Finally found some time to work on the 40. The headliner had fully comedown and was resting on the roll cage, so headliner replacement is taking priority. This also gives me a chance to fix a few mistakes I made when I redid the hardtop back in 2003.
I removed the fiberglass cap and then the rain gutter. I was able to do this because instead of using rivets back in 2003, I atteched the fiberglass cap to the rain gutter with 6-32 stainless machine screws and nylock nuts. Back then, before 'Mud, I screwed up the weather stripping install. I had the CCOT garage door weather stripping for the top. I incorrectly installed it between the fiberglass and the rain gutter. To seal the gutter to the sides I used 3M strip calk.
In the picture the gutter is resting on the fiberglass cap.
This morning I removed the remaining headliner foam (the vinyl had fallen of the foam). A plastic 8" tape kife worked great to scrape the foam off the fiberglass. It then worked well to take most of the strip calk off.
I am planning on going the indoor outdoor carpet route for a new headliner.
I have an OEM rain gutter seal that will be correctly used this time to seal the rain gutter to the sides. The fiberglass cap will then be installed and sealed once secured to the rain gutter.
I'm thinking about once again going with the machine screws in place of rivets. The only thing giving me second thoughts is installing of a roof rack at some point. The heads of the rivets should only protrude ~0.045" above the fiberglass, while the panhead screws will protrude double that at ~0.090".
I'm slightly worried that this would prevent the rack feet from making even contact in the rain gutter even after sealant reduces the effective height.
