Factory fitted roof racks

[oldtownjon]

Hi all, first time poster here. Had my Navara for six months now, pretty happy with it, just need a bit of advice on my factory fitted roof racks.

I discovered a few weeks ago that three of the pop rivets (holding the rails down) still had half the tab sticking out and just about half of the pop rivets were not flush with the rails. To me this is poor workmanship.
As I am not a tradesman or really that mechanically minded the question for me is, if some of the pop rivets are not completely flush with the rail are they still adequately holding the rails down?

I asked the service department to check them out today during it's service and told them I was not happy with the installation. Having a look tonight after the service it looks as though the rivets have been hammered down slighly, they are still not flush but they are better than before and they are still definately the same old rivets.

Any thoughts or advice on this would be appreciated as I do intend to cart a canoe around on the roof eventually.

Jonathan

 

[04SilverSTR]

If you bought the car new i would be telling them to remove and fit the properly!

bryan

 

[oldtownjon]

Thanks for the response mate. I forgot to include in original post, that I bought the car new and had the dealership fit the racks.

Jonathan

 

[Dave]

Was gonna say, they're dealer fitted.

Tell the dealer to fix it.

 

[oldtownjon]

Just taken a couple of snaps of some of the offending rivets, as you can see, they are sticking out up to 2mm. Out of 10 rivets holding the rails down, 4 are sticking out ranging from 1mm to 2mm. I was considering just letting this go for now and monitoring them but I have just come across something that makes my blood boil. I happen to have a driving camera in my car thats activated when the ute is started, upon reviewing bits and pieces of the service the following conversation takes place between the mechanic and a fellow worker.

"He's not happy with the pop rivets"
"The caps sticking out"
"You can see it's not in properly"
"Fussy, fussy people"
"Thats sh@t, thats not right"
"It's falling apart"
"Ohh, ohh, Yeah thats got to be done mate, thats got to be drilled out"

Anyway to me it's a disgrace, I am about to send an email to the service manager demanding them to be refitted correctly.

 

[tyler-k]

Yep I'd be having them pulled off and refitted. All those rivets are doing is keeping them aligned, their not clamping down at all. It's pretty clear they have just put the rivet in the hole, squeeze the gun till the mandrel breaks off and thinks its sweet. Someone needs a lesson in putting in rivets I think not that it's a difficult task.

-Tyler

 

[Joshp82]

I would call them and let them hear the audio. Does it have time and date stamp on the audio? I would also be demanding its fixed while I watched them.

 

[oldtownjon]

Yep it's time and date stamped. It's actual video footage of the mechanic driving the ute over to the fitting corner of the shed and then his conversation can be heard with another employee. I have sent an email to the service department with photos of the rivets, a transcript of the conversation and my proposal that they be re installed correctly.

 

[rescue]

As a Rhino Rack dealer and certified fitter I can tell you that track has been fitted with an ordinary hand rivet gun and I'd guess they didn't follow any of the other fitting instructions.

http://www.rhinorack.com.au/rhinoweb/rhinodata/instructions/parts/tracks/rt-track-mount.pdf

You can't get the correct pressure with a hand rivet gun, minimum requirement is a lazy tong riveter or a pneumatic gun.

 

[oldtownjon]

Thanks for all the advice on the matter. The After Sales manager has been in contact and has agreed to have the racks refitted under his direction. He was quite adamant the rivets wouldn't cause any problems how they are, but does agree he would not be happy with the installation if it was his car.