Externally retractable sunroof assembly

In a vehicle body including a front windshield header and a roof including an outer roof panel having side edges and also including inner rails that cooperate with the side edges of the outer roof panel to provide a pair of hollow side rails, and side doors having upper edges located adjacent the side edges of the outer roof panel with the side doors in a closed position, an externally retractable sunroof assembly comprising:

• a roof opening in the outer roof panel;
• said roof opening having a forward edge adjacent the windshield header and a rearward edge spaced rearwardly from the forward edge by a major portion of the longitudinal length of the roof;
• said roof opening also having side edges extending between the forward and rearward edges thereof and exposing the interior of the side rails of the roof;
• a track mounted within each side rail;
• a sunroof having a longitudinal length corresponding to the longitudinal length of the roof opening and having side edge portions respectively extending over the side rails;
• said side edge portions of the sunroof being respectively mounted by the tracks for movement of the sunroof between a closed position closing the roof opening and an externally retracted position above the outer roof panel to the rear of the roof opening to thereby open the roof opening;
• the sunroof in the closed position extending rearwardly from the windshield header and having its side edge portions juxtaposed with respect to the upper edges of the closed side doors to provide a continuous door-to-door appearance;
• and the sunroof having a front portion that overlaps the rearward edge of the roof opening in the retracted position and having a rear portion that extends to generally adjacent the rear extremity of the roof in the retracted position.