Anyone happen to know what year the upper, above the driver door, sun visor and upper passenger side grab/'panic" handle were offered on the 1st gens?
I haven't been able to find any specific info/year as to when they were offered.
I'm rather hesitant to pull the headliner on my '04 pre-facelift R53 to look to see if the brackets are there. I'm assuming they may have been an option for the facelift models (?).

Just thought I'd ask.

 

I think it's 06. My 04 does not have the brackets behind it and a 2005 Justa I did the headliner on did not have the brackets or the visor. My 06 does have the visor. Might be month specific as well?

 

My ‘05 R53 (01/05 build) has the visor and passenger side grab handle. Facelift production started with 07/04 builds, but some options/changes weren’t available until 01/05. Maybe that was the case for these and ‘05 R50 referred to above had an ‘04 build date?

The fix to secure the leaking sunroof drain tubes without dropping the entire headliner should give enough visibility to see or feel if the brackets are there. Here is a link to one of the threads: https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ml#post4526453

 

Hey - thanks for the pre-confirmation gentlemen!
From all of my weekends spent at the salvage yards, I have only seen them on '05's and up. Including many of the R56. I guess I should've known.

Thanks for the link @RB-MINI . It was a helpful reminder not having to remove the sun visors and just be able to peel back the door seals enough to see behind the headliner.
While my '04 pre-facelift ('03 build) has always been somewhat of an anomaly as it came off the line with some July '04 components (ie: facelift shifter, dual pinch clip tail light bulb holder and a few others I can't recall at the moment...), I was hoping I might get lucky and find the brackets. But no dice.

I have to say though; Peeling back the door seals just to have a peek was a great excuse to clean out the 20.5 years of accumulated dirt that prevented me from being able to get the seals to seat back on properly
Took me about an hour and a half to pull the seals, clean and re-seat with the aide of soapy water and a few sprits of Goof-off as a lubricant.

I may not be able to install the desired side visor or panic handle ...but at least now my door seals look factory fresh again!

Thanks!

 

Confirming: 05 and up has brackets to mount either grab handle or side-visor on either side (the side-visor on the driver's side can be used on passenger side).
Bracket hole positioning is same for both LH and RH Drive models.

 

My '05 MCS has both passengers and drivers side door visors, I actually love having that flexibility in reducing sun glare. I guess the first owner installed a drivers side on the passengers side to do this. Do the 2nd gens have the side visor as well? I'm not as familiar with them as Gen 1s

 

I've seen many 2nd & 3rd Gen at the salvage yards as some having them. Some with dual side visors (driver & passenger), or a grab/panic handle on the passenger side.
I'm envious.