FastEC

The black finish (paint?) on the roof rack tracks of my 2002 RX300 has peeled off over the years and is now showing a lot of the chrome underneath and I want to have them refinished. I have removed the black racks from the tracks to take a look but the actual tracks that the racks ride on have a type of bolt head that I do not have a tool or socket to remove. Has anyone removed their tracks to have them refinished? If so, how do you go about removing them? Any help on this would be appreciated.

FastEC

Found a body shop that will remove the roof tracks and refinish them. Another body shop wanted to tape them off and bag the car to repaint them, but I don't think that will provide as clean of a finished product. Has anyone ever removed the roof tracks? I wonder if it will cause any problems with leaking due to it being bolted to the roof.

JohnLX300

iTrader: (2)

I'm taking mine off this weekend an taking the paint off, I could go for a cheap pair of chrome roof racks....oh yeah!!!

FastEC

Let me know how it goes. I thought about just stripping the black off since the underneath is chrome, but the caps on each end are black, so I think I'll be going to the body shop in the next week or so to get them refinished. I have a 2002 millenium silver RX and found the millenium silver racks off of a 2001 Silversport RX to replace my black racks. Should look pretty sweet after I get the tracks refinished. I just replaced my RX chrome bar grill with a Silversport honeycomb grill. It actually was a Harrier Silversport grill (same grill with a hawk logo instead of the "L" logo made for Japan) and I found a chrome Lexus "L" to replace it and it looks better than the original Silversport grill after my mods. Waiting on my chromed rims and new headlights to arrive. It's gonna look better than new in a few weeks. Still need to do some work on the front seats though...starting to show some age. Have to post some before and afters when I'm done. Let me know how it goes with the roof tracks.

FastEC

Had my track removed and refinished black a couple of months ago. Also, purchased SilverSport silver roof racks and had them repainted along with my rear spoiler and hood/bumper where they were dinged by rocks over the years. I found a Harrier SilverSport grille and cut out the Hawk logo and replaced it with a Lexus logo and it looks better than the original black pearl SilverSport grille. Put chrome tailpipe cover, rims, license plate strip, license plate holder, healight and taillight overlays and Lexus "L" logo hitch cover and found the tint that matches the factory tinting for my front windows. Put in new headlights to replace the yellowed original lamps and put in PIAA extreme white bulbs for hi/low/fog/parking lights. This RX gets lots of compliments now and many people think it looks as good or better than a new one.

AlexusAnja

You remove the two twist screws you can see. Then you removed the bolts with a ratchet drive and the pieces come right up and they just separate. Once off the ends, just scrap off as much paint as you can. Sand the rough edges, then prime and spray on a good high-temp paint. Not really necessary to use high-temp paint, but I did did.

It's worked fine for last two years after I did the job. The bars are on top of the vehicle, so minor imperfections with paint are not so easily visible. Not like painting a side fender.

Dadikins

I have a similar problem - it started around 2 years ago, but just on the driver side. Now, the other side is also starting to peel.

I was debating going to a junk yard & buying replacements, but considering this is actually drilled into the roof, I'm afraid of causing damage to the roof and/or having leaking.

See image below.

rxda90

I had a problem with paint peeling on the cross-bars. I ended up masking off the end brackets, sanding them rough and applying a few coats of pickup truck bed liner spray. Less than $10. Durable and non-slip.