Rivets in roof

[jarvay03]

I took delivery of my 2021 Expedition in December after waiting 3 months for it to be built. Given it was in the middle of winter, we had a ton of snow and ice. Now that everything is melted, I noticed that you can see the welds/rivets in the roof under the roof rack as shown in the picture. Its like that on both sides. Does anyone know if this is normal from manufacturing or should Inraise a stink about it to be fixed? Given the indentations and such, I see this as a problem down the road.

 

[maxxplatinum9137]

Mine does not have those. That is bizarre

 

[Retiredusps]

That is spot welds. look under hood where other panels meet you will also see them. I would document it with dealer, or send photos to ford. Possible area to leak later on, Quality control or lack of!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[aggiegrad05]

I took delivery of my 2021 Expedition in December after waiting 3 months for it to be built. Given it was in the middle of winter, we had a ton of snow and ice. Now that everything is melted, I noticed that you can see the welds/rivets in the roof under the roof rack as shown in the picture. Its like that on both sides. Does anyone know if this is normal from manufacturing or should Inraise a stink about it to be fixed? Given the indentations and such, I see this as a problem down the road.

You might check out this thread: https://www.expeditionforum.com/thr...trim-pieces-under-the-bars-on-the-roof.40853/

We had some back and forth, but apparently early builds had a trim piece that covered that area (from what I can tell from your picture. A lot of the pics from that thread are gone (too old I guess?) but I know several folks could see spot welds and whole line welds...mine has a trim piece that covers it, as did several others.

 

[Motorcity muscle]

Normally would not have exposed spot welds on exterior sheet metal. Hard to tell from picture but can you see this from standing by side of truck?

 

[sjwhiteley]

Normally would not have exposed spot welds on exterior sheet metal. Hard to tell from picture but can you see this from standing by side of truck?

I have those welds, too. You cannot see them unless you are about 8 feet tall. They are in the recess under the rails. As noted, there should be a trim piece which covers them up (I do not have any trim in a 2019 max).

 

[drw1926]

I personally would not request a dealer to "fix" them. The cure may be worse than the disease.

 

[maxxplatinum9137]

@aggiegrad05
There is supposed to be what looks like some sort of squishy sealant that covers both sides the entire length of the recessed areas under the roof rails. Both of my 2016s have it and so does my 2021. Looks like a quality control issue. That area is going to be an area to leak and rust in no time if you leave it as is. I’d go have that fixed ASAP @jarvay03

 

[NukeLife]

Wow. How does that get missed?

 

[Going_Going_Gone]

Our 2019 Expedition has black plastic trim pieces covering that recess with the spot welds. All things considered, this is probably the very first Ford vehicle we've owned that no new features added in later model years had us regretting we hadn't waited a model year for the "improvements." There have been very few additions, mostly subtractions. Each subsequent year, many features included in our build specs have been either de-contented or placed in extra-cost packages.