DIY Roof Rack

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 ) 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 reflector for the front. I will paint it all black with truck bedliner/hammer finish paint and I should be good to go!

 

Looking forward to this. Some company popped up on Instagram that was looking for interest in a full size roof rack. I can't remember the name but it's something that I want to pick up eventually.

 

Yeah, most racks I've seen are upwards of $1k or more.
I wish I could weld, I could've done a lot more.
I should be under $500 into this when I am all finished.

 

More progress! I need to trim the tops of brackets level with the tops of the rails and paint it. It’s very sturdy, I can shake the whole truck with it!

 

Sweet!

 

Finished!!!!!
8’ x 51”
Cost me just under $600 and I’m very happy with it..........it’s amazingly strong and would hold its own against any rack I’ve seen out there costing 2x or more! I wouldn’t want to do it again. Very tedious work with just hand tools in my garage. Getting all the holes drilled and lined up, especially in the stainless brackets sucked.

 

Any wind noise or whistling?

 

Yes!
Definitely need to work on a deflector!!

 

Those mount leg bends are pretty damn good for hand bending with a vise! Nice job!

 

Thanks, I wasn’t sure how they’d turn out in the beginning but they all came out pretty consistent. I’ll send you a video of me bending them!

edit: well, I have a video, I just can’t attach it.

 

Finally got around to finishing my wind deflector and installed it on my rack. I went from a giant deflector that rested on my windshield but flapped in the wind and was just too big, down to this smaller one that works great! Then I mounted my light bar and ditch lights……..just need to paint some of the brackets and wire up the lights.