LONO100 Posted December 13, 2012 Share Posted December 13, 2012 hi all, I'm looking to remove the factory cross bars off my 97 wagon so I can refinish them. I'm guessing I will have to remove the interior headliner to get them off. I was wondering if anyone on the forum has done this before, and if so, could I get some advice or pointers on how to do it. Thanks in advance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stang70Fastback Posted December 13, 2012 Share Posted December 13, 2012 I think it's fairly straightforward. If I remember correctly, almost all of the trim pieces around the perimeter simply pop off. I do remember having to unscrew the hand holds (handles) above the passenger seats first, which is obviously easy. Also you will have to unscrew and remove the light assemblies too (easy for the rear two. I've never removed the front one with the moonroof switches, but I assume it's fairly straightforward too.) Around the moonroofs on my car, it's just velcro that holds it up, so you just pull it off (if you don't have moonroofs I assume it still has velcro of some sort somewhere? And there are two poppers in the ceiling in the trunk area... and perhaps more in place of velcro if you don't have moonroofs. I guess what I'm trying to say is that it's pretty damned simple, lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LONO100 Posted December 13, 2012 Author Share Posted December 13, 2012 thanks for the help. i always try to figure out if there are any pitfalls whenever removing interior pieces. a lot of the times you will find headliners held in place by funky snaps and stuff like that, that are very easily broken. ill take pics and document the whole project for future use on this forum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stang70Fastback Posted December 13, 2012 Share Posted December 13, 2012 Yeah, pulling the trim pieces off on this car is a bit terrifying, but I haven't broken anything MYSELF yet (have had snaps completely destroyed when local shops did work once - another reason I don't let people touch my car anymore unless absolutely necessary.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monkeyposeur Posted December 14, 2012 Share Posted December 14, 2012 You don't need to remove the headliner to get the roof rails off necessarily. You just remove the plastic end caps and remove the torx screws. However, I was trying to remove one roof rack off a '96 GT wagon at the junk yard and one of the roof rail bolts just spun and spun. I tore the headliner off and there was a funky sleeve over the end of the bolt that you couldn't get a wrench on. All 7 other bolts came out fine. There are factory pinch bolts that are pinched on to the metal of the roof. But stang is right. It's pretty easy to remove the headliner. In fact, you won't have to completely remove it. You can just remove a few trim pieces and the handles and pull the headliner back enough to get a tool up in there. I had a few of my pinch bolts strip out of the roof so I had to replace them with a nut and a couple toothed washers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LONO100 Posted December 14, 2012 Author Share Posted December 14, 2012 thanks for the info. I figured I could just get some torx bits in there but I want to make sure I am able to grab some hardware from the other side if need be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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