Bl**dy roof rack brackets

[Gingernuts]

Been trying for a wee whiley to remove the old Fiamma F65 roof rack brackets from my 2013 Citroen jumper (relay) without success! Tried a cheese wire, bread knife hacksaw blade, ltd access saw, one sided razor blade but there’s not enough gap to get in and cut the sealant!!!!!
I want to put a Fiamma roof rack on for kayaks light bar etc
I don’t think sealant remover would work as you canny get in to it as it’s holding the bracket on AND the factory seal between panels is underneath that as well!!!
Stumped!!!!!!

 

[Hoovie]

Been trying for a wee whiley to remove the old Fiamma F65 roof rack brackets from my 2013 Citroen jumper (relay) without success! Tried a cheese wire, bread knife hacksaw blade, ltd access saw, one sided razor blade but there’s not enough gap to get in and cut the sealant!!!!!
I want to put a Fiamma roof rack on for kayaks light bar etc
I don’t think sealant remover would work as you canny get in to it as it’s holding the bracket on AND the factory seal between panels is underneath that as well!!!
Stumped!!!!!!

post photos of the current brackets fitted and the roof rack kit you want to fit.

 

[Gingernuts]

See photos

 

[Gingernuts]

See photo

 

[Gingernuts]

See photo

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[pappajohn]

Sharpened wallpaper stripper in a side to side rocking motion should make headway....slowly.

 

[Gingernuts]

Thank you pappajohn.

 

[Two on Tour]

I use a heat gun as the heat makes the silicone pliable and stretchy and with a bit of force, you can gain a bit of a gap to get at the silicone to start nibbling at it.

 

[monzer]

Small crowbar with a bit of ply down first to protect the roof? Looks like you should be able to get it in the bracket to try a loft it.

 

[Gingernuts]

Thank you Twoontour and monger

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[Gingernuts]

monzer

 

[L' Hobo]

I have a Bosch PMF 180 E Multi that has a saw that oscillates back and forth for cutting in restricted areas but it might block the teeth.
From a hardware store, you should be able to get a wire saw that they use in a fretsaw for cutting tiles, that might do the job?

I must admit, I surprised that a Stanley knife wouldn't cut into the sealant, when I resealed my skylights, I cut away the sealant with the sharp long 4inch Stanley type blade (Harris Super Stripper Replacement Blade No 3391HB) from a wallpaper stripper that I clamped into a Stanley knife handle. Good Luck!

 

[Hoovie]

Ok..... thanks for the photo.

Now if you are fitting the 'proper' Fiamma Roof Rack, the first thing I would do is STOP trying to remove the brackets. You are creating extra work and hassle for yourself.

This is your bracket

This is a bracket from a Fiamma Roof Rack I just took a photo of. Spot the difference

The only difference between the Fiamma Awning Bracket and the Fiamma Roof Rail Bracket is the Roof Rail is the Roof Rail one has an extra tall rail support riveted onto the side of the Awning Bracket.
So what you can do is drill out the rivets on the awning brackets (the longer ones mainly) to separate the two parts, then fit the tall rail support, using self-tappers, to the brackets you already have in place to convert it to the rack bracket.

I did just this last year when I wanted to fit a Fiamma Rack to a van that had a Fiamma Awning already fitted.

 

[Gingernuts]

Hoovie thanks very much for that
Just been out to the van with the new brackets and I see what you mean now

 

[Hoovie]

Hoovie thanks very much for that
Just been out to the van with the new brackets and I see what you mean now
View attachment 704577View attachment 704578

No Problems.
If you have a centre bracket on the Awning (most do), you might have a big bolt at the top of the bracket? Drill a hole in the rack stand uplift to make room for that bolt head - much easier than trying to removing the bolt, and trying to align a hole to feed it back into the awning.

If you are interested in selling the spare brackets and T-bar clamps you will not now be using, let me know

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[Kannon Fodda]

Sharpened wallpaper stripper in a side to side rocking motion should make headway....slowly.

Round off the corners to reduce risk of them digging into the vehicle roof, even though that may make the blade tougher to push into the adhesive, as you loose the prying corner to poke with.

I have a Bosch PMF 180 E Multi that has a saw that oscillates back and forth for cutting in restricted areas but it might block the teeth.
From a hardware store, you should be able to get a wire saw that they use in a fretsaw for cutting tiles, that might do the job?

I must admit, I surprised that a Stanley knife wouldn't cut into the sealant, when I resealed my skylights, I cut away the sealant with the sharp long 4inch Stanley type blade (Harris Super Stripper Replacement Blade No 3391HB) from a wallpaper stripper that I clamped into a Stanley knife handle. Good Luck!

Don't go anywhere near the roof with a multi tool. Nowhere near enough control and far too vicious you'll end up needing to refinish the roof paintwork or other topping. The Stripper blade should work but as above consider rounding corners to avoid gouges.

Having removed 600mm long aluminium brackets stuck to the roof of my PVC you if something similar has to come off accept this is a painstaking tedious task. There is no solvent for the adhesive sealant stuff. I found the combination of a sharp decorators filling knife to get a start, then a windscreen removal tool wirecutter proved best. Once the bracket was off a very tedious clean up to remove rest of adhesive was the edge of plastic credit cards to rub away. Even so there were a number of scratches in the roof paintwork to make good.

If the current brackets are secure and can be adapted, work with that, will be a lot less painful.

It will depend on the thickness of adhesive between roof and bracket. Hopefully there is a couple of millimeters between the two. Reading instructions on the adhesive sealants the brackets should have been laid in a bed rather than full contact, but who knows. If you fix down new brackets a couple of plastic tile spacers in the adhesive are a good thing.

 

[L' Hobo]

Don't go anywhere near the roof with a multi tool. Nowhere near enough control and far too vicious you'll end up needing to refinish the roof paintwork or other topping.

Mine has a speed control and can go slowly, I've never had any problem with the control of mine, perhaps some of us have got stronger wrists than others. I'll say no more?

As for rounding the corners off the Stanley type stripper blades, the ones I use, I think would be far to brittle and dangerous to even try it? (I think the OP has already found a solution to his problem?)

EDIT: Perhaps in the first paragraph, the word 'slowly' gives the wrong impression (its not slow) but, like my Dremel, if you allow it to progress at its own speed without forcing it, one should few problems?