Ok finally an update:
Got my rack finished up and installed. Story before pictures: this was my first welding/shop project. Two months ago I walked into a welding/fab shop and told them I wanted to be their shop bitch and learn to weld. They made sure I could read a tape measure, then decided I was ok and told me to come back the next day. I did, and I brought them dank beers, like any decent dude would. Within a week I was designing s*** and cutting on a plasma table and welding it together. Then this thread popped up and reminded me that this would be a very simple project. So I got into after my normal work days when I had free time.
The rack:
Having a '98 is cool, but also sometimes a bit of a hassle as things are shaped differently than most 100's. One thing I like is not having rear AC, and in this case it made for a perfectly symmetric trim design up by the 3rd grab handles. After measuring roughly and hoping my eyeballing would suffice, I headed for the giant, ancient laptop that powers the plasma table at this shop and designed some brackets.
From there used 3/4 angle to make a 2'x4' frame (this 12' piece of stock was my total cost ~$12.50). The mesh is 1x1, and was scrap leftover from a shop job. Apparently is was donated by the customer and I was able to have it for free.99 as long as it stopped sitting on the floor in the shop. Once it was all welded up it was off to powder coat with a batch of other stuff for customers. This worked out great, as they returned my rack to the shop with a really nice hammered finish, and forgot to put it on the invoice. WIN!
The pics:
Kudos to you and a great investment of time!
Nice out of the box design! Looks to be very solid.
