Rusting roof rack comes off (1 Viewer)

Morning all,

Last night I tore off the factory roof rack. Keep in mind, I'm short on patience and high on brute force with most all repairs, so I didn't treat this as gingerly as I should have...but, it is what it is.

I picked up a Yakima rack system for next to nothing, to haul bikes and skiis with, and wanted to install it, and didn't like the thought of having two racks, so off with the factory one. The passenger side screws pulled out with no problems, however, the drivers side was a different story. One screw on each rack mount rusted solid to the roof, as well as the spacer. One screw head immediately snapped off, and the other stripped in a heartbeat.

I ended up drilling out both screws from the rack with a cordless impact, basically desimating the plastic, as well as the screws, until the rack would pull off, leaving the screws still stuck in the roof, as you can see in the pics.

It took a suprisingly small amount of force with a pair of vicegrips to wiggle the screws and entire nutsert completely out of the roof. It left some minor warping in the roof, as you can see.

So...now I have 8 holes, (6 nutserts, and 2 gaping) and they are all temporarily covered with color matching electical tape for the time being. I'm debating on if I should remove the remaining nutserts, and fill them like e9999 has in the FAQ here....

https://forum.ih8mud.com/showthread.php?t=22335&page=2

Or should I leave in the good nutserts, put some screws in to seal them up, and just plug up my two mangled holes. If it isn't obvious, I don't care too much about the paint, or body, I just don't want a soaked headliner next time it rains on me.

Advice appreciated, I'll keep the thread posted on findings, and get some better photos that aren't from a cheap camera phone.

Marshall

I popped out all the nutserts with, like you found out, such little amount of force. Replaced with black nylon auto fasteners and a little RTV black silicon on each one.

Almost a year later and no problems.

Did the same thing a while back. Although I took out the nutserts if they were spinners with even greater force. Some were in there good. Left the others. Covered with metalic pipe tape (doesn't rain much here).

that's why folks who insist on putting big loads up there are taking big chances...

No kidding. It literally took about two twists of the vicegrips, and they pulled right out. Completely rusted. Even if they were brand new, I sure wouldn't trust a 100lb load up there, let alone pushing the kind of speeds the vehicle is capable of. 70mph wind is nothing to trifle with, when you are dealing with 8 small bolts through sheetmetal.

In my opinion, the factory roof rack was more for show than anything functional. Almost like the crappy tin bumper that is about as beefy and useful as tin foil.

Gauge said:

. Almost like the crappy tin bumper that is about as beefy and useful as tin foil.

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At least it's not plastic.

Everytime I read about roof racks and nutserts, I wonder if my LC is the only one without nutserts. Mine only used sheet metal screws.

Tom

TomH said:

Everytime I read about roof racks and nutserts, I wonder if my LC is the only one without nutserts. Mine only used sheet metal screws.

Tom

Click to expand...

That does not sound like a port installation.

FWIW, I ground my nutserts flush, filled the holes with POR 15 putty, sanded that down (more or less) smooth and then masked the area off in the shape and size of the old roof rack foot and sprayed several coats of rattle-can black bed-liner. Did the same thing over the two mounting spots for the rear wing.

There was rust under all 6 of my mounting points so I had to treat the rust first.

Anyone with a factory rack that hasn't had these issues addressed is like an ostrich with their head in the sand. And if you are actually using the rack you are playing Russian roulette. The screws are not stainless and will rust. The nutserts will pop out easily and will also rust. The 4 pads are eating into your paint at an alarming rate.

At a minimum, everyone should take off the rack, address the rust issues, replace the screws with stainless steel screws, and get some of Landtanks pad gaskets to protect the paint.

My 2c.

-B-