OEM Roof rack nutserts: removal and dimensions

[RavenTai]

no, the opposite. Sounds like some people were able to just pull them off from the outside. So one does not need to remove the headliner. That would be great.

E

the swell of the nutsert is quite large it woudl make a nasy hole going that way, if you you grinding and pushing them in does not require removing the headliner, I wound up removing the headliner and sunroof pan to install fasteners in the holes as the nutsets I had would not work and I could not find any that would fit

 

[e9999]

the swell of the nutsert is quite large it woudl make a nasy hole going that way, if you you grinding and pushing them in does not require removing the headliner, I wound up removing the headliner and sunroof pan to install fasteners in the holes as the nutsets I had would not work and I could not find any that would fit

well, in my case, the inner lip on the nutserts was pretty small and thin, in fact surprisingly so if this was intended to carry weight (which it wasn't as we know).
I could conceivably see pushing the nutsert in in the back, where it is going to fall/be held by the padding, but in the front you could have a broken nutsert flopping around the sunroof housing. Not good. (I'm working on a system to recover those, but not sure yet.)

E

 

[Beowulf]

>> hey Eric, could i talk you into one thread per project? it is a PITA to follow <<
>> all of these threads that have a similar subject <<

Amen Raven, Amen!!

-B-

 

[e9999]

(just trying to keep things clean with different threads...)

here is a photo of what a nutsert looks like from underneath the roof if you are wondering...

 

[e9999]

OK, they are all out now, finally.
I was actually able to remove the nutsert from the front without taking the sunroof pan off. What I did is to slide a piece of heavy duty aluminium foil on top of the open sunroof all the way under the serts. Then I drilled out the sert from the top. When the top lip is removed I just pushed the remainder of the sert down into the foil pan. Then slide it right out. Didn't lose one in the sunroof pan, although I did expect to. But then it'd bea simple matter to get it with a magnet at the end of a rod.

Also drilled out all the rear ones, but that was easy given that I took the headliner out.

There was rust under just about all of them, even though most looked OK from the outside.

E

 

[RavenTai]

yup, see the thread on "filling the holes"

See, I keep things organized!

ahh I see

gotta say, though, RT that your roof rack job must have made a big impression on ya. You are sure fast at picking any thread around here that deals with roof rack holes...!

yes it did, it was way more work than it should have been, it was just stupid

And seems like I will have to do the same.
Took me over 2 half-days to experiment and then finally sand and prime all the holes.
What a nightmare!
E

Agreed!