof.
Strange as it may sound, I am a Golde sunroof car owner. But the big difference is that my car is a Porsche 356. We share the same heritage in our sunroofs.
The purpose of this is first to see if this is still a valid email address for you. Secondly, I have some Porsche documentation that may or may not help you and I would like to share them with you and your fellow Thunderbird enthusiasts. The first is a Porsche factory Service Bulletin which describes how to install (?) and adjust the sunroof panel. It's quite interesting and it applies to all Golde sunroofs. I've used it as reference. It is a little more detailed than what is available in the factory workshop manuals.
I am on my way down to San Diego for a long weekend, so you will not hear back from me for about a week if you write.
I have that document scanned and somewhere on my laptop. I will fire that up and send it to you. (He did and I just added it to the Technical Resource Library under Golde Top Information)
We too are always on the hunt for parts. As I understand it, we have someone who is getting ready to release sunroof cables complete with ends, etc. The cables have been impossible to find.
Our motors were 6V for 356's (1960-1965) and 12v for 911's. The drive cable has been hard to find also.
The VW and BMW guys had manual sunroofs. Mercedes had electrics too. Sunroof Porsche 356's are enjoying a renaissance. The price of open Porsche's has gone through the roof so everyone is turning to other alternatives. The sunroof cars are coming in to their own and their prices are now in the $70-80k range for nice drivers They are also much more drivable cars in colder climates.
I would like to share some of my documentation with you when I get home.
I live in Northwest Orange County. I spent many years in San Diego in the Navy. This weekend is the beginning for the celebration of the centennial of naval aviation and there are many parties going on. That's why I'm down here.
Try hitting up the VW and Karmann Ghia guys for stuff if yours are manual.
In 1980, I had a BMW 320i and it had a manual sunroof. I would suspect that some of the parts are still the same.
I will track down Brad Ripley for you and do an online intro to see how you guys can help each other.
I would like to share some of my documentation with you when I get home.
I will also go through the Porsche factory parts manual and pull out the pages which pertain to the sunroofs.
I also have a Golde manual on how to cut the hole for the sunroof along with dimensions. But that is at home. Email again to remind me.
Looking forward to further correspondence. Let me know if I can help by emailing me here. rplock53@yahoo.com
Roy"
Sometimes you live right! I will continue the correspondence with Roy once he gets back home and recovers from his trip. I am sure he will be able to provide us with a lot of good information. A Golde Top sun roof is a Golde Top sun roof, regardless if it is on a Tbird, a VW, or a Porche, or other car. They were all made about the same, so I am told. So the parts from one should fit on another even though it is a totally different make.
The .pdf file he sent me is posted in the Technical Resource Library. As for any .pdf file, as simplyconnected suggested, instead of viewing it from the web page, right click on it and do a Save As on the file, copying it to your Desktop to view. If you do not have Acrobat Reader, you can go to the Adobe website and download the free Reader file to view these .pdf files. This documentation was created in 1966 in Germany and has not been cleaned up by me. I wanted to get it out to you, so I left it in it's original condition. Enjoy!