tonyf69

I owned 2 challengers years ago 71 hard top n 71 convertable, restored both n enjoyed them. Sold both n now 2 wifes n 4 children later i located n bought a 70 challenger that was sitting indoors fo 26 years. i'm going to keep n restor it. The question is, the car comes with a power sun roof that works perfect, and it looks very factory instaled. Did the challenger ever come with a power sun roof? was it a factory option? does anyone know?

Keninpa

Sorry about the delay in response but I just read your posting.

Yes, a sunroof was optional for the '70 Challengers. I believe it is designated as "M51 Sun Roof" on the build sheet or fender tag.

ED1971PA

I know they did but are very rare and if I'm not mistaken u could only get it if u also got the SE option with the vinyl roof. I believe there was a pic of one in an original advertisement for the '70 Dodge Challenger. Then again, maybe some dealers installed them also.

moparman390

Nice find, it is a very rare and valuable car indeed. There were only 197 sunroof Challengers built in 1970, 114 regular Challengers, 82 R/Ts, and 1 T/A. These B and E body sunroofs were all the same and all were power. The Mopar sunroofs started appearing on the '69 Chargers and over the next two to three model years made it to almost all the Mopar muscle cars.

My dad has a '71 Plymouth GTX with a sunroof, the only year for the sunroof on GTXs, and of the 35 built it's the only one built for international export.

Your sunroof should look like this if it's a real factory sunroof car. There will be no indication on the fender tag it's a sunroof car as the fender tag was for the workers on the assembly line to follow and the sunroof was not installed on the assembly line. All of the sunroofs were installed by an outside vendor Chrysler contracted to do the work, after the cars were finished they were sent to the outside contractor to have the sunroof installed, before it was sent to the dealer. This resulted in delays of several months delays when ordering, thus few people ordered them. The M51 sunroof code only appears on the buildsheet, making the buildsheet the only way to authenticate a true sunroof car. If you have not done so look under the back seat for a buildsheet (other possible locations of the buildsheet are under the front seats, dash, carpet and headliner). If you have any questions, feel free to ask, I'll be happy to help.

If it's a real factory sunroof, it should look like this.


[IMG]local://upfiles/660/AE704D8F76D4417AA1A3357CEAD4D8E8.jpg[/IMG]

demort71

The correct term in 1970-71 was a sunroof and not a moonroof. The moonroof term came into use in the mid-70s when Chrysler started to heavily promote this option in the Cordoba and B-body line.

The 69 Charger was the first Mopar to have this option. There were about 130 R/T models sold with it. The roof panel was smaller than the one used on Challengers. You could order the option on 70 and 71 model Chargers too.

Looking in both the 70 and 71 new car salesman pocket price guide (a little price booklet with all the list prices and options and packages for Dodge salesman to price new cars for customers), it is referred to as the M51 power sunroof option. All of these roofs were power and none in this period (even for B and C bodies) were manual. The price of this option was about $450. It went down after the 1970 model year by about $15 or $20. The option price was the same for a Challenger or Charger.

In 1971 Plymouth offered the M51 sunroof option on all of its B-body models.

The M51 option wasn't offered on Cudas until 1972 and that was the only year it was offered on the Cuda. There were a little over 30 1972 Cudas sold with the option (I can find the exact number). There were only a handful of Challengers (similar in qty.) to the Cuda made with the option in 72 and possibly fewer.

It wasn't until 1973 that a cheaper sunroof was offered in manual form for B-bodies only. I think 72 A-bodies also had a manual sunroof available. After 1972 Challengers and Cudas were not offered with this option.

There were C-bodies made with the M51 sunroof option also. I know there were some made in 1971 and possibly 70. The 1971 Chrysler/Plymouth general line sales brochure has more than one shot of power sunroofs in it.

Why weren't more years of Cudas offered with the M51 option? It was up to Plymouth to decide which of their models would get the option. You will have to ask them!

I do know that there were 27 Challenger R/Ts made with the option in 1971 and about 23 of the JH23 hardtop models. In 1970 there were 82 Chall. R/Ts made with it and over 100 JH23 models. You can find production in Govier's production booklet.

Why do I know something about these sunroof equipped cars? I have some experience with them.

Want to learn more about sunroof cars? Contact the E-body club of America and get a copy of their last newsletter. I wrote one of teh articles in the newsletter about sunroof E-bodies.

demort71

Moparman390 is both right and wrong when he states that the fender tag does not show the sunroof option on it. He is also both wrong and right when he says the assembly line worker did not need to know if a car was to have a sunroof installed in it. OK, let me explain...

First the fender tag will not denote the M51 option on it per se (it won't say "M51" any where), but the tag does indicate that it had the option via the order number (no I don't mean the sequential number). The order number will have a letter in front of it and then digits after the letter. For 1970 it was a K and G for 71 (and probably thereafter). I doubt that it made any difference what the body style or model the car was, they probably all used the same letter in the order number.

The letter in the order number probably indicated the car was to have special handling on the assembly line. The K designation in the order number may have been used for (for example) 1970 Super Birds which were finished off-site. Anyone know about that?

Looking at the 1970 broadcast sheet (1969-F series sheet), you will not find a place on it that denotes the power sunroof option. On the 71 version you will.

The assembly line did need to know if the car was to have a sunroof. All power sunroofs in this period were installed by ASC or American Sunroof Corp., which had a production facility and national headquarters near the Hamtramck plant in suburban Detroit. Any Mopar that got a factory ordered power sunroof was produced at Hamtramck for this reason. The car was pulled from the assembly line when it was drive-able and almost finished and sent to ASC for installation of the sunroof. This process appears to have taken about two to three weeks, after which time the car was returned for Hamtramck for final processing, assembly and inspection before it was shipped out. A lot (but not all) sunroof cars will indicate one build date on their fender tags, but have a later build date on their original door VIN sticker because they were sent to ASC. The door VIN sticker was produced after the car came back to the plant. Rather than the door VIN sticker being printed out by a computer printer, these sunroof car's stickers appear to have been typed on an electric typewriter because the fonts are different than what you see on regular assembly line cars.

Now, it doesn't make any difference if a car was destined for California and we know there was an assembly plant there that made Challengers. If it had a sunroof and was destined for Cali, it was still made at Hamtramck. End of story. Same thing goes for Chargers destined for St. Louis!

The picture that Moparman 390 included with his reply certainly lookes like an ASC sunroof. This the way they all looked and were shaped when looking up at the cieling. Yours should look that way too. ASC used special parts and pieces in all of their Mopar installations.

I believe that ASC also installed all of the sunroofs in later 70s cars for Chrysler, including the manual units.

demort71

"ED1971PA" is incorrect when he states you could only get a power sunroof with the SE option on the Challenger in 1970.

What he is confused over is that you had to get a vinyl top when you ordered this option (actually on any model). A vinyl top was mandatory with the sunroof and was part of the M51 package. The SE option contained several other features and trim besides a sunroof including a smaller rear window. As a matter of fact the SE option was not available with the sunroof option at all. The reason is that the SE package included the overhead console which required the fiberboard headliner to help hold it up and attach it to the cieling. The SE package did not have the standard cloth headliner with the headliner bows.

Why was a vinyl top mandatory? This was mainly to save ASC the expense of repainting the top after the sunroof hole was cut into the roof. The V-top covered the edges of the hole and the metal sunroof panel too.

The cloth headliner covered the bottom of the sunroof panel. Actually only one headliner bow was used of the 70-71 Challenger's original five headliner bows. Most of the headliner was glued in place to the bottom of the roof.

cncpt2prod!

http://www.allpar.com/cars/dodge/cha...spy-shots.html

I don't know what they're called, but looks like it has those gutters on the roof.