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I drilled out the nutserts, cleaned up the little bit of rust, painted with duplicolor primer and paint and installed these rubber well nuts with stainless hardware used for motorcycle windshields. No leaks but if they ever do, easy enough to unscrew and put a new one in.
You can remove them, but expect to find the same kind of stuff that was under your rack.
Just unscrew the end-cap retainer screws, pull out the end-caps, then the steel rails slide out to the rear, just missing the back of the roof.
They slide mount along plastic rail strips that are cement-bonded to the paint surface.
I'm not sure how to remove those cement bonded plastic rails without getting into a big messy deal that might just cause more damage than it's worth.
So - I'm just leaving the plastic rails there. I see no immediate reason to get into that sort of trouble. cannot see any trace of rust below them.
They do have nutcerts at each end. Mine are in perfect shape, unlike the roof-rack nutcerts.
...3 of the nutserts are spinning and needed vice grips to keep still while I backed the screw out...
Well, that's awkward! This is just an idea, not sure if it would work - penetrating grade thread sealant down the outer edge of the nutcert - hoping to bond it to the roof metal? At best, I would not expect strength, but just enough to hold still so you can insert a screw? Maybe chemical rust conversion treatment before trying it?
