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I will shortly be getting a car with flush roof rails which have a painted finish. I am considering using my existing Thule bars with new foot pack but a bit concerned that the clamps will mark the finish even though the foot pack clamps are rubber coated. Does anyone have any experience of this. The official manufacturer roof bars seem to have much more padded clamps but don’t seem as robust to me.
Painted roof rails sound so useless that I'd be checking the certified roof load for the car to make sure they're not just cosmetic, ie, to make the car look cool but actually not intended to be used for a roof rack.
I think Thule say their foot packs are non-marking.
Not flush but the rails on my estate are colour matched to the car. Even with the cheapest roofbars I could find (£50), the paintwork hasnt been damaged
Not quite the same fixing but I have those hateful screw in vertically type roof racks.
The rubber feet on those haven't marked the (painted) roof in a great number of miles of roof racking boats and (less so) bikes and often being on for weeks at a time.
Ok thanks sounds like they should be robust enough then. Car is an XC60 so certainly not just cosmetic
Stick a patch of Gorilla tape or invisiframe-type stuff on the car to cover the footpack area. They DO mark the roof when finally removed.
I fitted some bars to a new car with flush rails recently and put some helicopter tape to the clamping area first, no marks after a trip to France and back.