I guess my problem is that my roof is so high, no one can see it without climbing on top of the ARB rack. 
The roof is Line-X'd !!
- Thread starter T Y L E R
- Start date
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I can't believe Cruiserheads are actually flaming a guy for spending too much money on non-essential stuff. What the hell fun is a Cruiser without blowing some cash on something you want - regardless of whether or not it's needed? 
Of course...it is T Y L E R, so...flame on
Of course...it is T Y L E R, so...flame on
- Thread starter
- #44
I'm almost overwhelmed by the very positive response to this.....thanx!
I guess I stalled long enough waiting for access to a garage to remove the rack etc, that by the time I made this appointment, I'd lost any and all apprehension about doing it. In my mind it was going to work, and look great ...
Pretty glad it went the way it did. I now see how invasive it was in a way, and how difficult it would be to correct if it had gone awry.
As I mentioned in my winter threads on this, I had to remove the roof rack so that I would again fit into my underground parking at my condo. Maybe I'm starting to take after my carpenter Grandfather, but I wanted to over do the process of sealing these open wounds left behind on my roof. Yes, I could have gone with washers etc for each particular hole, but that didn't meet a few important criteria.
1 ) I wanted to retain the option to throw a kayak or some light load up there i I was in a jam.
2 ) I didn't want to scratch up my roof from bow to stern if I met one of those height-limit signs at some lower level parking garage.
When I was in Vancouver I had the uncomfortable experience of heading into a lower level parkade that whose 200lbs iron pipe/sign proceeded to grind it's way along my roofrack in a bone shattering indication of the fact that I was just too tall for the parking lot. Now if that happens again, I am confident that these strips will take the brunt of the abuse....saving me hundreds of dollars in body work etc.
3 ) Simple asthetics. We could all just weld a huge hunk of iron to the ends of our frame rails and call that a bumper, but we don't. Some aspect of what we do is reserved for ... looks/asthetics...'style'. And this simple fact drove me to look a little harder for a solution which could satisfy all these conditions.
Hopefully some of this will help the next guy along....
Cheers,
TY
I guess I stalled long enough waiting for access to a garage to remove the rack etc, that by the time I made this appointment, I'd lost any and all apprehension about doing it. In my mind it was going to work, and look great ...
Pretty glad it went the way it did. I now see how invasive it was in a way, and how difficult it would be to correct if it had gone awry.As I mentioned in my winter threads on this, I had to remove the roof rack so that I would again fit into my underground parking at my condo. Maybe I'm starting to take after my carpenter Grandfather, but I wanted to over do the process of sealing these open wounds left behind on my roof. Yes, I could have gone with washers etc for each particular hole, but that didn't meet a few important criteria.
1 ) I wanted to retain the option to throw a kayak or some light load up there i I was in a jam.
2 ) I didn't want to scratch up my roof from bow to stern if I met one of those height-limit signs at some lower level parking garage.
When I was in Vancouver I had the uncomfortable experience of heading into a lower level parkade that whose 200lbs iron pipe/sign proceeded to grind it's way along my roofrack in a bone shattering indication of the fact that I was just too tall for the parking lot. Now if that happens again, I am confident that these strips will take the brunt of the abuse....saving me hundreds of dollars in body work etc.
3 ) Simple asthetics. We could all just weld a huge hunk of iron to the ends of our frame rails and call that a bumper, but we don't. Some aspect of what we do is reserved for ... looks/asthetics...'style'. And this simple fact drove me to look a little harder for a solution which could satisfy all these conditions.
Hopefully some of this will help the next guy along....
Cheers,
TY
I like!
I like it! I've always been hesitant to remove my luggage rack and rear window deflector because I didn't like the look of the exposed screw head and the bare roof metal under the removed rack, with its scuffed-up paint. The Line-X has a good, uniform look to it, and still provides protection against scrapes from luggages and low hanging signs.
TY, if you don't mind sharing, how much did this cost? Is there any reason why you picked the black color liner. I think some brands of sprayed-on bedliners are available in different colors.
John
TY, if you don't mind sharing, how much did this cost? Is there any reason why you picked the black color liner. I think some brands of sprayed-on bedliners are available in different colors.
John
A very good job, when are they going to fill in the gaps? Seriously had you considered doing the whole roof
odd -- the more i look at it, the more i like it --
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I think it looks pretty good TY, Even if it didnt who woulda noticed it seven feet off the ground.
ryanjl
SILVER Star
Looks OK, they did a good job and all, but it's definitely not for me.
Other than what TY said about scraping the roof in parking garages, I cant see any real use for it. Covering up the old roof rack holes? A cheap "paint match with 3/4 inch diameter touch up circles over the patched holes and a clearcoat blend" would have been less noticeable than the Line-X, I would think.
This just really makes me glad that I never had a factory roof rack on mine.
Other than what TY said about scraping the roof in parking garages, I cant see any real use for it. Covering up the old roof rack holes? A cheap "paint match with 3/4 inch diameter touch up circles over the patched holes and a clearcoat blend" would have been less noticeable than the Line-X, I would think.
This just really makes me glad that I never had a factory roof rack on mine.
shocker said:
T Y L E R almost had me convinced with his witty reply, but i doubt a little line-x on the roof is going to reduce much body damage to the roof if you drive into a parking garage that's too low for the truck
. Still, it does look cool. I think if i was going to have done it i would have lined the whole top, i mean did you see how much wasted product there was. 
ryanjl
SILVER Star
concretejungle said:T Y L E R almost had me convinced with his witty reply, but i doubt a little line-x on the roof is going to reduce much body damage to the roof if you drive into a parking garage that's too low for the truck
Well, if it's your first time in a particular garage, so you drive really, really, really slow just in case, you might get a scrape instead of a dent.
The liner would keep the scrape from happening.
Giving TY the benefit of the doubt here...
I like it. Yes it’s different but so was the first guy to put 37’s on an 80.
Knowing how I abuse the snot out of my tow rigs LineX’ed bed that stuff is tough. TYLER can easily put gear on those pads and have them protect the paint. I like how its just the highest points and not the whole cap. Keeps it clean looking and well weight down. It’s surprising how much weight LineX can add to things.
Mark
Knowing how I abuse the snot out of my tow rigs LineX’ed bed that stuff is tough. TYLER can easily put gear on those pads and have them protect the paint. I like how its just the highest points and not the whole cap. Keeps it clean looking and well weight down. It’s surprising how much weight LineX can add to things.
Mark
I like it. Makes as much sense, to me, as Line-xing the fenders. Sure, roof isn't as visible as the fenders, but all of these type of mods come down to looks...and that looks a lot better than the "factory" roof rack.
C'mon Alex, cut him some slack
I understand what TY is saying about the hanging pipes that indicate how tall a garage is. They typically hang from cables, and if TY were to bump into it w/ his line-x'ed roof, I believe the line-x would serve its purpose. Now if he just went Bo Duke style flyin into the garage and hit a beam....don't think it would work
TY, I think it looks good. Not for me, although I LOVE your method of plugging the holes. I was trying to figure out how to plug my holes when I remove mine and have the truck painted. I think those set screws with the sealant w/ a little bondo on top to smooth them over, and you'll never know they're there!
Ary
I understand what TY is saying about the hanging pipes that indicate how tall a garage is. They typically hang from cables, and if TY were to bump into it w/ his line-x'ed roof, I believe the line-x would serve its purpose. Now if he just went Bo Duke style flyin into the garage and hit a beam....don't think it would work
TY, I think it looks good. Not for me, although I LOVE your method of plugging the holes. I was trying to figure out how to plug my holes when I remove mine and have the truck painted. I think those set screws with the sealant w/ a little bondo on top to smooth them over, and you'll never know they're there!
Ary
BTW, something else I noticed. Did you really only have 3 ribs? I swear mine has like 5.... Maybe that's another difference b/w the years.
Ary
Ary
I must admit that I seriously had my doubts about the practicality of this. Since the idea has been kicked around here several times but It does look nice. Not sure if its something for me or not but they truly did do an outstanding job on the rig T.
- Thread starter
- #59
97 FZJ80 said:
John,
While I'd love to tell you how much this cost, I made a deal with the local franchise that I wouldn't speak about the pricing I got with anyone. What I would suggest to anyone interested is emailing some of the pics I took to their local Line-X shop, and to ask them for an estimate based on what they see.
As far as using the black Line-x....I really didn't want to create an invisible solution for filling the holes etc. I wanted there to be a bold indication that there was protection up there. If you reframe the idea of a 'roof rack' with one of a 'roof pad' you'll understand. Tying down would consist of running straps thru the windows in a pinch, but the platform exists as it did with the stock rack, only now the longitudinal pcs are 400% wider. The secondary reason for black is financial. Once you start matching your paint, you jump in price.
Peace,
TY
- Thread starter
- #60
Arya Ebrahimi said:
Ary,
The '97 factory rack has 4 ribs directly on the roof. It then has the outer lifted ribs. These are the ones that come down into the 4 feet that attach to the roof with screws. These feet are what grind into the paint over time.
What you see in the pics are all 4 ribs Line-X'd, BUT I masked off the outer feet into the outer 2 ribs. This is why the outer Line-X'd ribs bulge out at the ends...they are simply encompassing the areas that the feet were mounted.
Originally it was these feet areas that I wanted to stencil. But the more I thought about it the more I felt it would not be the best idea. For one the wire-embedded tape they use would surely slice off something it should not when they'd attempt to pull it off after, if it had to make very tight turns. The techs at the shop confirmed this suspicion. Next I realized it would all look better if I smoothly encorporated the outer feet areas into the outer ribs....I knew that would at least flow, and eliminate any hard edges to the pattern.
TY
