[Osodog]

The one option I deeply regret not having is the sunshades. I am finding that when I drive into work with my 3 month old, the sun shines right into his eyes. This in turns starts him wailing, not much fun in bumper to bumper traffic. I have tinted windows which help but was wondering if the rear sunshade can be retrofited and if not, what a viable alternative would be that wuold look good and would meet my needs?

 

[DIPLOMAT]

The one option I deeply regret not having is the sunshades. I am finding that when I drive into work with my 3 month old, the sun shines right into his eyes. This in turns starts him wailing, not much fun in bumper to bumper traffic. I have tinted windows which help but was wondering if the rear sunshade can be retrofited and if not, what a viable alternative would be that wuold look good and would meet my needs?

It can be retrofitted but it is a pain and expensive. Look at spending at least $1400. You need to change both door panels and the whold rear roof deck. There is a good write up somewhere, i'll try to go find it now

 

[basil]

I doubt that just the rear quarter window shades would offer enough side shading by themselves but they are not hard to retrofit and not too costly to do.

I have retrofitted my M5 with the power-sunshade option but without replacing the rear door panels as they were not available in leather at the time. However you can easily retro the small rear quarter window shades by swapping out the plastic frame around the rear side windows for one with a hook to catch the roll-out quarter window shade.

Those with 'stretched-out' quarter shades can easily swap out their old ones for new ones giving the car a fresher look from the side. Maybe I'll post this separately for power sunscreen owners.


Quarter glass roller-sunscreens are about $100 each.


Best of luck!

 

[volcan96]

You could also think about tinting your windows. I have the sunscreen option on my car and it broke just last week. Luckily, I have the warranty on it, so fixing it shouldn't be a problem. But, the fact that it's broken on a 2001 m5 told me that I should think about tinting the windows to minimize the sunscreen breaking again. Just another option.

 

[mottati]

His windows are tinted already, as mentioned in the original post!

My wifes 525iTa had the sun blinds, and my kids were always breaking them, more of a liability with small children.

FWIW, it won't be long until the baby is facing forward... in the mean time, you could get one of those cheesey suction cup blinds to stick in the window (but my wife was alway afraid it'd fall on the baby!) or start training to wear sunglasses!
Mike

 

[Osodog]

I did exactly that yesterday with 2 of them mounted on the rear window which seems to have done the trick. Not exactly the most elegant solution but it works for now.

 

[mottati]

I did exactly that yesterday with 2 of them mounted on the rear window which seems to have done the trick. Not exactly the most elegant solution but it works for now.

they grow extremely quickly, it won't be there for long.
Mike

 

[lwebb12]

I did exactly that yesterday with 2 of them mounted on the rear window which seems to have done the trick. Not exactly the most elegant solution but it works for now.

I did the same thing for my child.

 

[mottati]

One other thing, there used to be a manual sunshade available as a retrofit. Still need to disassemble the rear deck (not that difficult) but no wiring involved. Might want to do a search over on the regular e39 board on roadfly.com or bimmerfest.com. A guy named Tyrone was the retrofit guru for all things e39. I had thought about doing this for my 528 (same reasons as you, several years ago) and the cost was still near $1k.
Mike

 

[lwebb12]

One other thing, there used to be a manual sunshade available as a retrofit. Still need to disassemble the rear deck (not that difficult) but no wiring involved. Might want to do a search over on the regular e39 board on roadfly.com or bimmerfest.com. A guy named Tyrone was the retrofit guru for all things e39. I had thought about doing this for my 528 (same reasons as you, several years ago) and the cost was still near $1k.
Mike

The cost to length of time required to actually use the item ratio still makes it impractical.

 

[volcan96]

His windows are tinted already, as mentioned in the original post!

My wifes 525iTa had the sun blinds, and my kids were always breaking them, more of a liability with small children.

FWIW, it won't be long until the baby is facing forward... in the mean time, you could get one of those cheesey suction cup blinds to stick in the window (but my wife was alway afraid it'd fall on the baby!) or start training to wear sunglasses!
Mike

Hey there.I missed the tinted windows part (that's what I get for reading the board at work). :thumbsup:

You're right; the baby will face forward soon, so the suction cup thingies should work too.