Installing rack on roof
Senior User
Joined: Nov 2001
Posts: 319
Likes: 0
From: Sacramento
Roof rack installation
I've installed racks on other vehicles, and here's how it went:
Get an OEM rack from a "donor" vehicle. Before you take it off that vehicle, measure from a couple places on the roof, to the bolt holes in the rack. You want to place it exactly the same spot on your roof. Measure how deep the holes in the roof are. You'll need that later.
You'll notice what kind of fasteners (nuts) the rack screws go into. You can then go to Ford or whomever, and buy the same type nuts if you are missing some. Or an aftermarket rack place may sell the nuts separately. (Body shops buy them somewhere, when they replace racks after paint jobs.)
Drill the holes in the roof as needed, taking EXTREME care not to penetrate the headliner. At the least, put some tape around your drill bit at the depth you measured on the donar vehicle's roof holes.
The "nuts" I used are rubber expanding nuts: The screw fits thru the rubber cylinder into a threaded washer on the bottom of the rubber cylinder. When you tighten the screw through the rack, the rubber cylinder expands, so that the "nut" can not pull out through the roof metal.
I know the above routine, as I sadly did not know that a sheet of tied down plywood on my Jeep Cherokee rack goes airborne, and takes the rack with it, at speeds over 47 mph.
Good luck, you can do it!
Get an OEM rack from a "donor" vehicle. Before you take it off that vehicle, measure from a couple places on the roof, to the bolt holes in the rack. You want to place it exactly the same spot on your roof. Measure how deep the holes in the roof are. You'll need that later.
You'll notice what kind of fasteners (nuts) the rack screws go into. You can then go to Ford or whomever, and buy the same type nuts if you are missing some. Or an aftermarket rack place may sell the nuts separately. (Body shops buy them somewhere, when they replace racks after paint jobs.)
Drill the holes in the roof as needed, taking EXTREME care not to penetrate the headliner. At the least, put some tape around your drill bit at the depth you measured on the donar vehicle's roof holes.
The "nuts" I used are rubber expanding nuts: The screw fits thru the rubber cylinder into a threaded washer on the bottom of the rubber cylinder. When you tighten the screw through the rack, the rubber cylinder expands, so that the "nut" can not pull out through the roof metal.
I know the above routine, as I sadly did not know that a sheet of tied down plywood on my Jeep Cherokee rack goes airborne, and takes the rack with it, at speeds over 47 mph.
Good luck, you can do it!
Senior User
Joined: Mar 2003
Posts: 276
Likes: 0
From: Forest Hill
Here ya go here is a guy parting one out with a rack on it....
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...&category=6783
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...&category=6783
Senior User
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 403
Likes: 0
From: cincinnati hamilton
i did a junk yard search thru the internet. bought a used rack 2 yrs ago. they shipped it , i cleaned and painted it. then mounted it. got the approx. position on the roof from another aero. i put sheet metal screws with large flat heads on thru the mounting holes. if they are too big (heads) the cross bars won't slide all over freely, but that still didn't bother me. i just wanted it on the roof. i sealed each hole with silicone. two yrs later still ok. i put a cargo shellm on it for vacations, doing fine. 
rick
rick
