Offroad-Express

Hi, just bought a 89 Surf recently which doesn't have raingutters anymore. So to fit my roofracks that i had on my 84 i need to bolt those little "artificial rain gutters" to my roof. What you do is you just drill 2 holes each for all four of these plates into your roof where the feet of your racks shall sit and bolt them in place.
Now my problem is I don't want to make a messy job of pulling out the inner ceiling liner in order to get the drill job done and then have the liner half hangin off the ceiling afterwards. What exactly do I need to do to get it off and back on properly? I figured already that I'll have to take all the lamps down, the B column liners incl the seat belt anchors. But will it then just come off or what else do I need to do?

Any help appreciated to keep my truck looking nice.

Michael

Hmmm watching this thread as i will be in a similar predicament with my Terrano.

you can get roof racks that dont require gutters to mount. my mates surf has these. would save you drilling holes in the roof and having the possiablity of it leaking and rusting

If you do drill the roof as I will be, use gasket RTV, its black and sticks like the preverbial shit to a blanket. I use this stuff on everything now.

Yeah I know. Just that I GOT some racks and those little plates already and the new feet that would fit without gutters alone would cost me around 200 new. gotta check on trademe but so far I've seen no used ones for sale.
I've had it just like that on an old van and that is still not rusting due to immediate priming before the screws went in. also is bullet proof - you'd rather loose what's on the rack than the rack itself.
This afternoon I checked my options and it wasn't really encouraging:
I tried to get the roof liner off or at least bend it far enough to fit my hand in to fix up the screws and that didn't work. Tried cutting 3 sides of a rectangle in order to bend it far enough right where the mounting plate should sit but is still too stiff. (found out in the process why my interior light ain't working
Now I'm just drilling it through where the liner comes closest to the reinforcements in the roof and have the mounting plates (17cm long) sitting on the very inside. Just gotta wait til the bloody rain stops now. haha.

PS. A year ago I read somthing somewhere on either this website or soem other Hilux or 4wd page about a hot water shower, built under the hood into the cooling system with a heatexchanger. any idea where where I can find that mod?
(Pretty sure it was an Ozzie site)

M

I had this problem with mine, I got and universal pro rack from 4wd accessories. It just rivets on, I haven't had a problem with water leaking in or rust... so far, but i've had it on for 6 months so it must be ok

As Jezza say, ya use rivets

Don't remove the roof lining, This is a major job and would be difficult to get back in again.

Just drill from the outside but with a sleave (ya can use a cut down bic pen) on the drill bit so only 1-2 mm of drill showing after the cutting tip.

If this doesn't quite get thru, redrill with anothe 1mm showing

Is all on: No rivets as each foot is only held by two of em. I went right trough the lining to the inside and attached it there. Pretty solid. Gotta put it where the reinforcements are though. Different scenario if your rack is one piece and it's got six feet or at least 4. than I think you can rivet it in place.


Ta.
They sit high and nice, leaving some room underneath for some additional headlights or rear drive lights.
We'll see.

MM

my Pro-rack rails are glued and riveted in place.
Has been in place for over a year with no problems.
I have carried over 150kgs on the rack .

Chris