I was looking at my sun faded rails just the other day and they seem like they are coated with heavy "soft touch" paint of some type?

Kristophe they shouldn't be unless someone painted them

My 02 is the same way. Makes the crossbars almost impossible to slide on the surface.

2002 X5 3.0 274,400 miles
2004 325i 119,000 miles

"Soft touch" seems like a good description of the texture of my faded rails.

I've seen the original color and it's a smooth semi-gloss black.

It's probably just heavily oxidised making it appear textured and 'soft'

I removed mine because I like the look without them. I used the following thread: http://www.xoutpost.com/bmw-sav-foru...-pictures.html

I didn't read all the posts and if it is not mentioned the plugs are available at Lowes.

While I had them I wanted them to be shiny so I used plastic and vinyl shining type products and just put it on each time I washed it.

I think the E53 looks great with out the rails. If I could I'd ditch rails entirely and just run towers for my roof rack.