Another Manual Rear Sunshade Install

Well I have most of the interior bits out of the car for completing the manual rear sunshade install this morning.

So far I've removed:

- Rear seat bench
- Rear headrests
- Rear seat back
- both L/R courtesy lamps
- both L/R C-Pillar trims
- 3xchild seat attachments
- seat belt lower anchor points
- seat belt trim guides
- 4xdisposable head anchor pins
- Rear panel w/ speakers

Most difficult was wiggling out the courtesy lamps; kind of hard but I used a thin pry bar. after giving up on plastic steak knives. The C pillars also slowed me down a bit until I found out where the locating pins were (two, friction fit, uppper section)

I also had to run up to Sears for the T45 Torx bit for the seat belt anchors; this is one tool I never seem to have purchased over the years (not a lot of call for Torx bits on a 1967 Mini Cooper )

BMW OEM installation directions are not too bad so far.

This morning I should be finishing up the install by drilling the rear panel for the shade mounting panel and fitting it all back in. Should help with the Fla sun this summer.

ScottZHP got me started on this with his DIY a few years ago. I bought this OEM shade a while ago but never had a chance to do the install until this weekend.

If I locate the camera I'll take a couple pictures.

Good luck........... sounds like it's going pretty good so far.
Pixs would be great.

Photos, we need photos!

Well, its in and looks great, I'm really pleased.


I managed to mangle one of the C pillar press-fit lugs on the left hand side so that will be coming out again to see if I can either fix it or stuff something in the hole to "catch" the trim piece. Its not bad just about a 1/8" gap where there should not be...

The only change to instructions I made was to trim a small bit off the C Pillar upper forward strengthening rib - this allows the shade retaining clips to ease over the top forward of the C Pillar trim and allows the fitment into the headliner much much easier.

Otherwise I found the retaining clips would just not "fit" in place - I spent about 15 minutes staring at it until I realised the clip was fouling on the strengthening rib. Couple cuts with dikes and it all smoothly fit into place.

Scott - I used your pdf file I retained all these months - of course I could not find the instructions that came with the shade. Thank you very much!

Highly recommended, especially if you live in warmer sunnier climes. I also have the side window shades and now the back seat will be cool as a cucumber in the hottest days.

The shade cassette itself is very high quality, black matte painted steel; the shade is very nice perforated rubbery plastic. It slides smoothly in place, hooks on the two retaining pins and covers almost all of the back window.

It mounts in the "dip" in the rear parcel shelf that is expressly designed for the shade. There are three mounting bolts that slide into a "track" secured with 7 mm nuts and washers. Not having a 4.5 mm drill bit I used a 3/16" it worked fine.

Some other random notes for anyone who does this:

- re-fitting the rear parcel shelf with the cassette mounted is tricky -- make sure the two "ears" on the rear/end of the shelf engage in the "slots" of the plastic air vent unit just at the back of the window - the shelf will not seat properly if you don't.

- Ensure the speaker wires are reconnected before you fit the panel (I almost forgot doh!)

- Look at the speaker baffle covers - note the straight side on one edge - make sure these are aligned to fit the speaker receivers or it will not fit straight

- Removing the C-panel trim lights - work from the bottom of the light not the top - the light is held by two copper bent spring clips about 1" from each end - lever out from the bottom to overcome the tension then ease the unit out

- remove the C pillars by tugging at the top/forward of the C pillar - that is there the two friction locating pins are - remove these then slide the whole pillar forward and out

Originally Posted by wingspan

Some other random notes for anyone who does this:

- re-fitting the rear parcel shelf with the cassette mounted is tricky -- make sure the two "ears" on the rear/end of the shelf engage in the "slots" of the plastic air vent unit just at the back of the window - the shelf will not seat properly if you don't.

[other good stuff deleted]

Thanks wingspan, this is really useful info. I also have the cassette + install kit lying around the house - too busy to do it now but will get it installed before Thomas junior II arrives in the summer.

Originally Posted by andy_thomas

Thanks wingspan, this is really useful info. I also have the cassette + install kit lying around the house - too busy to do it now but will get it installed before Thomas junior II arrives in the summer.

I'll bet a tenner that it doesn't happen until at least Christmas .

I'm in the UK (23 April - 1 May), with a Barcelona bit in the middle. Ring my mobile if you want to catch up. Weekend of 28 April - 1 May is goof off time @ Millenium Gloucester. Pints and dinner on me .

Couple more pieces of data to round out this thread:

Part is "Roller Sun Blind"

List $139.50

Part No 51-46-9-415-462

http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts...=51&fg=95&hl=1

(I bought mine from Pacific BMW for $95.00 in 2004 )

For those interested in the side shades, the details are:

Part is "Sunvisor Set Rear Door"

List $215.00

Part No 51-46-0-004-485

http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts...=51&fg=95&hl=2

(again, bought in 2004 for $139.00)

www.pacificbmw.com

Good on you, wingspan!

But for the dynamically-challenged (lazy) ones among us, this sounds like one of those projects of doubtful cost-benefit.

Any chance you could swing by my place and do my car for, say, $20 and lunch and a couple of beers?

I finally took the plunge after a couple weeks back, we had 100+ degree weather here in the south bay.

Install wasn't too bad and I have a few more things to add to the notes above in my install:

1. took about 2.5 hours overall, a good chunk of it trying to get the shelf back in and in the right position (45 minutes). The HK speaker "cups" were in the way (wouldn't sit properly) so what I finally did was to make sure the shelf fit into the back properly, then bent up the shelf enough to put the cups in the right place and orientation while keeping the back of the shelf in place. The rest of the pieces/parts fit right in easily.

2. The thing that baffled me most was how to get the clips into the right spot. What I didn't note until it dawned on me that the "bottom" part of the clip slid over the corner of the C pillar trim vs. just being held in place between it and the window sill. Now the other side of that clip is supposed to be placed between the headliner and "roof". I hadn't seen a pic of how the clips attached so I've attached a pic below to help. The instructions weren't clear enough for me on this part.

3. As noted in Wingspan's notes above, I ended up trimming one of the ribs to get the clips to fit correct. Pic below. Left side is the one with the rib intact, right side is with the rib trimmed.

4. A minor quibble about the HK badge on the shelf. Don't clean it, you don't need to since the shade housing will cover it. After looking at the HK badging get dingy, I decided to clean it up with a little fantasik to shine it up again. What ended up happening is the "chrome" paint came off. So no harm since the housing covered up the HK badging but it was a bit annoying that the chrome paint rubbed off.

5. All of my local dealerships were pretty expensive (Mt View, Stevens Creek, Fremont) at $160 and above except when I called Fremont. The guy over the phone quoted me $125 and that was before BMWCCA discount. I called Circle and Pacific who both stated that they won't do mail order on this part due to it's size. So I went to Fremont to special order the part the next day. The parts guy said $160 please. Whaaaat? I told him a different guy a day earlier quoted $125. He hemmed and hawed and said they'd honor the over the phone price. I didn't have the guts to ask for the BWMCCA discount.

So having driven around with it up for the past few days or so (was on vacation for a week w/o my car), it seems to work pretty well in day and night driving. Keeps the back seat a lot cooler than before. Cuts the glare down from headlights at night.

It does take some getting used to because in my peripheral vision, I can see the top bar when checking my blind spots. I think it's better than tint because you can pull it down when you don't need it.

Overall thumbs up and a fairly easy-moderate install just because of the HK shelf speakers. Otherwise, it should be an easy install for most handy-type owners.

Also thanks to Scott for sending me the PDF manuals loooooong ago. The kit didn't come with instructions.

Originally Posted by exBMWannabe

I finally took the plunge after a couple weeks back, we had 100+ degree weather here in the south bay.

Install wasn't too bad and I have a few more things to add to the notes above in my install:

1. took about 2.5 hours overall, a good chunk of it trying to get the shelf back in and in the right position (45 minutes). The HK speaker "cups" were in the way (wouldn't sit properly) so what I finally did was to make sure the shelf fit into the back properly, then bent up the shelf enough to put the cups in the right place and orientation while keeping the back of the shelf in place. The rest of the pieces/parts fit right in easily.

2. The thing that baffled me most was how to get the clips into the right spot. What I didn't note until it dawned on me that the "bottom" part of the clip slid over the corner of the C pillar trim vs. just being held in place between it and the window sill. Now the other side of that clip is supposed to be placed between the headliner and "roof". I hadn't seen a pic of how the clips attached so I've attached a pic below to help. The instructions weren't clear enough for me on this part.

3. As noted in Wingspan's notes above, I ended up trimming one of the ribs to get the clips to fit correct. Pic below. Left side is the one with the rib intact, right side is with the rib trimmed.

4. A minor quibble about the HK badge on the shelf. Don't clean it, you don't need to since the shade housing will cover it. After looking at the HK badging get dingy, I decided to clean it up with a little fantasik to shine it up again. What ended up happening is the "chrome" paint came off. So no harm since the housing covered up the HK badging but it was a bit annoying that the chrome paint rubbed off.

5. All of my local dealerships were pretty expensive (Mt View, Stevens Creek, Fremont) at $160 and above except when I called Fremont. The guy over the phone quoted me $125 and that was before BMWCCA discount. I called Circle and Pacific who both stated that they won't do mail order on this part due to it's size. So I went to Fremont to special order the part the next day. The parts guy said $160 please. Whaaaat? I told him a different guy a day earlier quoted $125. He hemmed and hawed and said they'd honor the over the phone price. I didn't have the guts to ask for the BWMCCA discount.

So having driven around with it up for the past few days or so (was on vacation for a week w/o my car), it seems to work pretty well in day and night driving. Keeps the back seat a lot cooler than before. Cuts the glare down from headlights at night.

It does take some getting used to because in my peripheral vision, I can see the top bar when checking my blind spots. I think it's better than tint because you can pull it down when you don't need it.

Overall thumbs up and a fairly easy-moderate install just because of the HK shelf speakers. Otherwise, it should be an easy install for most handy-type owners.

Also thanks to Scott for sending me the PDF manuals loooooong ago. The kit didn't come with instructions.

Any chance you could pass on the PDF please - I'm currently tackling this project, but don't have the manuals either.

Cheers

wow! I wouldn't think this is a lot of work! I installed my rear (side) window shades literally in minutes..

Could you send me the pdf instructions as well?

Much appreciated.

Thank you.

J

fwiw, when I ordered the kit from Tischer, it came with the printed instructions.

Hello,
Thanks for this.
My learning is that buying stuff on ebay is good and cheap etc but you can never be quite sure what you are getting. So I bought a rear parcel shelf with blind in it for £50. I checked with the local bmw dealer and there are more than three different sizes of E36 coupe parcel shelf: they will not sell you one without you providing your chassis number!! The shelf was not in good condition so I decided to take my original out and cut a hole and fit the blind!! Not so difficult: looks really good.

Next step how to secure the screen to the headliner! I bought genuine BMW hooks and there are sockets under the headliner for these to go into! So far so good.... but the screen is wider than the sockets: so I have nothing to anchor the hooks on! The only thing to do I think is to glue them to the headliner.

I suspect I cannot get the rear of the headliner down without taking the whole headliner out which means taking it all the mirros and lights off.
Bummer: my wife says it is a hobby and this is what I should expect: sometimes I feel like driving it off a cliff (empty!)
Best Adrian.

hey can this fit my e46 coupe ?

Originally Posted by barroyo

hey can this fit my e46 coupe ?

I believe this is specific to the sedan.

Originally Posted by Llando88

I believe this is specific to the sedan.

There's one for a coupe too: http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts...82&hg=51&fg=95

I would think the installation process would be about the same.

thanks

i bought mine .. they are prefect fittment in london heres the page http://www.vanstyle.co.uk/shop/index.php

pardon my opinion but these shades dont look cool.

I was thinking about the sunblinds i used to see on some camaros in the 80s when i was growing up.

http://www.google.com/search?q=rear+...ient=firefox-a

Originally Posted by bmw2001-325ci

pardon my opinion but these shades dont look cool.

I was thinking about the sunblinds i used to see on some camaros in the 80s when i was growing up.

http://www.google.com/search?q=rear+...ient=firefox-a

I don't think anyone in this thread was talking about THOSE sort of "sun blinds"....although I fear, much like the 80's clothing style, they just may make a come back one of these coming generations

Originally Posted by jmanscotch

I don't think anyone in this thread was talking about THOSE sort of "sun blinds"....although I fear, much like the 80's clothing style, they just may make a come back one of these coming generations

haha true .. this are different ...

look at pic you can see it behind the sticker

Just got one for E46 sedan from Tischer. No installation instructions; I also suspect that some mounting hardware is missing. Does anyone have the .pdf?

TIA.

Originally Posted by vadim

Just got one for E46 sedan from Tischer. No installation instructions; I also suspect that some mounting hardware is missing. Does anyone have the .pdf?

TIA.

PM me your email addy.