headliner/crossmembers question

took my headliner off and now the cross plates that hold the dome lights are straight but the roof being concaved is thin and propped up concaved and my magnet mount antenna and cb mounted to the roof always pop it down and up making a lot of racket, are the crossmembers and roof supposed to be together?

really guys, no replies?

I guess they are supposed to be together if they were there from the factory?

The XJ roof flexes alot, I've got a dent in mine from some idiot who climbed on my roof one night in June.......

I do not believe that the two pieces of metal are supposed to be in physical contact. upon ivestigating my '97 there is a small amount of black foam or calking in between the roof and x-member. with the headliner removed and windows down at highway speeds, the roof separated from the calking and would rattle against the x-members. I solved this problem in minutes with a can of expandible foam..

wanacj said:

I do not believe that the two pieces of metal are supposed to be in physical contact. upon ivestigating my '97 there is a small amount of black foam or calking in between the roof and x-member. with the headliner removed and windows down at highway speeds, the roof separated from the calking and would rattle against the x-members. I solved this problem in minutes with a can of expandible foam..

Click to expand...

That's what most people do, I had a thread about this about a year ago though and I went a different route. I think they are supposed to be up against the roof so I took it to a body shop that had this wicked strong glue (stronger than the stuff that was up there from the factory). They used a portapower to jack the braces back up and used more of that black tar like stuff and got it to stay. Both braces have been fine for about a year now. The one problem is though, it sucked my roof down a little bit. The guy ended up doing it for free because he said he was disappointed with the results. However, it doesn't really bother me and you don't notice the roof that much. I really enjoy the popping being gone, because mine would do it at highway speeds, without having anything attached to it. I don't know what I'm trying to say here exactly, but I'd either foam it or jack the braces back up and glue it somehow.

I have seen them together and apart in a different cars and trucks. Mine are apart and look to be made that way. When I did my head liner I just took some dynamat type material and glued it to the roof. It is a lot quieter than before and it seems to not get as hot in the summer.

What I've done is to take construction adhesive and caulk the gaps between the ribs and the roof sheetmetal. Makes it solid, and stiffens the unibody a little.