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Is that a factory-installed roof, a dealer-installed, or an after-market roof on your car?
Paul
from the records I have and what little information I could find it appears as though it was a dealer installed roof, but the switch looks factory to me.
I dunno if ASC is still in business but for many, many years they did sunroof installations for car dealerships. The dealer I worked for in California sent cars to ASC quite often as there was a local ASC outlet in LA.
ASC also did "factory installations". In many cases cars ordered with a "factory" sunroof were actually subcontracted to ASC in Michigan during the manufacturing process.
I am not aware of ASC having any presence in England nor any relationship with Jaguar in England. Jaguar USA perhaps had an agreement with ASC to install sunroofs when the cars arrived from across the ocean? I dunno.
The term "Dealer installed" can be misleading. I could be wrong but I'm not personally aware of any dealers actually doing their own sunroof installations on site due to the specialized nature of the work. The installations were done by local subcontractors.
Anyhow, I'm confident that your Jaguar did not have a sunroof when it left the factory. It was installed after-the-fact.
Cheers
DD
Last edited by Doug; Oct 1, 2022 at 11:18 AM.
Reason: typo errors
I dunno if ASC is still in business for for many, many years they did sunroof installations for car dealerships. The dealer I worked for in California sent cars to ASC quite often as there was a local ASC outlet in LA.
ASC also did "factory installations". In many cases cars ordered with a "factory" sunroof were actually subcontracted to ASC in Michigan during the manufacturing process.
I am not aware of ASC having any presence in England nor any relationship with Jaguar in England. Jaguar USA perhaps had an agreement with ASC to install sunroofs when the cars arrived from across the ocean? I dunno.
The term "Dealer installed" can be misleading. I could be wrong but I'm not personally aware of any dealers actually doing their own sunroofs installations on site due to the specialized nature of the work. The installations were done by local subcontractors.
Anyhow, I'm confident that your Jaguar did not have a sunroof when it left the factory. It was installed after-the-fact.
Cheers
DD
very helpful! Thanks for taking the time to explain it.
Further discussion, for the sake of discussion....
The Jaguar parts catalog does show a sunroof and lists Jaguar part numbers for the parts, suggesting a "factory sunroof".
I don't know any details of this; how many were built, etc. Nor do I know if these were actually installed at the Jaguar factory or subcontracted to another company, off-site. Someone here will know.
Further discussion, for the sake of discussion....
The Jaguar parts catalog does show a sunroof and lists Jaguar part numbers for the parts, suggesting a "factory sunroof".
I don't know any details of this; how many were built, etc. Nor do I know if these were actually installed at the Jaguar factory or subcontracted to another company, off-site. Someone here will know.
Cheers
DD
just for the heck of it I just checked my owners manual to see if there was any mention there and no such luck. I suppose all were done after the vehicles were assembled by an outsourced company here in the states.
You could order a sunroof from a Jaguar dealer. A company called Tudor Webasto fitted the sunroof within the Jaguar factory. The car was removed from the assembly line. The roof was installed by Webasto and the car was returned to the line. Parts are listed in the catalog but NLA.
If you get a Jaguar Heritage trace certificate for the car (which I'd recommend everyone should get for their XJS) it woukd detail if the csr left the factory with a sunroof fitted.
Of course, if the car wasn't built for a specific customer order, I suspect Jaguar wouldn't have built any cars with sunroofs on the off-chance that the eventual customer might want one! It's a lot of effort, with eiring looms switches, bespoke headlining, metalwork etc. It probably explains why we don't see them very often.
You could order a sunroof from a Jaguar dealer. A company called Tudor Webasto fitted the sunroof within the Jaguar factory. The car was removed from the assembly line. The roof was installed by Webasto and the car was returned to the line. Parts are listed in the catalog but NLA.
Thanks for chiming in. Your explaination of how it was done is what I expected to hear.
You could order a sunroof from a Jaguar dealer. A company called Tudor Webasto fitted the sunroof within the Jaguar factory. The car was removed from the assembly line. The roof was installed by Webasto and the car was returned to the line. Parts are listed in the catalog but NLA.
pete,
That's really interesting. Are you saying that Tudor Webasto came in and fitted the standard Jaguar-optioned metal roofs in the factory, rather than their usual vinyl sliding roofs?
The US version of the “factory” sunroof was installed “at port of entry”. It was in fact an ASC sunroof. It was offered for one year old as a “factory” option not actually installed at the factory.
This doesn’t discount the Tudor Webasto story, I had a 76 XJ12C with a Tudor Webasto sunroof, and it was a steel panel not glass. The ASC sunroof was glass. Perhaps Webasto did a glass one too, later on.
The US version of the “factory” sunroof was installed “at port of entry”. It was in fact an ASC sunroof. It was offered for one year old as a “factory” option not actually installed at the factory.
This doesn’t discount the Tudor Webasto story, I had a 76 XJ12C with a Tudor Webasto sunroof, and it was a steel panel not glass. The ASC sunroof was glass. Perhaps Webasto did a glass one too, later on.
Straying just a bit to Series III XJ6/XJ12 sedans.....
After 1981 or so all USA market Series IIIs were fitted with a sunroof right up to the end of production. Perhaps Canadian cars as well? We're talking many thousands of cars; not special orders or a few dozen. Or even a few hundred.
I wonder what the installation arrangement/process was for these?
This doesn’t discount the Tudor Webasto story, I had a 76 XJ12C with a Tudor Webasto sunroof, and it was a steel panel not glass. The ASC sunroof was glass. Perhaps Webasto did a glass one too, later on.
Yes, they did do glass. A friend of mine has one. You can verify the maker by a stamp on the inside of the front frame. You can see it with the sunroof open.
i owned a 1989 XJS for nearly 20 years that had a true 'factory fitted' sunroof by Webasto on the production line , this was backed up by the order form , build sheet and installation , information i had in the day was that around 50 UK cars had the factory sunroof fitted in this way , others had XJ6 metal sunroofs and other glass sunroofs fitted at the dealerships, but not true factory fit units,
my car has now been sold, but actually have a full replacement cassette and glass unit just in case the worst ever happened to my fitted one, as you can imagine, replacement would be impossible
direct contact with Webasto in Holland confirmed no spares or seal are available, and this unit was ONLY produced for the XJS in the late 1980's ,
i can also confirm that every single part of my original sunroof matches the parts manual parts exactly,
BB
Last edited by Brake buster; Oct 2, 2022 at 01:46 PM.
Dealer installed, but it came as a factory optio, and a bad idea for the XJS. First its something that could break and no parts are available, next you now have a huge non factory hole that could leak, finally it restricts headroom in an already tight cabin. So other than it being a nice car, the sunroof is a negative for most collectors, so dont open it or one day it wont close.
Dealer installed, but it came as a factory optio, and a bad idea for the XJS. First its something that could break and no parts are available, next you now have a huge non factory hole that could leak, finally it restricts headroom in an already tight cabin. So other than it being a nice car, the sunroof is a negative for most collectors, so dont open it or one day it wont close.
I love a sunroof and will use the crap out of this one! I’m sure if an issue would arise someone would be able to take care of it, I like to live dangerously 🤣
Ignorance is bliss. Your best option is a sunroof delete or an upgrade which is only good for instagram clout. Either way you’re hellbent on thinking its rare and special, but its just something that is more problematic once it breaks, which is why when my dad bought his car, the dealer talked him out of it, and this was back in the 80s. Best to just leave it as a moonroof. So dont use it. They break.
Ignorance is bliss. Your best option is a sunroof delete or an upgrade which is only good for instagram clout. Either way you’re hellbent on thinking its rare and special, but its just something that is more problematic once it breaks, which is why when my dad bought his car, the dealer talked him out of it, and this was back in the 80s. Best to just leave it as a moonroof. So dont use it.
bro, why so angry? Its a car, you enjoy yours and I’ll enjoy mine😉
