# e46 stinger antenna delete



## Ryans323i (Jan 24, 2009)

So I'm getting my car repainted and I've always hated the antenna on top of my car so I've deleted it. It's an antenna for the integrated cellphone that I don't even have and the cars w/out the antenna look much better IMO. I asked the body shop, that's going to be painting my car, how much it would cost to have them do it and I was quoted $350. That's a bit of $$ so I figured I'd do it myself. After searching every forum I know of, I couldn't find a DIY, so I just went for it. Here's a list of the _general_ steps I took. On a scale of 1-10 I'd give this DIY an 8.5. The Fiber-glassing itself isn't hard at all, it just all the steps before and after that are a little intensive. Also, you're roof will need to be repainted or spot blended.

First you'll need to remove the stinger antenna. It unscrews in three sections. Since I was throwing it away, I just used a locking wrench on each section to help give me leverage. The bottom section is plugged into a wire so just unplug and then you'll be able to remove the third section.

Then you'll need to remove the headliner. To do so you'll have to remove the A,B,& C Pillars. (Just a note, you can remove the rear headlining cover that's over the upper taillight, pull out the expanding rivet that secures the rear part of the headliner to the roof, and then you can slightly pull down the rear of the headliner. For some, this may be enough room to work in, but for me it wasn't. I was too worried about bending the headliner or dripping fiberglass on it.) I used these instructions for the headliner removal: Link. It definitely helps to have a 2nd person for this.

Ready for fiberglass?!?! I purchased the Bondo fiberglass repair kit for $20 at Oreilly's.









To begin you'll need scuff the area that you're going to fiberglass. I used 120grit paper and then cleaned w/ denatured alcohol.









Then mix and prepare the fiberglass resin per kit instructions.
resin








activator








stir









I cut 5 patches from the fiberglass cloth, about 2" X 2" each.

Then use a paintbrush to smear fiberglass resin on one patch.









Then carefully place the patch over the whole from inside the car.









Then use the included plastic spreader to smooth patch over hole.

















Repeat the above three steps individually on the remaining 4 patches. Remember to do this quickly as the resin reservoir will harden in about 15mins!

Your final product should look like this:









Now wait. Let the fiberglass cure for at least 2 hours. It will feel fairly hard in 45 mins but just wait!

From the outside it will look like this:









After it has cured you can fill, sand and primer, or let your body shop do the rest. You can also reassemble your pillars and headliner.

This is my roof after primer:

















And that's it! Pictures of the car painted are coming.


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