Wagon roof leaks

The 87 Buick wagon had water in it the other day and it's apparently comming through where the roof rack screws onto the car. There are plastic bottons that snap into the roof that accept the hold down screws. These buttons are all loose and the screws are striped out in half of them. Is there a sourse for these parts or anything available to repair this problem? TIA

Dave B

 

You should be able to get them from a GM dealer still, and you can use the bodyshop's famous 'Dum-Dum' putty to seal them. I'd also use some sort of 'Lock-Tite' for metal fasteners into plastic inserts. I don't know if the regular 'Lock-Tite' works in that context.

 

yep...dumdum or sliperycone...thats about all ya can do...aside from replacing all the mounts

 

Thanks for the replys guys, my son-in-law is a bodyman and he got tired of trying to explain what dum-dum is to me, so he just said he'd bring me some home. Hopefully it won't need instructions.

Dave B

 

dont worry Dave....dumdum just a product!!

 

Thanks, I was getting worried for the moment! I used to work at MacDonnel when they were making the F4 Phantom jets. We used to use a product we called dum-dum and it was OD green and smelled awful. Hope this stuff smells better at least!

Dave B

 

Kind of like plumber's putty. Not irritating or nauseous. It remains mastic-like for decades, so it's consistency doesn't rely on chemical aromatics.

 

there should be a rubber grommet in there, thats how my 85 caprice was. i thought it was stripped also, until i pulled the whole headliner and found what the problem really was. just keep tightening its a rubber grommet with metal threads. mine was anyway