?? on Stock Luggage Rack Mounting Hardware

[kmack]

I have a '93 4-door and I'm starting to have some rust issues I want to take care of around the luggage rack on the roof. Specifically with the front to back ribs that are mounted in the center of the roof.

I know they are riveted in place and I'm going to have to drill out the rivets to get them off and stop the rust. Question - Are the rivets just a standard type pop-rivet or are they something special from Ford?

The plastic ribs are starting to crack at the mounting locations. If I decide not to re-install them, are there any suggestions for what to put back in the rivets place to seal up the holes? Are the ribs available from Ford to replace them entirely?

Thanks in advance.

 

[cgbier]

Are you gonna take out the headliner? To really seal the holes, it would be best to weld them or use some Bondo.

 

[kmack]

At this point, I'm not looking to weld up the holes. Only something to maybe plug them with. My wire-feed welder isn't all that great when it comes to welding up thin sheet metal. Nor do I want the hassle of warping the roof and then having to deal with repainting. This truck is 20 yrs old but has less than 90k miles. I'm not ready to run the risk of messing the roof up just yet.

I'm guessing I'll just look at replacing the rivets for now. I had the headliner out last week to verify location of a leak which turned out to be the windshield seal when it had been replaced by the PO. I know I can replace the rivets with the headliner in place.
Just don't know if they are special from Ford or not.

 

[cgbier]

They look like standard rivets to me. I wonder though how the holes are seal against water creeping.

But thanks for posting this. You just made me have a look at my roof. Paint is cracking an d there's plenty of rust already. Seems I'll have to do the same job soon.

 

[kmack]

They look like standard rivets to me. I wonder though how the holes are seal against water creeping.

From what I saw, there didn't appear to be any type of sealant in the holes. It looked like just a tight fit seal between the expanded rivet and the sheet metal. Not sure if the rivets had anything on the outside of them (like some sort of coating). I know an old Jeep Cherokee I used to have had an expandable nut sort of thing that was coated in rubber. These rivets didn't have anything like that.