So I bought a Paceman only to find out that there is no option to put a rack on if you don't have the factory roof rails.
It was impossible to find stock Paceman rails without spending an arm and a leg so I decided to buy some used rails from a Countryman and hack job it.
Scary to do it the wrong way on a nice car that you have to drill holes into.
Also I was not able to find any information or instruction on how to mount them and how they are bolted into the roof.
I didn't want to just drill holes in the top sheet metal and bolt them in thinking that would be strong enough.

Anyway I ended up cutting a a section out of the middle to shorten them.
On the inside I fashioned some metal spacers to site between the strong metal support structure and the sheet metal of the roof.
That way the weight and strength is not reliant on just the sheet metal and the end result is a super solid assembly.
Now I am curious on the right way to mount them?

The scariest part. Drilling holes in your roof.

Metal spacer between the sheet metal roof and the structure of the car. Bullet proof.



And in the end all this work was to put a cargo box on the car to hall snowboards.
Unfortunately the back bar sits lower then the front causing the box to point upwards in the front.
Now I need to fabricate some type of lift on the back.

 

You're a braver person than I am! Looks like it turned out great.

 

Bold work! Well done!

Did you do anything special to seal out the elements and minimizing the onset of rust?

 

The rails are lined with closed cell foam rubber on the bottom to seal them and I also added silicone seal to the studs.

 

That looks totally stock.

 

That's OEM lol.

 

Exactly how much did you remove from the center of the rails to shorten them?

 

I removed 9 1/4".

 

Looks great!