96 Flat Four

The rack on the 95-2000 Impreza including all OBS is not the same as the one used on the WRX. The newer style rack that is on all WRXs has raised rails and bolts through the roof. The headliner must be removed to remove this rack. The rack on 95-2000 Imprezas is a JDM flush rail rack, which is much easier to remove. Don't bother trying to remove the screws that hold the cross bars into the rails. These are always frozen and can only be removed by cutting the heads of the screws off. To get the whole rack assembly off in one piece (cross bars and rails), peel off the little plastic covers that are on the four corners of the rails. Under each of these covers you will find 2 philips screws. Remove the screws and the whole rack will lift right off.

Unfortunately, the removal of the rack leaves the unslighly rain channels fully exposed. To correct this problem you have 2 choices, either order the full roof molding and clips from a 96 Impreza L or remove the cross bars from the rack and reinstall just the rails. The first choice will cost you in the neighborhood of $150.00 and in my view looks odd if you leave the three protective slats in the middle of the roof. However, many people have gone this route. The new moldings runs all the way from the lower corners of the windshield to the rear edge of the roof. They look just like the molding that is in front of your rack, but continue to the rear of the roof. If you go this route be aware that you need 2 different types of attaching clips: One type for the windshield area and a second type for the actual roof. I did not do tghis, but reinstalled just the rails.

To remove the cross members from the rails, remove the entire rack as instructed above. Next remove the 8 small screws that hold the cross members to the cross member feet or claws. Remove the cross members so that you have the two rails with the feet attached. Carefully drill or cut the heads off of the screws which attach the cross bar feet to the rails. This is time consuming and frankly a little annoying. If Subaru had just used stainless inserts, the screws would come right out. Once you have the screws removed peel the rubber molding off the rails and slide each of the four feet off the rails. They do not pop off! They slide off along the length of the rails. This is a little tricky because even with the the screw heads cut off, a portion of the screw protrudes up into the whole in the foot so that the foot has to be pryed over this protrusion as it is slid off the rail.
Once you have the feet off the rails you need to acquire some more of the gasket like you took off the rail earlier so that you can fill in the spots on the rails where the feet were previously attached. You can either get this gasket used or from Subaru I found entire rack on E-bay for $25.00 and used the gasket off of it. Any Impreza rack from 95-2000 will work. Once you have cut the extra gasket to fill in the spaces just screw the rails back down. I found that small pieces of black tape worked better to cover the attachment screw holes in the rails than trying to reapply the little vinyl piece that originally covered the holes. Once you have the rails reatteached you can buy a roof rack system to fit the JDM flush mount rails. Not everyone makes one, but if you look around you will be able to find a system that works.