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Well nuts for stock roof rack

D

dandeluca

Member
Joined
Jun 17, 2020
Location
Bordentown NJ
Hello,

I have the stock roof rack off my 91 wagon. All the well nuts where brittle so I yanked them out with pliers. I was wondering if anyone knew off hand the size of well nuts. I could measure up the holes. Seems to be 1/4-20 thread. But I just thought I'd see if there was a known good supply of them. Thanks!

Dan
 
Most ACE affiliated hardware stores have them, as well as the plugs and grommets, if you want to do the iPd-style rack delete. I *think* the wellnuts are 5/8" diameter with the 1/4-20 thread size. Either way you go, make sure that they're gooped up real well with sealant, that way they'll last for a few years without getting too leaky.

That said, now would be a good time to get a friend to weld the holes shut, then get the roof panel reshot. No one would know, except for you and anyone who saw the car pre-rack removal, that it had ever been drilled into.
 
Yeah, I'm going to get the roof resprayed, but probably keep the rack. It looks cool, but it is remarkably flimsy. Id love to know how salesman talked people into those 30 years ago.
 
Maybe a Yakima or a Thule rack would be more useful. Looks cooler, too. There were also a couple of Volvo-branded wagon luggage racks that mounted to the raingutters. One was curved to match the roof line and had wood slats. The other was all metal and had a flat surface for loading luggage, etc, onto.



The early style, shown mounted to a '79 245DL. Also shown in the background is an '81 245DL with the older "chrome dream" rack that was the other option for those two 245s when they were new.

The third option is the aforementioned Yakima or Thule rack, shown here on my 245 a couple years ago...

 
When I removed my rack I very carefully used Bondo inside and outside to close the holes. After painting it looked great but over a couple years little rust circles began to appear under the paint/clearcoat.

That plus hail damage and a big limb dent on the roof justified doing it all over again.

This time I used a ballpeen hammer to dent each hole into a shallow 2" area. A bunch of cat hair Bondo inside and out over a grind to bright metal area hopefully will last longer.

New paint and clearcoat - all better.

The racks really were not an option. I bought my car new in '82. When cars arrived they got a rack and a dealer installed option sticker. Want a car you get a rack.
 
Last edited:
TestPoint said:
When I removed my rack I very carefully used Bondo inside and outside to close the holes. After painting it looked great but over a couple years little rust circles began to appear under the paint/clearcoat.

That plus hail damage and a big limb dent on the roof justified doing it all over again.

This time I used a ballpeen hammer to dent each hole into a shallow 2" area. A bunch of cat hair Bondo inside and out over a grind to bright metal area hopefully will last longer.

New paint and clearcoat - all better.

The racks really were not an option. I bought my car new in '82. When cars arrived they got a rack and a dealer installed option sticker. Want a car you get a rack.
Click to expand...


That may've been true at the dealer your car came from. I know that the majority of our wagons, including my uncle's former Volvos, were all slicktops. Only two had racks from the time of original purchase. The third and fourth racked wagons had them added post-purchase.
 
^Exactly. It's an accessory, seen in the accessories brochure. Not something that *every* 145, 245, 265, or 7/9 series wagon came with.
 
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