Weird one, Crank sunroof?

[Kent]

Yes it is definetly a german sunroof looks like a webasto to me.

[deathsled]

That sunroof is an abomination on that car. Germans seem to love their sunroofs. Even the sport BMWs like the M all seem to have sunroofs as standard fare. You have to special order them without.

[propayne]

Heinz Prechter was a German foreign exchange student who was friends with the son of the founder of Golde & Co., an early manufacturer of sliding canvas and metal sunroofs in Germany.

While at school at Cal-State, Prechter worked at a San Francisco body shop. With his Golde connections, Heinz suggested to the body shop owner Mr. Forster that they get into the sunroof business.

Prechter was awarded Golde's west coast distributorship and in 1963 he and Forster founded American Sunroof Corporation - or ASC as it is often referred to.

ASC's first customers were regional San Francisco and San Mateo new car dealers.

Early on, ASC set up shop in a garage that they rented from George Barris (yep, that George Barris).

Barris had high-up connections within Ford and when Ford came to him about installing sunroofs in some VIP vehicles George put Ford and ASC together.

In early 1967 ASC got a contract from Ford to install sunroofs in 200 Cougars as a sort of test run.

Ford advertised the 1968 Mercury Cougar as being the first American car to offer a power operated sunroof as a factory option.

Since XR7-G conversions were handled by Shelby Automotive, 1968 XR-7 Cougars slated to be XR7-Gs were sent to A.O. Smith for conversion. XR7-Gs that got sunroofs (431 of the 622 or so built) were then sent by rail to ASC for installation.

This info comes from an article on the history of ASC by Mark Theobald and the XR7-G book by Don Skinner.

- Phillip