Removing Roof Rails
 

2000 ML430 AMG Fitted.
We are going to have our truck painted. Has anyone here done a roof rail delete?
We use them [rails] once a year fo lashing down a Christmas tree. they are useless otherwise.

I'm going to remove them...any pointers?
im thinking the headliner will need to come out, it needs to be recovered anyway as it is custom by crayons

The roof rails are removed from the outside. I'm not sure exactly how but it has been done many times by MBWorld members in the past.
Are you going for the Minivan look?
Mike

Thats what 1 of my friends said and i quote
"it will look like a short minivan - but your used to riding on the short bus"
arshole

I think it will look cleaner
rear spoiler equipped, Im debating on the front upper and lower - look like ricer boltons....sometimes

According to instructions Caps #1 just pop off.
Mike

copy that. roof rail unbolt from exterior. looks better without imo
I cant wait to lower the truck and get some new wheels.....

I took my roof rails off a couple years ago and also did the lowering. I used H&R springs and Bilstein rear shocks, relaxed the torsion bar a bit and installed Monroe heavy duty pick up shocks in the front. I also went with a GM LS1 muffler and redid the front brakes w/ ceramic pads and slotted rotors. All made a huge difference. I picked up some winter wheels and tires from Tire Rack but I always liked the mono bloicks w/ Pirelli scorpions for good weather. IMO the mono blocks look right on an AMG.
Another HUGE imporvement was installing a Pioneer Avic D3 w/ a couple amps. I used an ML320 sub under the passenger seat and stuck a JL 8" in a sealed cabinet in the back by the OE CD changer (removed). I used a new 16" drop down LCD where the old screen was and modded the D3 to display video on the front screen while on the move. Having good Nav and also an IPOD connection in the glove box is great. 138,000 miles now and running as good as new.

Good luke w/ yours.

Nice Steve! Thanks for sharing.
one week till paint

I cant decide on wheels. I think we are going to exchange our AMG monoblocks for a freshly chromed set. Should afford us some better AV upgrades

Your truck looks nice. post some more shots if you don't mind

Thanks:

It haas been a great vehicle with a few normal issues: Power Steering pump, barely operational fuel gauge. I found if I turn it off and put the key back to the 2nd position and then fill it slowly the gauge will work, otherwise it shows empty until it gets down to 1/2 tank. I always just reset the odometer and refill after 250 miles. Brakes needed to be replaced every 10K until I bought vented rotors and ceramic pads from Tire Rack. Blizzaks on 17" wheels work great in the snow. They are 275W 55 X 17 and also were from Tire Rack. The stereo rocks: AVic D3, Stock Bose amp on the four corners w/ the high pass filter set @ 80HZ, new (to me off Ebay) ML320 under seat sub and the JL 8 in a sealed box in the back w/ the factory louvered cover over it being pushed w/ 250 Watts in mono from 100HZ down. Dynaudio tweeters in the little plastic removeable piece on the A pillars. I also Dynamatted the doors and inside the rear quarter panels, HUGE DIFFERENCE. The doors actually now sound like a German car when they close and there is way less road noise. The GM muffler weighs at least 50 lbs less than the Benz and sounds great, just enough low resonance to set off car alarms in garages but not offensive and DEFINATELY NOT RICEY. At WOT it screams like a small block on sterioids. The Rover is for when I go places an ML only can dream of. The VW is the daily driver and w/ the 5 valve Jetta motor in the 03s definately has enough power to get out of people's way, unlike the Rover which is incredibly slow, seriously slow to the point you ned to actually gauge traffic to merge rather than just mash the gas.

Roof rails are easy to remove, there is a write up that exists, just search the forum... There are caps on the rails in the front, rear, and middle that come off and then its torx bolts that need to be loosened up for it them to come off. Make sure to PB blast them for a while, I snapped a couple bolts trying to remove them.

Here are some pics of my old 55...

Lowered on H&R sport springs combined with bilstein HD shocks...
90mm Projector fogs...
3000k yellow HID fog bulbs
Deleted roof racks...

Sorry for the rainy pics but better then nothing

http://img372.imageshack.us/img372/7129/img0001kg1.jpg

http://img87.imageshack.us/img87/8049/img0002vb2.jpg

http://img255.imageshack.us/img255/2407/img0003xc1.jpg

http://img205.imageshack.us/img205/6550/img0004gm3.jpg

http://img181.imageshack.us/img181/9562/img0006jv6.jpg

Here is my sub enclosure too...
http://carphotos.cardomain.com/ride_...0014_large.jpg