As I’m sure you’re aware, we here at the Autopian have a company car: our ridiculous Nissan Murano CrossCab, which we’ve half-wrapped in Xpel protective film and then done all sorts of dumb stuff with. It’s been a hell of a lot of fun, perversely, and people seem to really enjoy seeing this strangely improbable product of a Nissan fever dream out in the world. There is one colossal Achilles’ heel on this car, though: the roof. And today I happened to see a picture of a fellow CrossCab with a genuinely hilariously bad but perhaps understandable fix.
Right now, the CrossCab is in the hands of our own Mercedes Streeter, who lives in a bitterly cold place, and has been mentioning how the top seems to be “shrinking.” That’s alarming.
We’ve known that the top’s lifespan is limited, as the power tops on these have pretty much a 100% failure rate, and now that it’s winter the consequences of this happening feel even more dire.
Happily, Merc has assured us that the top is in the up position, nice and secure. But she’s also mentioned that the fabric seems to be shrinking, and it’s pulling tighter over the ribs than usual, and that feels like a harbinger of doom.
I think that’s why seeing this tweet from my friend (and man who now owns my old Scimitar) Myron Vernis alarmed me so profoundly:
It’s important to use the right product for the job. pic.twitter.com/dEYCtOc2wI
— Myron Vernis (@MyronVernis) January 25, 2026
Now, I don’t know if Myron took this picture himself or found it, but it hardly matters because what its showing is so alarming to the CrossCab ownership community. It seems like whomever owns this CrossCab has solved the problem of the top no longer sealing to the body with some pretty liberal application of spray foam insulation, which has cured and hardened into a sort of goop that looks like a layer of pimento cheese gooped into that gap.
Now, I don’t blame whomever did this; this was clearly the result of desperation, and, even more importantly, I suspect this solution actually works, aesthetics be damned. Remember fixing this top can cost anywhere from about $2,000 to $19,000, likely far more than the value of the car, which may run just fine other than the fact that it has a huge hole in between the roof and body.
Also, I bet they could use adhesives and some flexible black plastic strips to cover that goopy cheddar-looking belt of insulation reasonably well. This is a solvable problem.
Yes, it’s terrifying to witness. But I think we all need to see this. It’s a visual reminder of engineering failures, resourcefulness, desperation, and the freedom that comes with just simply being out of fucks to donate.
This picture speaks more about the human condition than countless books on the subject, and I suggest we all take a moment to contemplate it.
Photo: X/Twitter
That’s a terrible repair!!! He should have used the green foam that is rodent-resistant!!!
That fluff gunk probably needs to be covered with something, not just for aesthetics, but to prevent breakdown from sunlight and weathering. I doubt it is meant to be exposed to the elements.
It’s already a hideous vehicle, so spraying a bunch of expando foam certainly won’t hurt its looks.
Kill that thing with fire already. I can’t fucking look at it any more. It started as an abomination and just gets uglier every day.
I’ve seen worse things on cars fixed with expanding foam.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSxLHINQlgo
Field Expedient Repair. Sure, it could have been done in a more aesthetic way, but a CrossCab with a broken roof has essentially zero resale value, so I agree with the owner in doing the bare minimum to keep it going with the least possible time and expense.