How Do I Remove a Non-OEM Roof Rack?

I purchased a used Tacoma a few months ago and it came with a non-OEM roof rack installed. I hated the way it looked when I first bought the truck and had every intention of removing it but never really had the time. Now it's time to do it and I'm not sure how it's on the truck. Here are some pics:




In the first pic, the item in the red circle has a screw in it but the screw is not attached to anything. Any help would be appreciated?

 

Unless you plan to have a body shop weld up the holes and repaint, I'd leave it. You're going to have holes in your roof when you remove those screws...

 

the strange thing is when i remove the screws, the roof rack is still stuck on the truck. the screws are not screwed into anything. its odd...

 

The rack probably has some sort of double sided adhesive tape to keep it from vibrating against the body. Or, there's a build up of wax etc holding it there. But, regardless of all of that, I would also bet that there are holes in your roof somewhere under that.

 

There was something like this on the 1 gen. Its on with epoxy the paint will come with it if I don't miss my guess!! Jim

 

So the screw is not tapped into the roof? I do not understand not attached to anything? If there is no hole in the roof, then can you see dbl back adhesive attaching the rack to the roof or does it looked glued down? I would suspect if it was mounted correctly it probably is screwed into or thru the roof as well as glued and or sealed around those mounting areas. Did you try to back out one of the screws? This may tell the whole story...

 

When you remove the screw, look down in the hole and see if you see where it was screwed through the sheet metal. If it wasn't screwed through the roof, it was most likely either glued down or they used double sided tape. Double sided tape you might be able to clean up, epoxy or some other adhesives you might be better off not to mess with it.

When you have the screws out, can you gently rock it back and forth? If so, I would guess it's double sided tape, if not, it's probably glued. If you decide to leave it on due to the potential issues raised above, put some silicone in the hole before you put the screws back in. That way, if they did drill the roof, it will seal up the hole so you don't have leaks.

 

Correct, the screws are not tapped into the roof. So I'm assuming that the roof rack is either glued on or being held by double sided tape.

 

I just checked the roof rack again and one of the roof rack is tapped into the roof and the other is not. So for the one that is tapped into the roof, what can be used to cover up the hole in the roof?

 

I wonder if there is a nut under the headliner that fell down when you backed out the screw. I find it hard to believe that someone screwed a load bearing roof rack into just the sheet metal. People are stupid.

If it were me, I would put the screw that you backed out back in with a bunch of silicone and just leave it. Taking it off could open up a can of worms.

Option 1: Then I would get the OEM roof rack and install it. It looks like it would fit up there WITH the aftermarket one and you would no longer be able to see the aftermarket one and you would have a sturdy, reliable rack.

Option 2: If the aftermarket rack comes off easy (does not destroy/peel paint in the process) you could sand down the hole left from the screw, primer it, then get a vinyl shop to color match and cut you two strips (think yard stick size) to cover your body work.

 

I looked at your pictures again, I'm kind of leaning toward Option 2. Either color match with strips OR do the whole roof with flat black vinyl.