My anti rust quest. Roof rail nutsert spinning? My solution

[MG2000XJ]

Hey guys, I've been on a mission to address roof top rust before winter sets in and today I decided to pull my roof rails and see how bad the rust really is.

Most of my roof looks like this, I need to get inside the windshield seal and assess the situation. I can peel the seal back a bit and the rust is worse outside the seal from the looks of it.



I was able to easily remove all bolts from the aluminum threaded nutserts except for one. I was cranking on my torx driver then the nutsert began spinning beneath the rail. Fudge...

The more I worked on it, the looser it became. I considered drilling out the torx cap but I reallllllly didn't want to do that. I needed some type of tool or plier that was skinny enough to fit between the roof rail and the roof itself that could grab the spinnging nutsert.

I ran around the house looking for whatever I could find.

I found no tool that would work but I did find a butter knife that would fit.

This is what I came up with.

This thing was somewhat snug but still spinning freely.


I cut the butter knife flat and notched the blade so it would fit around either side of the nutsert. by putting pressure on the knife the nutsert slipped into the notch in the blade. I had to widen the gap a couple times until the blade fit tightly but it worked! It held the nutsert nice and tight while I could break the torx bit free.

Notched butter knife.


Fits great and kept the nutsert from spinning while I broke the bolt free.


Now I need to somehow reseal the nutsert to keep it from spinning and/or leaking. Any ideas there?

In addition to the spotty rust all over the roof, I have rust developing in the rain gutter/drip rail at the front of each gutter. Any suggestions on how I should clean that rust out?



I will likely be grinding, filling, priming and painting my rust spots on the roof then hitting everything with a couple layers of Monstaliner. Debating trying to color match a grey to the Jeep or I might just opt for the standard Jeep owner move and git it black.

I'm confortable taking a grinder to the Jeep and working on the rust myself but I need to do it before we start getting snow and overly salted roads. Any advice would be appreciated.

Hope the tool helps someone in the future!

MG

 

[N8N_99xj]

I'd just drill the nutsert and insert a new one. Fastenal is your friend. BTDT not on roof rails but skid plates.

 

[Anak]

I have the same surface rust in my roof rails. I will be curious to see what others have as recommendations.

My thought is to go after it with a wire wheel on a Dremel, mask things off, hit it with a rust converter type primer and then repaint it. But if someone who knows what they are doing has a better technique I am all ears.

 

[MG2000XJ]

I have the same surface rust in my roof rails. I will be curious to see what others have as recommendations.

My thought is to go after it with a wire wheel on a Dremel, mask things off, hit it with a rust converter type primer and then repaint it. But if someone who knows what they are doing has a better technique I am all ears.

Ideally, I’d like to pull the rain gutter off the pinch weld, grind out and paint and reinstall old or install new drip rails or whatever they’re called.

Wire wheel and paint is likely the easiest option but I have no interest in the corners of the roof rusting through and leaking down the road.

 

[MG2000XJ]

I'd just drill the nutsert and insert a new one. Fastenal is your friend. BTDT not on roof rails but skid plates.

I will probably seal it up and plug the nutsert somehow. When I pull the headliner to redo it, I will see what I can come up with from the inside. Or I’ll keep using my goofy butter knife tool to remove the tire bit. I’d really like to avoid drilling it out but maybe it’s gotta be done.

Thanks for the advice, by the way what is BTDT?

 

[Anak]

Been there, done that.

 

[Heavyopp]

BTDT -- "Been there done that" is my guess

 

[TRCM]

My plan, since I don't need the roof rack, is to pull it off, pull the headliner, have a buddy hold a copper spoon over the hole inside the jeep, and I'll weld them up from outside......then sand down and paint.

Then reinstall the headliner and keep on getting it....................





Best way to clean out those gutters would be using a wire wheel to get as much as you can, then a spot sandblaster for the rest.


.

 

[N8N_99xj]

BTW it sounds like you aren't going to try it now but if you don't have an insertion tool for nutserts you can still fake it with hardware

Take a long bolt with a nut and some matching washers, and get a wrench that fits the bolt head and another that fits the nut

grease the washers, run the nut all the way on the bolt, then put a few washers below the nut, and finally thread that whole mess into the nutsert

insert the nutsert into the hole, hold the bolt head with a wrench and run the nut away from the bolt head with the other wrench until the nutsert is fully seated

my '99 had about 4-5 of the nutserts in the "frame" rails replaced like that, it's just a shame that I had to let it go

I got my nutserts from Fastenal although I had to order them.

good luck!

 

[tjmotter]

I will probably seal it up and plug the nutsert somehow. When I pull the headliner to redo it, I will see what I can come up with from the inside. Or I’ll keep using my goofy butter knife tool to remove the tire bit. I’d really like to avoid drilling it out but maybe it’s gotta be done.

Thanks for the advice, by the way what is BTDT?

When I was tearing mine down I ran into the same issue on two of these. Royal PITA.... When you put it all back together, consider stuffing as much JBWeld as you can around the nutsirt. I ended up drilling mine out and replacing them.

One other comment would be that these suckers are exposed all of the time so I put some thread sealant on each connector before re-installing to make sure they didn't become a leak point.

WRT the drip rails, I had a tiny bit of rust on mine. The solution I used was to clean it as well as possible with a wire wheel and then I poured some rust removal gel on it, let it sit for an hour and then cleaned it off really well before priming and paint.

HTH
Todd