Roof rack install on painted top. Couple questions

[heffercow]

Picked up a jcr half roof rack today. Can't wait to put it on but it's been buried in garage and needs a good cleaning first. Question though before the install. Since these just clamp the to rain gutters I'm a little iffy about damaging the paint since I have color matched top. I know...

"it's a jeep!"
"it's made to get scratched!"
"it's not a show car!"

...but that doesn't negate the fact that this is the first vehicle I ever owned that wasn't already 10-15 years old when I bought it and I want to keep it as nice as I can. If I decide to get rid of the rack I don't want it to be all marked up from the clamps. So anyone with a painted top am I over thinking it? Did you just run it as is and paint was fine? Or if you were worried like me what did you use as a buffer bad. I was thinking about using some vacuum tubing on the upper portion and maybe finding thing rubber pads for the bottom.

Any and all advice, hints, info, words of wosdom, or bullying is welcomed!!

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[Bandit’s Lair]

You can rubber pad it. There are a few YT videos where they do that. Any kind of rubber with a decent channel in it should work well. Dont go overly thick with it. Just needs a barrier. Once you test fit it to ensure it’s not too thick you can add some e6000 into the channel to help keep it into place. e6000 has a slight flex to it, if you’re unfamiliar.

Ensure that the parts that are supposed to touch the actual hard top are the only parts that do. That will reduce the amount of annoying noise when it moves around on you up there as they commonly do. Buddy of mine went overboard with rubber padding thinking he was adding protection when all he really did was add noticeable decibels of rubber squeaks on the trail. It even made noise when he flexed on obstacles.