Hey all, new here. This is my new little project but also my daily, I don’t drive much but when I do I need something capable. I like this thing and am willing to put in some elbow grease. Interior is near perfection, exterior is less than so and I would like to put in work to make it a little prettier.

engine is replaced, tranny feels good, AC just got fixed

the main things I want from this project:
-roof rack, end goal being to get a big basket up there for camping storage and to hide the ugly hail damage

Does anyone have links to how I can get a roof rack on a 99? Hard to find info for these first gens.

-refurbish the plastic trim. They are pretty badly sun damaged. Anyone have a product they swear by to refurbish them? Or should I tape it off and rattle can these things?

-want to replace the hood. I can get an unpainted after market one locally delivered for $130, or I can travel 200 miles to a junk yard for a matching blue, or 48 miles to another junk yard for a black. No price on those yet.

otherwise I’m pretty happy with this thing. For little things I’d probably paint the missing fender trim with plastidip to protect against more rust, and make it look a little less conspicuous. Also I’ll probably rattle can the spare rim a fun color with some graffiti grade paint (matte black, or a blue maybe with orange accents). And maybe down the line get some blacked out headlights to make those look less crappy.

Just wanted to share! And if anyone has any advice on how to accomplish some of my list more easily, specifically roof rack and trim refurbishing, please feel free to chime in! I’ll update with some progress as it comes along!
Driver side looks great, trim is just so washed

Bumper washed, yellow headlights

Hood is trashed from hail, paint peeling

Really want to find out if I can rip this off and put in a raised edge to install a roof rack

Gross roof trim

Rusted out spare

Missing fender trim

 

You’ll need to go aftermarket on the roof rack if you want to carry any decent amount of weight up there.

OEM roof rack can carry about 75lbs max. You can swap out a factory roof rack , the mounting points are under the roof rails.

 

yeah I was noticing how light weight the OEM ones were rated for. Definitely need more than 75lbs because I want to put a rack up there and have that carry a bunch of camping gear. Like 150-200lb rating at least.

so I can take off the roof rails that are already falling apart, which will reveal mounting points for an aftermarket roof rack that can handle the weight? I’ll need to find a video on how to remove those and hopefully can find a good roof rack somewhere.

 

No, you’d use a traditional Thule/Yakima type with the towers and clips that mount in the door areas.