Project: Space Wagon

[.RJ]

The BMW has a different style of roof rails, so the roof rack setup I'd had on my A4 wont work anymore - I got the hitch mounted the day I got the car home and re-used my single bike rack on the hitch, but still would like to carry 2 bicycles.  I can always do the roof rails later if I need to expand to more.  The rack manufacturer sells extra trays that you just bolt on to the existing rack, and that was way cheaper than a new roof rail setup.... seems simple, no?  Of course not, especially since the new tray arrived Friday and I wanted to use it Saturday.

The existing bolts that you remove to mount the new tray are stainless in aluminum.  You can guess what happens after spending 4 years outside.



The bolts are theft-resistant in that they have a little pin in the center that stops you from using a standard hex bit to remove it.  I first tried to remove them with the tool that comes with the rack, which snapped off, it was soft steel.

Then I tried to double nut the fastener from underneath, nope, fuck you buddy.  I drilled out the center pin so I could just get a hex bit in there but its a standard size (3/8") not metric so a run to home depot for one of those plus 3' of leverage gets it free.  

And, we're done.