roof rack sealing?

There has been a water leak in the wagon for a while now. Wife has had a good portion of the interior out, replacing the headliner. So now is a great time to tackle the roof rack leaks. She took most of the parts off and cleaned everything up, needed help with the middle rails, the well nuts were spinning, so we got those out when I got home from work. She already has new well nuts for the rails. The rivnuts that hold the outside parts are in pretty good condition, only some surface rust on them, she said the screws all came out easily! I ran a thread chaser through all of them and none of them are loose in the roof and they cleaned out easily.

What should we use to reseal the threads and maybe to seal around the rivnuts to the roof?

The channels above the side glass with the seam sealer is in great condition, sealer and paint is perfect. She said there was a ton of debris in there as well as in the tracks of the rack.

Where is the water ending up? Where do you notice the water coming from?

The rivnuts are probably not the source of the leak. You do not have to seal the well nuts, the rubber seals them sufficiently. I would not trust the seam sealant. You can check the tops of the quarter glass. Put some dish washing liquid, or kid's bubble liquid on the outside, and blow compressed air from inside. If you have tinted windows, be careful. You can separate the tint from glass.

The water has been puddling mostly in the drivers side rear foot well. Have seen it dripping down the B pillar and the front seat belt gets wet.

Yes, I know the well nuts seal when compressed.

Joel -

My roof rack on my '93 RMW was leaking very bad. Rivnuts were almost all toast, one very corroded where most leaking puddled ontop the headliner then drained down by the rear driverside sidelight / into the locking storage area.

I only did a quick fix by cleaning rust and patching holes with 3M 5200 (probably didn't need to use such permanent stuff...) as I was in a rush moving from Southern California to the Pacific North West.

I'm curious to see how you tackle the repair as I have been putting it off for years...But I have no more leaks!

We are replacing all of the well nuts, replaced most of them already and reinstalled 3 of the ribs. Waiting on more well nuts to show up, not sure if she miss ordered or lost a package of the well nuts, to reinstall the other two ribs.

The original well nuts were all intact but very brittle.

She cleaned up all the gunk that was under the rack parts, then did the POR15 multi-step process on the rivnuts, she had left over from another project. The rivnuts are in great condition and none were loose. I used some Permatex thread sealant on the side rail bolts.

roof rack removed, nearly 30 years of gunk




roof all cleaned up, I used my D/A and compound to clean/polish the roof, easy without the rack in the way.


crusty rivnut


cleaned up


three ribs installed


most of the rack installed

While the guts are out it's time to find the leaks. Hop inside with a flash light while someone runs a water hose over the car. At least dozen or more places where water can get inside. Cheap 90s GM sealer is all over these cars and that roof is made out a lot of separate pieces of steel.

You did exactly what I do to these wagons. Pull the racks and seal everything I can with some silicone.

I had a 94 that required flowable sealant slowly applied to the rear side windows that took care of the leaks there.

Package of well nuts showed up today so we installed the needed ones and the last two ribs. Then we got out the hose and soaked/sprayed the roof rack parts and there were no leaks! We did have to replace a few of the well nuts that we installed the other day, the brass insert was pulled out or they didn't compress nicely.



rest of interior will go back in over the weekend...

We did find the rear door/window gasket leaking, I think that got pulled on or something as that wasn't leaking before... Looks like that gasket is glued in place?

Is this the correct stuff for the rear weatherstripping

https://www.autozone.com/sealants-glues-adhesives-and-tape/weatherstrip/p/permatex-black-super-weatherstrip-adhesive-5oz/528141_0_0