The rail has a rubber washer at the base of the mounting studs to seal the rail against the roof and keep water out. Here’s one of the studs on the roof rail that holds the rail down to the van. Note: Acetone is nasty stuff, wear appropriate gloves to keep it off your skin and make sure you have a lot of good ventilation. Here I’m using a little acetone to clean up the remaining adhesive around the holes. Working your way down the channel removing all of the plastic plugs. Up top after cleaning it up with the scraper. Piece of plastic lexan cut to use as a scraper, a cheap plastic scraper from the local hardware department would work here as well 👍 At that point shut off the heat gun and use a screw driver to push up on the plug from the inside, the plastic plug will pop right out! While the adhesive is still hot use a plastic scraper to remove as much as the adhesive as possible on the roof.
Use a heat gun from inside the van and heat the plastic plug to the point where it just starts to melt/deform. Here’s a photo of one of the factory plastic plugs that seal the rail mounting holes, viewed from the roof…Īnd the same plug viewed from inside the van. With the headliner removed its time to install the rails. Search YouTube for “Sprinter Headliner Removal” for some great how-to vids on this process. This process is time consuming but not overly difficult.
If you have a cargo model its simple and you just go right to work, a passenger van like ours will need the entire headliner removed to install the rails. Loctite 243 Thread Locker – Available on Amazonįirst up and the most time consuming part of this job is removing the headliner to gain access to the factory holes/plugs.Butyl Rubber Tape – Available on Amazon.The link provided above was by far the best price on OEM rails that I could find and competitive with aftermarket rails. Prices vary WILDLY on the oem rails depending on where you order them from. Note On Roof Rails: I chose to go with the OEM roof rails…if you shop around you can find these for not a lot more than the aftermarket units and you know they will fit and work perfectly. These plugs will need to be removed to install the rails. There are plastic plugs in the holes with adhesive sealing them from the weather. The van comes from the factory with holes already punched into the body to accommodate the roof rails, even if it doesn’t have the roof rails installed from the factory. Our rails will ultimately be used to attach a roof rack to the van and support solar, an awning etc. Below is a How-To article on installing the factory roof rails so you can mount any number of items to your roof. Roof rails are a handy addition to any Sprinter but not all vans were ordered with the rails factory installed.
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