Gallowbraid
Adventurist
I'm itching to drill holes in my perfectly good roof. I lay awake at night wishing I could run a drill bit through that thin sheet metal, risking headliner damage and future water leaks. Nothing would make me happier than drilling the wrong size hole and then struggling to find a way to plug it. Hopefully the drill bit goes through at an angle and I hit a curtain airbag!
In all seriousness I'm considering fabricating a roof rack along the lines of this:
To start with I'm soliciting suggestions for attaching it to the vehicle. After all I can fabricate all I want, but if it won't stay on the roof it's sort of pointless. Here's what I've come across thus far:
1. Yakima or Thule adapters that grab the roof line and inside the doors to provide a removable system for adding their crossbars. I've already ruled this out for multiple reasons (Price, no availability for my vehicle model, aesthetics and price.)
2. Some sort of track from the aforementioned companies that allows their hardware and crossbars. Again, ruled out for the same reasons listed above.
3. Some sort of genetic T-track designed for mounting items to the roof using t-track hardware or simple bolts in the channels. I've found a few that are reasonably priced and attach with self sealing screws (think metal roofing screws), rivets or plusnuts. Attaching a roof rack with nothing more than sheet metal screws doesn't sit right with me.
4. An aluminum t-track not marketed as being for vehicle roofs. Same item as above but difficult to get in black, they don't come with fancy end caps and they're 1/4 the price.
5. Skip the track all together and fabricate feet into the roof rack and attach with plusnuts.
6. Give up on the fabrication dream and continue to save pennies for a Gobi rack that will still require me to figure out how to mount it as I have none of the stock mounting points.
Anyone tackled something like this before? Is there a product or some magical hardware I haven't come across?
In all seriousness I'm considering fabricating a roof rack along the lines of this:
To start with I'm soliciting suggestions for attaching it to the vehicle. After all I can fabricate all I want, but if it won't stay on the roof it's sort of pointless. Here's what I've come across thus far:
1. Yakima or Thule adapters that grab the roof line and inside the doors to provide a removable system for adding their crossbars. I've already ruled this out for multiple reasons (Price, no availability for my vehicle model, aesthetics and price.)
2. Some sort of track from the aforementioned companies that allows their hardware and crossbars. Again, ruled out for the same reasons listed above.
3. Some sort of genetic T-track designed for mounting items to the roof using t-track hardware or simple bolts in the channels. I've found a few that are reasonably priced and attach with self sealing screws (think metal roofing screws), rivets or plusnuts. Attaching a roof rack with nothing more than sheet metal screws doesn't sit right with me.
4. An aluminum t-track not marketed as being for vehicle roofs. Same item as above but difficult to get in black, they don't come with fancy end caps and they're 1/4 the price.
5. Skip the track all together and fabricate feet into the roof rack and attach with plusnuts.
6. Give up on the fabrication dream and continue to save pennies for a Gobi rack that will still require me to figure out how to mount it as I have none of the stock mounting points.
Anyone tackled something like this before? Is there a product or some magical hardware I haven't come across?
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