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InstallingASpecCRoofVentOn this page... (hide) IntroductionJDM Spec C type RA roof vent install on a new-age Impreza by Frazier Cohen (aka frayz). All of the parts required to fit this are available online at Japanparts.com. Vent works out at about £250 all tax/duty and delivery. That includes all the hardware and fixings required, also it's worth noting that these vents come pre-painted from the Subaru factory in Japan. Fitting this part involves cutting holes in the roof of your nice shiny Subaru. If you are not happy cutting the roof of your car, or are not confident using power tools, please do not read on. Just call your local bodyshop and they will be happy to cut your roof for you. This guide is exactly that, a guide! I cannot take any responsibility for any damage you make to your car or yourself whilst attempting to fit this part. Taking your time, this can be done in about 4.5 hours. However, allow yourself plenty of time and do not rush.  DIY Spec C Roof Vent Tools requiredThe following tools are required:
 Roof Vent - Inside
ProcedureStart by using a small terminal screwdriver to gently pop the covers off of the seatbelt tops, this will expose a 14mm bolt. Remove the bolts and just allow the seatbelts to dangle out of the way.  Seatbelt Tops Now pop off the tops of the B-pillar trims by pulling them gently at the top. These then lift upwards and out of the black lower side trims.  B-Pillar Trims Fitting the vent requires the removal of the interior headlining. Everything that is attached to the headlining will therefore have to be removed beforehand. Start by gently pulling down the rubber door seals from the tops of the doors. Repeat for all four doors. These are the ones that cover the edges of the headlining. They may be tight so be careful not to damage them.  Rubber Door Seals Use a small terminal screwdriver to pop the clear lens out of the front map reading light.  Map Reading Light Lens This will reveal two small Phillips screws. Remove these screws and the light will drop down. Carefully unplug it from the multi-plug on the back. Note: (This will not be re fitted, as the new vent will be taking its place). Pop the lens from the centre courtesy light in the same way. Again, remove the 2 screws and unplug.  Centre Courtesy Light Lens  Remove Screws Now remove the end covers from the grab handles with a small terminal screwdriver. This will expose a medium Phillips screw at either end. Remove these screws and remove the handles. Repeat for all handles.  Grab Rails Next are the sun visors. No covers to remove here, just the visible screws at either end. Now the visors are removed. Use a trim tool to carefully pop out the fir tree clip mounted behind the centre visor. (This will be very tight so be careful not to break it or damage any trim).  Visor Removal Pop off the A-pillar trims by gently pulling them at the top. Be sure to pull them directly away from the vehicle pillar. They are held on by fir tree clips, so pulling them squarely reduces the chance of any breakages. Carefully lift them out of the groove in the dash. Once removed, they will have the alarm sensor wires still connected. Leave these attached and just lay the trims on the dash out of the way.  A-Pillar Trims Next do the same with the tops of the C-pillar trims. Do not fully remove these just pop the tops out to allow the headlining to be slid forward.  C-Pillar Trims Finally there are the headlining clips above the rear bench. These are 2-stage clips. Carefully using a trim tool, pry out the inner part of the clip. These can be fully removed if desired. Then carefully pull out the black centre part.  Headlining Clips  Headlining Clips - Removed Now the headlining should be fully unattached from the roof skin. Double check everything to ensure nothing else is holding it in place. Lie on the rear bench and slide the headlining forward out of the C-pillars and free of the roof skin. Then once free, slide the headlining back and rest it on the rear parcel shelf. The front of the headlining should be supported by the tops of the front seats.  Headlining Unattached  Slide Headlining To Back You will be greeted with the stock map light bracket. This is attached with three spot welds and three spots of RTV sealant. These spot welds are clearly visible and require drilling out using a special spot weld removing drill. Centre punch the three points to be drilled prior to drilling. Do not go mad with the drill, this is close to the actual roof skin so be careful.  Map Light Bracket  Map Light Bracket - Drilling Once the welds have been drilled, pull the bracket down gently and it will come away from the roof skin. You’ll be left with this.  Map Light Bracket - Removed Now for the first of your new parts, the inner vent frame.  Inner Vent Frame Bolt this in place with the supplied fixing screws, only hand tight for now. These will screw directly into the inserts already installed in the screen frame. These are located either side of the map bracket you have just removed.  Inner Vent Frame - Fitting  Inner Vent Frame - Fitting Although in theory the vent can only fit in one place. It does have slotted fixings to allow approx 5mm of movement either left or right. Here’s where you have to measure, measure, measure. Go have a cup of tea and then measure again. Once happy the vent is central and square tighten the two screws securely.  Inner Vent Frame - Centering  Inner Vent Frame - Centering Now you are happy with the bracket placement. Carefully centre punch the four holes for the hinge studs. Be certain to get these centred correctly, you have very little margin for error here.  Center Punch Holes This is where the fun starts. Mask the exterior roof skin with masking tape. This should ensure you do not scratch it when working outside the car. I used a large bag to cover the rear of the roof, just for convenience.  Masking Off Roof Skin - In Progress  Masking Off Roof Skin - In Progress  Masking Off Roof Skin - Complete Time to drill the four centre punched holes for the vent hinges. Start off using a small pilot drill, 2mm will be ideal. It’s a good idea to lay a big dust sheet inside of the car before drilling as this catches as much debris as possible. Take your time, there’s no going back now!  Drill Small Pilot Holes By using a small 2mm pilot drill you have time make one final measure on the exterior of the roof before drilling the holes to full size. Once you are happy with your hole positioning, you may drill them to full size.  Check Measurements  Check Measurements It helps to go oversize by approx 0.5mm. This will allow the hinge studs to locate smoothly. The underside of the hinges has a rubber seal, so water ingress will not be not a problem. Gently clean the edges of the holes with a small round needle file. Ensure there are no burrs on the holes before trial fitting your vent.  Cleaning Hole Edges Trial fit the vent, and ensure the studs locate fully.  Trial Fit Tighten the vent down using the four nuts supplied. Don’t worry that the roof is still masked; we will remove the vent again in a minute.  Tighten Down Vent With the studs nipped tight. The inner vent frame should now be located securely. Now grab the inner vent trim.  Inner Vent Trim Using the two black trims screws supplied, trial fit the inner vent trim. Nip the screws tight so the trim is secure.  Trial Fit Inner Vent Trim The inner vent trim will provide the template of where the roof is to be cut. To mark the roof, press the trim against the roof skin and using a sharp scriber, scribe the outline onto the roof skin.  Scribe Outline  Outline Scribed Paint mark the edges of vent frame before removal. This just helps to re align it exactly later on. Now remove the vent and the frame. This needs to be out of the way to cut the hole.  Paint Mark Edges Using your centre punch, pop centres on the scribed line. Keep these approx 25cm apart. I have paint marked these with a pen so they can easily be seen.  Center Punch  Paint Mark Center Punches Using a small pilot drill, drill holes around your scribed outline. These will be used to locate your template on the outside.  Drill Pilot Holes  Drill Pilot Holes  Pilot Holes - From Outside Using the inner vent trim, make a template on a piece of thin card by tracing the outline with a ballpoint pen. It is important to note the orientation of the vent shape, as it is different from front to back. Draw an arrow pointing to the front to avoid any confusion. Cut this out with some scissors.  Inner Vent Trim Template Now overlay your card template onto the roof and align it with the holes previously drilled. You can now trace around the card template onto the masking tape using a ballpoint pen.  Trace Round Template  Inner Vent Trim Markings Tape a large plastic bag to the inside of the roof surrounding the hole to be cut. This will catch any debris that will drop inside of the car.  Plastic Catch Bag Attached Okay, now for the best bit! Using a Dremel® or similar with a small cutting disc, cut the hole in the roof. Take your time.  Cutting Hole  Cutting Hole  Cutting Hole  Cutting Hole  There is a hole in my roof! Using a small grind stone or small file, clean the edges of any burrs.  Clean Off Burrs While the roof is still masked, paint the fresh cut edge with some touch in paint. The rubber seal does have sealant already in it that means this is not strictly necessary. However, we had some genuine WR blue paint so did it properly.  Paint Edges Time for a quick tea break, you’ll be gasping after cutting that hole! A quick break also allows your paint to dry. Okay back to it, now you can remove the masking tape from the roof. Do this carefully. Look at that lovely clean hole… yikes!  Does Hole Look Better Yet? Now remove the bag from inside the car and hopefully it has saved your interior from quite a bit of mess. You can now install the vent seal. The seal has a join in it, I personally chose to fit this to the back of the hole, however you can put it at the front if you wish. Be sure to fit the seal with the lip on the exterior and not the interior. Also check that the join is centred properly. The vent seal will really bite on to the roof hard so make sure you are happy with the position before pushing it on fully.  Remove Bag  Fit Vent Seal You can now re fit the inner vent frame. Use the paint marks you added previously to align it. Now torque the bolts fully. Re fit the vent hatch with the supplied nuts and torque fully.  Fit Vent Hatch You may fasten the latch to the inner vent frame using the screws provided. However, this only to check the vents opening/closing operation. The latch must be unfastened in order to re fit the vehicle headlining.  Fasten Latch Roof Vent  Roof Vent Fitted Re fit the head lining in the reverse order to that of how it was removed. Slide it back into the rear C-pillar trims and attach the rear trim clips. Ensure the head lining is square at all times and be careful not to force it in any direction.  Refit Head Lining  Refit Light Carefully working from the back to front, re fit all the interior trim items, lamps, handles etc. Do not fit anything forward of the B-pillars yet as the headlining still requires cutting. Ensure the headlining is square and loosely attach the front centre sun visor. This is only fitted to hold the headlining in place in order for it to be trimmed.  Refitting Headlining Items With the lining held in place. Align the inner vent trim with the holes on the vent frame. These will be visible through the existing hole in the lining, previously for the map light. With the trim in place, use a ballpoint pen to carefully trace onto the lining.  Align Inner Vent Trim  Markout Trim  Trim Marked Out Carefully mark lines between the original hole and the oval you have just drawn. Remember, you can always cut more if needed but once cut, cannot be replaced. So cut a bit at a time.  Marking Lines Using a sharp blade, gently cut the lining away.  Cutting Out  All Cut Out Keep trimming the lining until you are happy the vent trim fits snugly. Once you are happy with the fit of the trim, re fit the rest of the interior trims. Sun visors, A-pillar trims and door seal rubbers etc.  Refit Visor With the lining now cut out and the last of the interior parts fitted. Fasten the inner vent trim using the two screws provided. The trim is held in place by the latch mount. Ensure the trim is placed correctly and carefully drill the lining for the clips. Then finish with the new trim clips.  Fit Trim Clips  Fit Trim Clips  Job Complete Ensure good operation of the vent and take the time to give the car a thorough vacuuming out. Congratulations. You have a beautifully fitted Spec C vent. Thank you for taking the time to read this guide. Frazier Cohen (aka frayz) DIY Spec C Roof Vent Job Complete |
