The work has been done! The carbon roof was installed and this is my story sharing with you the true nature of the installation, which in my opinion was a lot less impactful than I thought. Often I try to stay true to my word supporting the community here and trying to build the custom car, I want to create. However when it comes to the carbon roof I bumped into too many problems with my car and finding a suitable company that could install the roof accordingly.
I tried to work with M Performance themselves, and reached out to contacts around Europe finding a solution creating a story and video that would allow you guys to see what I saw. Some of you might have seen the feature, which we made in the Shmee150 YouTube video and Instagram content, others might have checked my content on my Instagram Story feed.
The final outcome after hearing installation prices of up to 7K EUR, was that Alex the owner of ALPHA-N Performance invited me to have the roof installed at his location. It meant driving my BMW M2 Competition to a little city half an hour from the Nürburgring in the western part of Germany. On site at around 15:30, I was greeted by the owner and his business partner who would do the work on the car accompanied by a mechanic.
I hadn’t arrived and within 5 minutes my car was inside the workshop and ready to be taken apart. In the meantime, Alex and I left to see the Turbomeister livery car parked at a nearby dealer. On my return to my car in the workshop, the front windscreen had already been removed and they start to work on the removal of the roof itself. The removal itself is a decent task in which both windscreens are removed, four bolts are being removed (two on either side) and the large number of welds are being drilled on all four sides of the roof. The drilling takes the longest amount of time and took the mechanics about 6 hours of work.
After the standard roof is removed the full edge of the roof is cleaned and prepared for the carbon roof to go back into place. The dual component glue is put into place on both the car and the carbon roof, which was prepared next to the car. The carbon roof placed on my car is the ALPHA-N Performance carbon roof, which resembles the M4 roof design. The placement of the carbon roof was done by both mechanics and the installation was a relatively easy job.
The roof is clamped and hold into place for at least 12 hours until the glue dries out. After that the windows are put back into place, both at the rear and front. In my case we placed back both side strips and the shark fin antenna in the Hockenheim Silver color. A black color would be better, but since my car will receive a special paint treatment at the end of the year, I found it useless to go down that route of ordering new parts. In case you have a car that is not black, be aware that these three parts need to be ordered, wrapped or painted to provide a better match with the overall look of the car.
To give you some insight into the time and cost of this operation. We are talking roughly about 16 hours of work on the car. Two full days are required including the overnight waiting time for the roof. Also the windscreens require some time before they are tight and properly in place. People who fit their carbon roof should not wash their car for about 3 to 4 days, and should not drive with the window(s) open for at least a day making sure you don’t create any unnecessary pressure on your front and rear windscreens.
On the subject of cost, you would be look at 3K EUR for the total operation. Let me break it down for you guys:
- ALPHA-N carbon roof 1.899,00 EUR including local VAT (21%)
- Spare parts (Glue, Clips, etc) 100,00 EUR including local VAT (21%)
- Installation work 900,00 EUR including local VAT (21%)
- Complete cost 2.899,00 EUR including local VAT (21%)
For European customer who need TUV registration or a homologation certificate of the roof fitted to the car, can ask the owner of ALPHA-N . He can provide you this for 150,00 EUR including local VAT (21%) in case you require it. In countries like Germany, Belgium and a few others this might come in handy. If you need a new front windscreen than this is 250-270 EUR including VAT.
All cost doesn’t include any kind of transport costs for the car or overnight stays in a hotel if you want to wait for the process. Those cost I did not include above. I can however say to you that if you want to have this work done on your car, the impact itself of the work done is a lot less than I expected. It is not as massive and it all follows really well if you have people working on your car that have done it before.
The ease in which the guys were working on it and the content flow in which things were done showed that these guys at Alpha-N have done more than one or two roofs in their lifetime. The key is finding the right people that know what needs to be done. That is absolutely vital for this process. I would therefore suggest people to reach out to the following companies if there are interested:
- IND Distribution in the United States
- Evolve Automotive in the United Kingdom
- Alpha-N Performance in Germany
For neighboring countries, please make sure to reach out to these companies for the full process and a price quote of installing the roof. As I said, the work is straightforward, not impactful at all. I never felt scared at any moment and it can be done in a number of two days, which is feasible. I won't see it is a piece of cake, because the installation of new hub covers is a lot easier, but it is a job that can be done in a decent time frame and by pro's taking away most of all your concerns.
If you feel, you have a local workshop that can do the work for you, then reach out to Alpha-N directly. They have a full manual available that your workshop can use to install the roof accordingly. All the steps are mentioned in this manual. All in all, the weight gain is 4 kgs when you don't have a sunroof. Cars with a sunroof can do this process as well. You only need to weld in the central structural beam, which is missing on a car with a sunroof.
If you have any more questions after reading of all this, then please let me know.
MR