anyone here ever attempted to take of the roof rack? like the side rails and everything. im wanting to do it cause mine are quite scratched up and stuff and i wanna paint it black or powder coat grey and get a white xterra decal thing on it.
im trying to figure out whats involved. is it just taking off the plastic base things where theres 3 on each side or is it actually like into the frame of the car somehow?
i really dont wanna paint it on the car cause i dont like taping up everything and having to deal w/ that. and id like to do it maybe in truck bed liner, so i dont wanna get any of that on my car.

Its really simple...just a torx driver thats included in your car and just a lil elbow grease and it'll come off just easily....me and justin had to do that to mine in order to get inside his garage so we could do the PMLs....really straightforward.

so its just the screws that are around the plastic base things? theres like 2 or 4 per base. correct?

Yeah, the screws in the plastic base is the only thing thats holdin' the roof rails and from what I remember....there's 2 on the front, 3 in middle, 2 in rear....all can be taken off/installed on with that torx driver.

I just had mine ofthe other day to repaint it. It is simple to get on and off.

what did you repaint it with?

what do yall think...black or the dark grey like the kind that comes on some X's?

The color is up to you.....I've thought about painting it dark grey since I probably will get all of shrockworks stuff in dark grey to keep the original trim color but again, thats up to you.

ive painted all my trim black....and i plan on eventually either building my own or helping someone build me a front and maybe rear, and hopefully it will be black. so i think im gonna go w/ black.
do i have to sand off all the powder coat stuff to paint it?

I'm not sure on that one about sanding off....but I'd let the others chime in first before I say anything wrong or something.

thanks for your help bro...i like how i made a thread so you and me could have a conversation. hopefully drake or somebody will chime in before i start to doing it tomorrow...its gonna take me a while though cause ive gotta take off my basket too, which means taking out the hilift and the tire...by myself.

No problem man, it was pretty cool just chatting on the thread. Just take your time when you paint....I painted my rear bumper plastic and wiper cowls last weekend, took me a entire day to do it all from removal to installation...looks pretty sweet though!

Let me know if you have any more questions and show pics when your done!

I vote for either bright pink with purple polkadots or paint the whole thing with glow-in-the-dark paint.

:laugh-big:

haha, tuff, youre so helpful!! i dont know why i didnt think of doing that when i painted all my trim! its too late now, i have to have it all match!
though, i must say glow in the dark would be pretty awesome.

lime green.....like slimer from ghostbusters...ha....actually, since your x is all black, that probably wouldn't look half bad if you're into flashy colors. in all seriousness though, i think a semi-gloss black or herculiner would look awesome on your rig since everything is already blacked out. i think it would totally finish it off nice. but, it's your rig, so it's whatever you want to do to it

-john

i think im gonna go for black bedliner for the rails, and im also gonna redo the top of my rear bumper with it cause its getting scratched up like crazy. and im gonna do the little brackets at the bottom of the rails in just regular black like the rest of my X

Hey, your xterra oughta be covered head to toe in mud anyhow!

After we went wheeling, I drove to work on monday, picked up a work vehicle and drove around in it all week... I came back on friday to get my X and apparently we had just enough rain to make the mud slide downwards on my truck... so much in fact that it had packed the door handles completely with mud and dried hard as a rock. I sat out there for 10 minutes poking at mud with my gerber before I could actually get in my truck. :lol:

thats a sign of a good weekend of wheeling.

when it rains here i still have mud dripping off of mine lol but i have thought about painting my rails then putting a 2nd gen sticker on it i really like those

any final words on painting? i am about to start it...anyone suggest sanding..or not sanding?

I sanded mine, but I did not sand everything off, just enough to rough it up a little so the paint would have something to stick to. Then I coated everything that was to be painted with self etching primer, sanded again, and then used Krylon flat black paint, then I followed that with about 2 cans worth of clear coat. I guess time will tell how well it holds up, but it looks pretty good. I just have to find some new stickers for the rails now.

You don't need to actually sand it unless you have anything on there you want sanded out (texture, chips, etc...). All you need to do to prep it is, take a scotch bright to it and scuff it really good untill it's not shiny anymore, then wipe it all down with wax and grease remover and your set. That will give it a good clean surface and something for the paint to bite into.

I sanded mine, but I did not sand everything off, just enough to rough it up a little so the paint would have something to stick to. Then I coated everything that was to be painted with self etching primer, sanded again, and then used Krylon flat black paint, then I followed that with about 2 cans worth of clear coat. I guess time will tell how well it holds up, but it looks pretty good. I just have to find some new stickers for the rails now.

Sounds like you did just fine, it should last real well.

Just let us know what stickers your looking for.

Sounds like you did just fine, it should last real well.

Just let us know what stickers your looking for.

I need a pair of the Xterra stickers that go on the rails of the roof rack.

Like this one (towards the back of the rack):

http://image.motortrend.com/f/roadtests/suv/8573502/112_0502_05z+2005_nissan_xterra+roof_rack_view.jpg