Spotted Rust

[kkamakasi]

on the roof rails. I'd like to snip it in the bud before it gets too nasty. Anyone tackle this job before?

Is it as simple as sand, clean, prime, and paint?

[Towncivilian]

Your roof rack crossbars have rust, or the actual rails themselves?

My crossbars seem to be aluminum, they had flaking paint for years and not one spot of rust except near a screw hole where it screws into the mounting hardware. But that was a really tiny spot of surface rust.

For the rails, I think you can just remove them from the roof and sand, clean, prime, and paint as you said. I used spray can primer and paint for my crossbars, flat black. Use some good spray paint like Rustoleum if you choose this route, not some cheap crap like I did.

[kkamakasi]

Actual rails. Cool, I didn't know they were removable! Any DIY on how to remove the rails?

[Towncivilian]

I'm not certain they are removable as I never tried, but if I recall correctly it looked like they were removable. Mine have two end caps on the front and rear of the vehicle secured by T20 Torx bits, and then the rails themselves also have some Torx screws holding them on is what it looks like. But I also have a PF, dunno if the QX4 is any different.

[kkamakasi]

I just went out to the garage and you were right. They are removable. Couple of T-25 screws and it came off pretty easily.

[Towncivilian]

Great. I'll have to glance at mine too later for rust. Good luck with your rails!

[kkamakasi]

Thanks Town. I'll try to post up some pictures of the restore process. Everyone loves pictures!

[kkamakasi]

Just finished up the re-spray today.

I took some sand paper and sanded down the rust spots as much as I could and then spot treated it with some rust eliminating spray.

Then a few coats of rust preventing spray followed by Rustoleum High Heat matte black spray.

Before:











--------

After





Dang nab it... I forgot to take pictures of the rails where the rust was.. Just imagine a clean black rail lol.

[Towncivilian]

Ouch, nasty rust on those rails. Luckily the crossbars are aluminum, so no rust on those. You did a much better job at painting the crossbars than I did - I used some crappy Valspar primer and flat black PlastiKote paint. I should've used Rustoleum for both and done a better job at that. But, as long as the paint ain't flaking off as before I'm happy. It's not like anybody stares at my crossbars, and I don't care all that much considering it's a 10 year old car anyway.

A buddy and I spent quite a while sanding down most of my crossbars by hand. We used a power wood sander to sand down the areas covered by the mounting bracket, which was very thick paint and stubborn to remove. There was a tiny fleck of rust atop one of the screw holes on the crossbars, but that was it. On hindsight we should've just either used the power sander for everything, or just scuffed everything up and laid paint on top. Would've saved a ton of time.

Great job, again!

[kkamakasi]

Yeah the rust on the rails looked pretty bad. Once I started grinding it off with my dremel and then with sand paper, it was only surface-deep.

I think I got a little too impatient with the painting process as the yellow Rustoleum primer is peaking through from place to place but like you've said, it's not like anyone ever looks at the top of the car.

I'll be happy as long as the metal isn't exposed and treated with rust protection

[Towncivilian]

Yeah, really sucks when the primer peaks through. Really just have to be patient, but watching paint dry is so boring that you just want to get the damn thing done so you usually end up rushing things. :/

I wonder why the factory paint is so crappy for the crossbars. I know we're not the only ones with flaking paint as I've seen other R50s with the same problem. I sure hope our new paint holds up another 10 years, but if not it's not too much of a chore to repaint them. At least they're aluminum and won't rust, either way.