Roof racks were SO much easier when we all had external gutters on our vehicles! All cars still have gutters over the doors but now they are hidden inside the door frame where they are more aerodynamic, sexy and near useless to boaters. These internal gutters are what the Yak Q-tower clips catch to hold the racks to the vehicle. I have them on my '93 Sentra and they don't leak into the car, although I'm getting some wind noise after 1-1/2 years of continuous installation. Some friends have no leaks into car, others with same model of car and rack get minor leaks. Yakima gives you recommended measurements for where the "feet" go for optimal support. These seem to work well even somewhat beyond the recommended load limits. Bite the bullet and spend the money - your boat is well worth it, and fixing your racks with duct tape along the road in the rain at 10:00 sunday night so you get to work on monday it probably not the best end to your weekend.

Be sure to use a bow line from your boat forward to your bumper! One friend who didn't use one (only tied his boats to his racks) littered the freeway south of Cincinatti with 3 kayaks, paddles and the rear rack bar early one Saturday when the rear rack clips ("well, they were kinda loose..." he said) let loose. He didn't know which was more amazing - that noone hit any boat stuff or that noone hit each other avoid said boat stuff.

Two other possible solutions:

One - Yakima sells 3 or 4 varieties of bolt-on gutter "cheaters" that work well and are compatable with your (or your buddy's) old gutter mount racks. Yakima makes great gutter-mount towers, and Quick-and-Easy towers are also good - I've used both for thousands of miles of kayak and canoe hauling. Q&E's are cheap, work well with 2x4's and are available from Piragis, Northwest River Supply and other canoe/kayak suppliers.

Two - buy a new river vehicle based on the roof rack! Top contender is possibly the Subaru Forester. The factory roof rails are bomb proof - you can rock the car back and forth pulling on them without flexing the roof at all. The factory "station wagon" bars are extremely strong. My girl friend and I (it's her car) have hauled a canoe 3000 miles on them and 2 to 5 kayaks on them with kayak stackers many more thousands without any sign of the bars sagging let alone falling apart. Yakima also makes a special tower for these rails so you can uses longer bars (it's really hard to load 5 kayaks on 36" bars & yes, they were tupperware)

: In the picture you see a clip that is used to
: fasten a roof rack to a gutterless car, I think. Where does this fasten to
: the car. If the clips do go into this groove it looks
: like it would press the rubber door gasket so much that it might leak
: water when it rains. Any thoughts on this?