DIY roof rack (1 Viewer)

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.

Joined
Jan 2, 2021
Threads
5
Messages
184
Location
Ohio
Went hardcore with my DIY rack project this week. Bought 12, 9"x2” 3/16” thick, stainless steel flat bars and bent them to the correct angle with a BFH and my bench vise. Drilled a hole in each one and mounted up one side of brackets with a piece of 1/8" silicon underneath to protect the roof. Still gonna need to do some tweaking (yes, I realize the split washer is in the wrong place on that one pic :D) but I’ve got them pretty close. My rails are two 8’ 1/4” aluminum angled pieces. Once I get those sitting level and at the right height, I will mark 2 holes on each bracket and drill those out. Then mount the rails to the brackets and measure the length in between the rails and order 7-8 aluminum extrusion pieces to fit. Oh yeah, I’ll also mark the top of each bracket sticking above the rails and cut this length off even with the tops of the rail. The problem with this roof and making brackets are the different heights and angles all 3 mounting points are to each other. This way, I'll just let the brackets point whichever way they go and just cut them flush with the rail.
Was going to mount a 50" LED light bar in front but I may not do that now and just make a nice wind deflector for the front. I will paint it all black with truck bedliner/hammer finish paint and I should be good to go!

A45289DA-70CC-4C1D-A788-DD5EF15A0ACA.jpeg

5F2EC47A-E328-4627-BE7F-E1628F2B66D4.jpeg

89EDCCE7-39E5-45A4-AB60-CB41E988EF19.jpeg

56BC5141-9B1C-44E1-B7A7-7B80FDE3A6E3.jpeg

FAFD996F-C508-4B7C-9735-DB283F7E2957.jpeg
 
Last edited:
That turned out really good .

Please create a BOM (bill of materials) and some measurements so we can do the same thing without putting in all the hard work :) .
 
That turned out really good .

Please create a BOM (bill of materials) and some measurements so we can do the same thing without putting in all the hard work :) .
2 - 8’x3”x1/4” angled aluminum pieces from local metal superstore
7 - 50.5”x3”x1” aluminum extrusions from TNutz.com, one 2”x1” for the front
12 - 3/16”x2”x10” stainless steel flatbar
12 - M6 stainless tapered head socket screws for mounts to roof
12 - M8 stainless fender washers
1/4”x20 - 1 1/4” long stainless black oxide button cap screws (about 68 total) , washers, lock washers and nyloc nuts.
Primer, truck bed coating and Hammer finish paint.
 
Like a boss!

That’s a pretty close list!
The hardest part was bending the stainless flatbar for the mounts and drilling the stainless........hint, get a Milwaukee Red Helix Cobalt drill bit at Home Depot........use oil and go slow.
 
Love it! Curious as to why steel flatbar and not aluminum?
Thanks!
Well, I did think about using it but I figured I would have had to have gone with at least 1/4” thick aluminum flatbar for the brackets to be as strong as the 3/16” stainless steel and bending the aluminum might have been weird compared to stainless......ie might have cracked or split when bending it with a hammer in my vise. Or bending it back would weaken it more than steel would . And anything thinner than 1/4” wouldn’t have been as strong.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top Bottom