[Ch3no2freak]

I went looking for the rails for the roof rack and when I saw a $300 price tag on them I passed out. When I regained consciousness I ran to the garage and made these instead.

2"x1" unistrust 52" long. You will notice that I cut it at the center of one of the holes to place the first stud in the center of the second hole.

I had to notch out a few chunks where the nuts go so I could fit a socket in the unistrut and I had to take the die grinder to a few of the holes to make them fit over the studs a little better.

Got a little crazy with the die grinder, was still feeling woozy about that $300.

First notch to fit the socket and these are cut along the edge that will sit against the plastic molding on the roof so you wont see them.

As you can see on the roof, the rear has a slight contour on it so I had to make another cut straight down the unistrut on either side to make the bend.

Here is the rail before paint.

And the small bend

Few coats of flat black.

I just got done painting these when I wrote this up and I did test fit them before hand so I know they fit and I have a roof rack coming for the old girl so when that get here I will update this with finished install pictures.

 

[Stevenitrosublette]

Unistrut , Kindorf Same thing . Nice idea

 

[Ch3no2freak]

Kindorf? I've never heard it called that before. 2 names for the same thing or is it a brand name or something?

 

[Scar0]

I like innovative thinking. Well done.
So whats your plan to put on it?

 

[Stevenitrosublette]

Being in the Industrial Maintenance field it's called unistrut by the mechanics and kindorf by the Electricians. Same thing ? I guess it depends what you do with it . Lol it also comes in 3/4" & 1 1/2" size too .

 

[pat5150]

So what are you mounting to them and how?

 

[Ch3no2freak]

Well that explains why I called it unistrut being a mechanic and all haha. I have a roof rack coming that should be here sometime next week. When it gets here and I mount it up, I will update this post with how.

 

[Ch3no2freak]

I went looking for the rails for the roof rack and when I saw a $300 price tag on them I passed out. When I regained consciousness I ran to the garage and made these instead.

2"x1" unistrust 52" long. You will notice that I cut it at the center of one of the holes to place the first stud in the center of the second hole.

View attachment 21217

I had to notch out a few chunks where the nuts go so I could fit a socket in the unistrut and I had to take the die grinder to a few of the holes to make them fit over the studs a little better.

View attachment 21218
Got a little crazy with the die grinder, was still feeling woozy about that $300.

View attachment 21219

First notch to fit the socket and these are cut along the edge that will sit against the plastic molding on the roof so you wont see them.

View attachment 21220

As you can see on the roof, the rear has a slight contour on it so I had to make another cut straight down the unistrut on either side to make the bend.


View attachment 21221

Here is the rail before paint.


View attachment 21222

And the small bend


View attachment 21223

Few coats of flat black.


View attachment 21224

I just got done painting these when I wrote this up and I did test fit them before hand so I know they fit and I have a roof rack coming for the old girl so when that get here I will update this with finished install pictures.

Correction: I used 2"x3/4" unistrut not 2"x1"

 

[Ch3no2freak]

As you can see you cant see them sticking out of the top after they have been mounted.

And they were a perfect fit into the slot of the roof.

 

[Stevenitrosublette]

Great idea ! And you can put the spring clips anywhere along the rails. Nice !

 

[Scar0]

Very cool Mod. Can't wait to see the rack on it.

 

[Dirty Mike]

Very nicely done. I am going to do the same thing to my nitro so I can haul my kayak.

 

[Ch3no2freak]

UPDATE!!


Work has been a little crazy so getting this done has kinda taken a back seat but here's my progress so far. 2" aluminum flat stock 1/8" thick.

This is a very inexpensive soft metal bender I made out of some scrap in the shop. Looks kinda shitty because like I said its made of scrap however it works perfectly fine for my needs.

I threaded the angle iron on the bottom to bolt the aluminum underneath the top piece of angle.

An extender that slides on and off for more torque

I can get a full 90 degrees out of it.

And now they're all bent and ready to test fit. I used a 3/8 - 16 bolt and spring not

Don't mind the marks from being bent, I will clean it up and get them painted. Give me another week and I should have this finished with my new rack mounted up. Sooner if work slows down a little haha. Okay, time for a nap.

 

[Ch3no2freak]

Oh and please also ignore those crap welds lol I had to make this thing fast

 

[Scar0]

It took me a bit to figure out where the metal "to be bent" went in the frame. But once I figured it out, its a pretty cool design.

The problem I found when bending aluminum is that the bent section is weakened from small stress fractures on the outside of the bend. The tighter the radius and more Deg. you bend it, the more it fractures. Aluminum does not stretch like steel does because of the molecular structure of it. If you try to bend it back a little it will likely just snap in two. So just beware...

 

[Stevenitrosublette]

Nice bender ! That gives me Ideas ? Lol Anyway, Not sure what your Aluminum clips will do yet ? But the spring clips that go in the " Unistrut" go in with the springs down pushing the clip up ? But you knew that. Right ?

 

[Ch3no2freak]

It took me a bit to figure out where the metal "to be bent" went in the frame. But once I figured it out, its a pretty cool design.

The problem I found when bending aluminum is that the bent section is weakened from small stress fractures on the outside of the bend. The tighter the radius and more Deg. you bend it, the more it fractures. Aluminum does not stretch like steel does because of the molecular structure of it. If you try to bend it back a little it will likely just snap in two. So just beware...

You can bend aluminum back up to 5 degrees with out it breaking.

 

[Ch3no2freak]

Nice bender ! That gives me Ideas ? Lol Anyway, Not sure what your Aluminum clips will do yet ? But the spring clips that go in the " Unistrut" go in with the springs down pushing the clip up ? But you knew that. Right ?

hahaha, yes I knew that. I put them together like that for storage purposes.

 

[Scar0]

You can bend aluminum back up to 5 degrees with out it breaking.

I learned something new today, Thanks!
I did not know the Deg, you could go back to, just that it would snap when I went back.

 

[Ch3no2freak]

Finally all painted and done. I designed it to be as low profile as possible and it even fits in my garage! But it was really close lol.