Remove roof rack rail

[Christian]

Has anyone removed these roof rails yet? What's underneath?
How are they attached?

 

[DaBull]

Has anyone removed these roof rails yet? What's underneath?
How are they attached?

HI Christian, I have yet to see anyone on the forum post anything about removing the plastic roof rails. I do remember watching some Ineos Factory videos and it appears that each strip is held in place by 4-5 metal studs that are affixed to the roof and protrude upwards approximately 10-18mm (1/2" - 3/4"). My assumption is that these roof rails are a simple press fit onto these protruding studs. You could try sliding a thin piece of fishing line underneath the strip and pulling it along until you reach a stud and then use a thin plastic trim removal tool to try and lever it up off the roof a bit and repeat this until the whole strip is up and removed. I don't think there are any clips involved, however I am not sure. If you do remove the strips, perhaps take some measurements on where the studs are located along with photos of them and how the bottom of the strips look too. DaBull

 

[Xrford]

I remember a thread where someone was missing one of the roof rub rails on delivery, check it out as it may give you more details

found thread
Here

 

[ScottnAZ]

I began by prying them upward at what appeared to be the location of the metal “studs”. I used a plastic shim, and some hand force. This seemed to work, then I discovered you can (with a bit of effort) slide the entire roof rail forward and the rail will slide off the plastic retainer piece that clips to the metal stud; leaving the plastic piece behind.

I’m a bit worried I may have damaged the plastic clip pieces a bit by the forceful prying, but think I’ll add some silicone or simple super glue when reattaching the plastic clip to the metal stud.

 

[DaBull]

I began by prying them upward at what appeared to be the location of the metal “studs”. I used a plastic shim, and some hand force. This seemed to work, then I discovered you can (with a bit of effort) slide the entire roof rail forward and the rail will slide off the plastic retainer piece that clips to the metal stud; leaving the plastic piece behind.

I’m a bit worried I may have damaged the plastic clip pieces a bit by the forceful prying, but think I’ll add some silicone or simple super glue when reattaching the plastic clip to the metal stud.

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HI ScottAZ, I am going to be wrapping my Grenadier roof in Xpel Stealth satin/mat 7.5mill PPF wrap to protect it. If I read your post correctly, one should push the plastic strips forward and that will release the
plastic strip from the plastic clips which will remain on the stud posts. It appears it will then be easier to pull up the plastic clips with out damaging them, is that your take. How would you recommend installing the plastic strips again, put clips into plastic strips and then push them down onto roof. Any step by step recommendations would be appreciated. By the way, I was born in Chandler Arizona. DaBull

 

[ScottnAZ]

Hey DaBull! I’m actually a native Tempe/Chandler boy, didn’t move far, and our girls even went to the same high school I did. Kinda an anomaly in such a large city.

Our roof gets wrapped tomorrow……. Yes, I am suggesting you should be able to slide the roof rail strip forward to slide it off the plastic clips (so the plastic clip stays on the metal stud). It’ll take a bit of force; with 2 hands.

As of now, I am planning to put all the plastic clips back on the metal studs, and slide the rail back on. However, you have a good suggestion of putting all the plastic clips back on the rail piece and simply snapping it back in place on to the metal studs. I think that would work nicely, and minimize risk of damaging the wrap material. Tomorrow evening, when the wrap is done, I’ll try both scenarios and post an update.

The original “prying” did work, but I did damage a couple of the “legs” on the plastic rail that slide over the plastic clips, as well as some of the “teeth” on the clip piece. So, if you end up prying the rail strip off, take a little extra care. It’s difficult to show in a picture, but the left side of this u-shape (part of the rail piece, and the part that slides over the plastic clip) is actually loose/damaged and kinda “flapping in the wind”, although the right side is perfectly in tact still.

 

[DaBull]

Hey DaBull! I’m actually a native Tempe/Chandler boy, didn’t move far, and our girls even went to the same high school I did. Kinda an anomaly in such a large city.

Our roof gets wrapped tomorrow……. Yes, I am suggesting you should be able to slide the roof rail strip forward to slide it off the plastic clips (so the plastic clip stays on the metal stud). It’ll take a bit of force; with 2 hands.

As of now, I am planning to put all the plastic clips back on the metal studs, and slide the rail back on. However, you have a good suggestion of putting all the plastic clips back on the rail piece and simply snapping it back in place on to the metal studs. I think that would work nicely, and minimize risk of damaging the wrap material. Tomorrow evening, when the wrap is done, I’ll try both scenarios and post an update.

The original “prying” did work, but I did damage a couple of the “legs” on the plastic rail that slide over the plastic clips, as well as some of the “teeth” on the clip piece. So, if you end up prying the rail strip off, take a little extra care. It’s difficult to show in a picture, but the left side of this u-shape (part of the rail piece, and the part that slides over the plastic clip) is actually loose/damaged and kinda “flapping in the wind”, although the right side is perfectly in tact still.

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Hi ScottnAZ, Thanks for the extra info and photos. Let me know how your wrap goes and how you get the strips back on.
What type and color wrap are your going with?
DaBull

 

[ScottnAZ]

Hi ScottnAZ, Thanks for the extra info and photos. Let me know how your wrap goes and how you get the strips back on.
What type and color wrap are your going with?
DaBull

We’re wrapping the roof in 3M white. Barby was able to find us an incoming unit that matched our original order perfectly with exception of the roof. I figured it was a small detail, and saved us a few months of waiting

 

[Jackattack13]

Is the dealership doing that or you personally? What is the cost on that?

 

[ScottnAZ]

Okay, I looked more closely at the rail before reinstallation, and the only way to remove and reinstall is to pry up and off, then snap back down in place. Reinstallation took less than a minute to pop all 4 back on.

If you look at the picture below, half of the u-shaped catch pieces are facing one direction and the other half facing the other direction. So, in theory, you could pry up to release 3 of the contact points and then slide it off the other 3, but frankly, take your time with a plastic shim or pry tool and you’ll be fine popping the piece off. Still shouldn’t take more than 5-10 minutes for removal.

As a side note, I also removed the safari windows to make the vinyl application easier for the installer.

 

[ScottnAZ]

Is the dealership doing that or you personally? What is the cost on that?

Is this question to me? Rusnak Ineos Delership provides the option to take care of a roof wrap (they have a catalog of add-on wrap and ppf options), but there is a local place who has wrapped and/or vinyl stickered all of our work trucks over the years, so I preferred to give them the business. I paid $900.