HOW TO: remove your roof rack using a parking garage (1 Viewer)

[NLXTACY]

Ok well I started this in chat and it turned into a war between myself and someone else. Sooo, now that I have pics I wanted to move this over to tech. Oh and sorry, its not really a how to

The back story is my wife was in a parking garage and long story short, on the lowest level the truck's roof rack smacked into the structural beam and tore the roof rack clean off.

The damage is limited to the rear legs of both rails. On the driver's side it just pushed down on the leg and now the roof line is wavy there. On the passenger side its more wavy and the nutserts were ripped out.

So, after reading I only found two solutions, stainless steel bolts with silicone or weld. I can't silicone where the nutserts are and wouldnt trust it. And I have no metal working skills nor tools.

So any thoughts on what the next step is and should I just have a body shop do it? Have to think about what they will charge but its gonna start raining here eventually.

 

[bpassmore]

love the title, hate the outcome. Glad it didn't stretch that sheet metal too far.

Time for real rack (roof) now!

 

[Ebag333]

Pop it out, fill it in with something (weld if you want, some FastSteel, JBWeld, or even Bondo should work fine), and then bedline the top.

It's doubtful that anyone will even realize it's bedlined. You can either do full coverage, or the "alien landing strip" style.

At least, that's what I'd do--and am planning on doing on both the truck and mine. I think I'm going to do full coverage on mine, and alien landing strip on hers.



If you want to get real picky, take it to a body shop and have them spray it after filling it with something (or fill it yourself and get it sprayed). Again, since it's the roof it won't be that noticeable even if the paint colors are slightly off.

 

[Chaldaean]

Sorry to hear about your impromptu rackecomy; really.

So, after reading I only found two solutions, stainless steel bolts with silicone or weld. I can't silicone where the nutserts are and wouldnt trust it. And I have no metal working skills nor tools.

A third option (and one that has been working well for me for over a year) would be to plug the holes in the roof with auto trim plugs and paint some bedliner over them. I painted two bedliner strips on my roof. One on each side of the truck that stretch to cover all four nutsert holes. If you go this route and decide to squirt a bit of silicone sealant under the auto trim plug, be precise and don't get any silicone seepage in an area that you intend to bedline.

Although, this option will not get rid of your wavy roof.

However, I drove around for months with duct tape over my nutsert holes before I decided on a plan. That is always an option too.

 

[nicholas]

Sorry to hear about this. How is the doing? That would have scared the heck out of me if I was driving it at the time.

It looks like it came off relatively clean. I had a scary picture in my mind of what it was going to look like.

I have read on mud that silicone is a rust promoter.

How do you feel about bed liner? It seems to be waterproof and durable.

I was thinking about removing the rack, filling the holes with a nutsert or something solid, then covering it with DIY bedliner, especially since mine is black and it won't be as noticable.

I know your LX is a ride, so maybe you would want to paint the roof the original color.

Is the wavy part creased or do you think it could be pulled out with a an autobody suction cup?

I am considering removing my rack next week with parking garages one of my concerns. If your factory height rig can scrape, then it's a matter of time before my my mild lift rig will scrape.

 

[NLXTACY]

Time for real rack (roof) now!

Already working on that. Getting a larger ConFer rack and then adding some steel to it to make it what I really want. If I can't have an INTI then dammit, I'll try and make one

 

[NLXTACY]

Ok so I am now leaning towards putting in some nylon inserts where I can, removing the nutserts that are now popped out and POSSIBLY taking down the headliner on one side and pounding the metal flat. Then I think I am pretty much resolved to the fact that my best option is to Line-X it. I am trying to decide between going the barcode or one large patch. I am thinking if its the bar code then either black or stock color. If its the whole thing then either the stock color or even white to help eliminate some of the heat soak. I'd prefer black but no way in hell being in SoCal.

 

[sseaman]

I would go with linex and then a nice rack over it .

I like your new signature.

 

[mot]

Bummer Joey!

Good luck!!

 

[Brentbba]

Well, it's not as bad as I thought it was going to look.

If the nutserts are still in, try using a screw to GENTLY pull at the sheet metal to straighten it out some. If thenutsert got pulled out, you might try using an allen wrench (right angle kind) and try to gently work the sheet metal - may or may not work and you're likely not to do any more damage than is already there.

I wouldn't try dropping the headliner. Major PITA from write up's here in the past - search E9999 posts on this IIRC. Where nutserts are still present, find some allen head screw inserts (don't remember what they are called), use a little locktite and screw them in to seal the nutsert hole. This is what I did before durabak'ing my roof. Been there for a couple of years now w/o leaks...not that we've had much rain in SoCal in that time period tho! Search for nutserts an you'll find other ways to plug them too from people that have removed their factory racks in more conventional ways (sorry - couldn't resist that one).

Cover the two strips with Durabak (do it yourself), or pay Linx or similar. They may help straighten out things a little too, plug holes etc. While you are at it up there you can see if the port monkeys that likely installed your rack in the first place remembered to remove the adhesive backing on those center strips. If they did, they are a major PITA to remove the adhesive. If they didn't, like mine, removing those center strips is a piece of cake. Worth unscrewing one and seeing if you're interested at all in removing them also. One way or the other, they shouldn't interfer with any aftermarket rack.

 

[NLXTACY]

Well I am 100% convinced that if she were going slower then the bracket would not have simply broken at the front and it instead would have just tore into the metal. For once I'm glad she didn't drive slow.

Well I have a 97 so my headliner would come down a whole easier then the earlier 80s. But I would still prefer NOT to do that.

I am going to be Line-Xing the 60 sometime soon so maybe I can move that up and get him to do the LX as well for just some pocket change.

I'll look into Durabak. EBAG is trying to get me to go Duplicolor

 

[Ebag333]

I'll look into Durabak. EBAG is trying to get me to go Duplicolor

What can I say? I'm not into the rough stuff.

 

[NLXTACY]

What can I say? I'm not into the rough stuff.

There are just too too many directions I could go with this and everyone of them will get this thread bounced into schat

 

[OB-1]

Ok well I started this in chat and it turned into a war between myself and someone else. Sooo, now that I have pics I wanted to move this over to tech. Oh and sorry, its not really a how to

The back story is my wife was in a parking garage and long story short, on the lowest level the truck's roof rack smacked into the structural beam and tore the roof rack clean off.

I don't know...the whole story sounds a little made up.



But seriously, I read the original thread and I don't know why someone would accuse you of making this up. BTW, glad the is ok. She probably knew how much you wanted a real roof rack and sped up the process. Hope it all works out.

 

[NLXTACY]

I don't know...the whole story sounds a little made up.



But seriously, I read the original thread and I don't know why someone would accuse you of making this up. BTW, glad the is ok. She probably knew how much you wanted a real roof rack and sped up the process. Hope it all works out.

Well evidently I was so worried about getting caught in my web of lies that I went out and actually found a parking garage low enough and rammed the roof rack into the beam

Anyway that was yesterday's uselessness, today is another day.

The wifey was upset but she is fine so I told her its a good thing and I wanted a new rack anyway

 

[nicholas]

I'll look into Durabak. EBAG is trying to get me to go Duplicolor

I have read that some DIY bed liners are better than others. It's tempting just to pay line-x to do it since their stuff seems to be pretty HQ and virtually indestructible, even to sun damage.

Does duplicolor make a non-rough coating that is similar to durabak?

 

[NLXTACY]

Yeah I have a feeling I can get SOME kind of deal with the 60

 

[warpdriv]

i think this how to is very lacking in details!!! Can you please provide more details so it can accurately reproduced without cost mistakes?

 

[NLXTACY]

i think this how to is very lacking in details!!! Can you please provide more details so it can accurately reproduced without cost mistakes?

Certainly....

Materials needed:

•
•
• possibly
•
• or heck maybe even for all I know
• Perhaps some
• Drive until the rack does this --->
• And roof looks like this --->
• Then decide which rack you want to rock to look
• When comes home and says :whoops: give her the
• Take pictures and post


YMMV

 

[1973Guppie]

one cheap option for you would be to use some POR PUTTY to fill the holes, the stuff is easy to work with and super hard, I would:

- pull down the headliner if you can get to the other interior side of the hole, get a dolly and a body hammer and have someone hold the dolly on the inside while you hammer the outside to shape, then have a buddy weld the hole up OR use the por putty, wipe it smooth, let it dry, sand the area a bit, then go online and find a place that will send you a spray can of your stock cruiser color, there are places, mask the area off and shoot it.

the good think is it is in an area that nobody will really see, especially when you get the rack on there, I wouldn't spend much fixing this. Talk around the local area and see if you can find somebody with a welder, most guys that have them are open to helping, I am in san diego if I can help at all.

Noah