HELP! ID roof rack destroyed by Irene

[illuzion]

Hi I have a strange request, my 94 bronco has a roof rack on it I don't recgonize and neither does anyone else. I think it *might* be a OEM ford explorer roof rack that the dealer bolted on a bronco (fullsize), I have found explorer racks that are close, but not exact. Can anyone here identify this? All I know is that it came from the dealer with the truck, truck was purcahsed by me in 97. Truck is a 94, and I was told it was on the truck when it was new, but ford never made an OEM rack for the bronco.

Either its aftermarket (haven't been able to ID it), or its a ford (or other) oem from another vehicle. What I do know is the cross members look close to the 96 explorer rack, but the end connectors look different.

Also the thin slats in the middle are held by pressure sentitive adhesive (no holes for rivets/screws), the main rails are screwed down. See pictures below. I'm trying to find the *exact* one that is on there that was destroyed, noone in bronco forums recgonizes it, I figured someone here might. Any help greatly appreciated.

 

[FIND]

That is a roof rack from a first gen explorer.

 

[Joe Dirt]

I've never seen one with a "cutout" ring like that...

 

[Maniak]

The cross bars aren't 1st gen. The first Gen front bar doesn't move. Only the rear bar can move. Also, the rear bar is held into place with a slider/lever type thing, not a wheel.

You can see the slider/latch thing in this pic.

Rear Mount by maniak_az, on Flickr

The shape does look like a 1st gen though, just the wrong lock etc.

~Mark

 

[69Explorer69]

I have a 1st gen and its got the stock roof rack on it and both bars do move on mine

 

[boominXplorer]

Areostar?

 

[illuzion]

I am not an explorer expert, but I thought the first gen's had a slide switch type locking system. These have the star shaped turnwheels on both crossbars (front and rear), this was leading me toward Gen2, but the problem is that this was installed before gen2 (1994). Also the connectors on the ends of crossbars don't look like Gen2. The other problem is that I think gen2 uses rivets to hold the thin slats between the main rails, where as the one I have uses pressure sensitive adhesive. I looked at pics of an aerostar and the crossbar connectors don't look close. Any ideas?

 

[BKennedy]

My OEM rack had a fixed front piece and a movable rear piece with the slide thingie.
That looks like a Ford rack, but it must be off a second generation or maybe a mini-van. Any of the Ford racks would work. Just hit the junk yard and get one.

 

[ghosttrain2]

My '94 had that same rack on it, it was not factory, but a dealer installed one. It had the same pressure sensitive tape on the middle ribs, and both bars were movable. I removed what was left of it as the sun out here destroyed the plastic.

 

[jd4242]

Areostar?

thats what i would say.both my bars move also but have the slide lock,not wheel

 

[illuzion]

Could it be gen2 crossbars on gen1 rails (would they be compatible)?

 

[illuzion]

The only new info I got on this is that is was definately manufactured in 1993. I also believe strongly that it is NOT a oem rack, I went to a boneyard and started comparing parts and there is NOT ONE vehicle on a lot with thousands that has crossbars as wide as these. Although the crossbar extrusions are identical to stock, the length is too long (I compared to the largest vehicles available at the time - expeditions, navigators, explorers gen1 and 2, etc), and the longest crossbar I could find was around 6-8" shorter than mine. Also the center slats on mine are like 50" long. One of the guys at the boneyard told me he used to install these and it was an aftermarket rack that was designed to look like an OEM. Ghosttrain2 said he had one like it, and he was right it may have been aftermarket. But I have been googling and searching high and low and can't find anything other than OEM that resembles it. The only places I have seen this exact crossbar extrusions are on OEM ford and nissan's. I did order a gen2 which is really close and might work except for the crossbar length of the metal extrusions. Any idea where to get these or the complete rack?

 

[illuzion]

any help on this one, still can't figure it out Argh! Even if the company is out of business I would at least like to know what I'm looking for.
Thanks