I recently bought my son an '88 Cherokee. It's a bit of a beater but we intend to do some work on it together. He wants it painted (probably maaco) and then a roof rack which leads to my request for help. His jeep doesn't have the drip rail on the drivers side so the roof rack will have to be bolted on somehow? Any suggestions on parts I can buy to do that?

 

Does it have any rack at all right now?

 

Nothing up there right now. Just a flat metal roof.

 

If the racks you are looking at are best to be gutter mounted, you can buy or build brackets that basically create a gutter mount point. Such as these:

Yakima Wide Body Bracket - 1 Pair
by Yakima
Link: http://a.co/h0FFdty

Now, finding a place to put them might be challenging. But wanted to pass along the option.

 

That gives a different set of ideas. I believe I could fabricate something like that. Thanks for the idea.

 

I like this setup. http://www.dirtboundoffroad.com/sport-rack-full.html
A bit different than most roof racks and it should still fit in my garage.

 

I bought a rack from Kevins off road and it mounts to the roof rails

 

I plan on getting this rack. In your case though you still have to solve the cross bars.


Here's a dude with it installed, looks great. It's a bit longer than the similarly designed one from yakima. The extra 4 inches make it fit the XJ better IMO.

 

I'm failing to understand how this XJ doesn't have a drip rail.