Herpies of the roof

[Vreihenmotor6]

let me start this off by saying , I'm not questioning if its ugly or not, its more of a matter of how ugly is it

background, I came from a mk3 VW which had a nifty rack solution that didn't go thru the door seals making it 100% waterproof and really easy to take on and off

I moved to an audi which has the conventional thule 400 foot system which does go thru the door seals

I'm not happy with the way it disturbs the door seals so I have windnoise when the rack isn't on, also I swear that I've seen the errant dop of water make it past the door seals when the rack is on

its also important to not that I'm a MPG slut and if I'm not using my rack to move stuff, I take it off

in a solution to all those issue I'm considering this:









basicaly the idea is to have small feet that are perminatly mounted to the roof, the rack will snap onto the feet and look almost the same as most B5 owners racks when its on the car

it will however look as pictured above when its off

its a perminant mod and requires 16 holes to be drilled into the roof

I'm still up in the air if its something I want to do or not

I'd like to hear your thoughts

(sorry for another blatent repost from the tex)

[Eurotuned_A4]

well when you are running from someone and the jump on the roof of your car like in the movies....they will have something to hold on too.

in all seriousness though. i wouldnt do it to my car....especially if you want to sell it later on. it doesnt look that bad, but i still wouldnt do it myself. its really up to you, especially depending on how much you take it on and off.

[Overboostin]

[Eurotuned_A4]

lmfao. great pic

[pfa65]

if you are worried about wind noise via the window/roof seals, why would you consider mounting those studs on your roof? you will definitely get more noise with those... right?

I would never do that to my car, but then again I have an avant with roof rails anyway.

The worst part about it, is there would be no way to make sure that 16 holes will not rust eventually... Drilling in your roof is no joke!

My vote is it is too ugly for what it is worth. They remind of this too.

[Overboostin]

wtf is that picture?! What are those things in that guys head?

[jm121189]

Probably whats left of his brain.

I don't really like it that much, the idea of drilling 16 holes in my roof almost seems worse than disturbing the door seals a little. The noise from those would probably be worse and over time I'd be willing to bet at least one of those holes starts to leak. Also hurts resale value as mentioned before. If your that serious about it you should look into some rails or something. Not sure what that would cost but it would look better.

[Overboostin]

Somethings telling me that picture is of a woman..

[Vreihenmotor6]

yeah, I'm pretty sure its a chick, the star thing is popular with the lesbian sceen

I can assure you guys there wouldn't be any wind noise from the mounts when the rack is off

resale isn't an issue, I paid less for the car than my turbo will cost

I'm just not sure if I could deal with the humps

I'm almost tempted to buy them and use the nice 3m double sided tape to stick them on for a month or so to see if I can deal with it

[dingguhlbary]

my hump, my lovely lady lumps

it does look a little wack, but if you use the roof rack enough, im sure it wont even matter.

the double sided tape idea could work. just dont know if id ever trust my snowboard or bike up there with just 4 pieces of 3m tape.

[AudiA4turrrbo]

i have had no problems with my thule set up, you can lift off the entire rack by yourself in 5 minutes, and you dont have to drill holes!

[DND]

Just by themselves they look hideously ugly. Either put the rack on or don't but please don't drive around with four ugly bumps on your roof.

On a more serious note it will definitely leak and you will get rusting metal and water spots on your headliner plus who knows what other havoc going on inside your roof. If enough water leaks in you could even potentially short something out.

[Vreihenmotor6]

the double sided tape idea could work. just dont know if id ever trust my snowboard or bike up there with just 4 pieces of 3m tape.

thats more for just seeing if
I like the idea before I take the drill to the roof, I wouldn't actualy use it in that state

as I said above, leaking isn't an issue or concern, these units have internal weather stripping, and will also be sealed with adhesive

I do have the thule rack that everyone else has, I just don't like it that much, and I'm considering this as a replacement for it

[dougyfresh]

Ever consider these:
http://yakima.com/racks/rack-systems...27/tracks.aspx



I had them on the hardtop of my Jeep Wrangler. A buddy of mine has them on his MKIV Golf. Both vehicles being dark colors.

Only problem is any of these options is that they will be visible since your vehicle is such a light color..








Did that police officer in the background get anyone that day?

[onemoremile]

Don't drill into your roof.

Your wind noise is easily fixed for a couple bucks at the local hardware store. There is a channel in the top of the door's weatherstripping. You can lay 1/4" clear tubing in there and it will expand the weatherstrip enough to close the gap. Did this on the A4 and S4 a few years ago and it really made a big difference on each. I put about an inch of silicone in each end of the tubing to avoid and smelly water rot issues.