Roadmaster wagon roof rack removal

I'm considering the removal of my roof rack so I can paint it to match the body color. Anyone removed their rack? If so, anything I need to know?

I like the idea of painting the rack, but the racks are notorious for leaking. If the rack isn't leaking, I wouldn't touch it. My 2 cents.

Tom C.

If you pull it...(you will see all the flat torx bits along the top that have to be taken out) I would STRONGLY recommend taking the headliner down too.

I am almost promise you that some of those well nuts (what the torx are threaded into) will spin and not come out. You will need to hold the bottoms of them from inside the wagon while a buddy turns them out from the top.

Then make sure you get new well nuts when you install and use some silicone to seal things back up too. I just had to do that on my Jadestone Wagon...had a leak at on of the rubber strip nuts.

brokecello wrote:

If you pull it...(you will see all the flat torx bits along the top that have to be taken out) I would STRONGLY recommend taking the headliner down too.

I am almost promise you that some of those well nuts (what the torx are threaded into) will spin and not come out. You will need to hold the bottoms of them from inside the wagon while a buddy turns them out from the top.

Then make sure you get new well nuts when you install and use some silicone to seal things back up too. I just had to do that on my Jadestone Wagon...had a leak at on of the rubber strip nuts.

I had to find all that out the hard way.. its a lot easier when you have another two hands helpin when you take the rack down.. like brokecello said.. those nuts on the bottom just spin.. pain in the tushie!.. but good luck.. the headliner is a good mission with-in itself.. im pretty sure it will all be worth it in the end.. and i recommend using some sort of "flex" paint for the middle strips.. cause when i painted my rack its chippin like a bastard cause i didnt use the right paint..

I recently took the rack off the Caprice wagon to isolate a leak. To my surprise I had no problems, rusting or spinning. I siliconed and put it back together, but from what everyone says, if I didn't have a problem, I wouldn't look for one.

Tom C.

Last thing I feel like doing is removing the headliner and all that is attached to it Guess I'll prep and paint the rack (not the rubber strips though) while attached to the top of the car. Lesser of the evils I think.

I just removed the roof rack last week to prep for paint, and indeed all the rubber strip nuts had to be taken out while damaging them. I had no problem with the torx of the roof rack nuts. But, i'm trying to find new rubber strip nuts. (all of them, better safe than sorry) any ideas were to get them? Autozone? GM dealer? Are they still being sold........
Pete

Try any GM dealer on the internet. I just found a brand new , still in the original package, "Roadmaster" emblem for my quarter pannel from a dealership about 1000 miles from me.

Just removed the entire luggage rack to find some annoying leaks. What the hell were they thinking when they designed these rack attachments!!! I had a few rivnuts spin on me and took them out and replaced with well nuts. Found little spots of rust and it was apparant that the leaks have been happening around the bad rivnuts. All tne center rub strips looked good so i did not touch them. I cleaned everything up, primed and painted the rust spots and reatached the luggage rack.

I used black windshield urethane to seal things up and white thread sealant on each screw before reinserting so water doesnt trickle through the fastner.

I am going to let everything dry for a day and then do a water test.

I want all this done before the headliner comes back from the shop.

By the way, these are the well nuts that I used in the holes of the prior rivnuts. They fit nice and tight and were the same thread pitch as existing star drive screws.

I bought the same rubber-coated well nuts at Home Depot for an older wagon (ok for the damn Aerostar....I'm still embaressed I owned one once..) to re-seal a leaking roof-rack.

-Mike

Saw that silicone was mentioned as a sealant. Anyone here ever heard of 3M 5200 or 4200.

One hobby of mine is aluminum boats. Boats being what they are need excellent sealant. Silicone does have issues as a long term sealant, at least on boats. I would put cars in the same category as boats. Silicone is nice for house projects but not much else IMO.

The 3M products listed above have excellent long term sealing abilities. The 5200 will get rock hard, takes 7 days to cure. The 4200 stays flexible and has a 3 day dry time if I recall correctly.

Just my .02

If you replace the rivnuts with wellnuts, you should not carry any load on the roof rack. The wellnuts are not designed to be put under a tension load.

I removed my roof rack while I had the headliner out for refinishing. The cars have either a 5 or 6 mm screw to hold everything in place. The RMs and OCC are 5mm, and the Caprice is 6mm, at least for the most part.

If the rivnuts are loose, and not too rusty, you can clean up the area, put some sealant and rust preventive around the rivnuts, then retighten them with a home-made tool that consists of a long bolt and nut of the same thread, and an appropriate washer. Thread the nut on the bolt, then put the washer on. Screw the bolt into the rivnut so that it extends about 1/4 inch out on the inside, and while holding the bolt head from turning, tighten the nut against the  washer and rivnut. That will compress the rivnut a little further, and tighten it in the hole.

If you get a box of 5mm wellnuts for the center strips, you only have to push them in and screw the strips to them. They are self sealing.

If you choose to use wellnuts in place of the rivnuts around the perimeter of the rack, you may have to put a small spacer/rubber washer between the rack and the wellnut to get it to "catch" in the hole. The rearmost screw may require a couple of spacers. Flat rubber plumbing washer make good spacers, and are about the right thickness, but you will have to experiment to get the exact fit.

The front cross piece studs have rubber grommets to seal the holes, and they will self destruct when you remove the nuts. I used roof sealant to replace the rubber grommet. I put a generous amount on the studs before putting it in the holes, and tightened the nuts gently. You can go back later and tighten them more completely before reinstalling the headliner.