what's up everyone rocks it here and in this video I'm actually gonna show you guys how I made this
roof rack and today I'm gonna do something a little bit different where I do more of a speed
overview and show you guys my process so I'm just gonna talk over it and hopefully give you
guys a couple of tips if you decide to build your own and the reason why I'm doing this app to kids
now and spacing my forint just got pretty tight especially when we packed everything to go camping
this man I had to spend more time organizing organizing things and shift things around to fit
to find more space some options I looked into we're at rooftop cargo box hitch mounted tray
and even a cargo trailer ever done that really fit my practical needs or taste after search on
Pinterest I actually fell in love with the idea of getting a roof rack it looked good have lots
of storage space and serve multiple functions however the one I wanted cost over 1,800 and
had a wait time of five to eight months as these were made to order me camping and fishing season
around the corner I had a figure something out and then I thought why not design and build one
myself look fly Technium out a month and cost me about five learning materials building one man I
can configure it to fit my family and personal need okay so we basically have three essential
things going on here the basket for storage the mounting bracket that attaches the basket to the
roof of the vehicle and last the wind fairing to help reduce wind noise so the first thing we
need to do is measure there are four important things to measure here the location of the fact
that roof mounts the distance from the top of the windshield to the rear of the roof right
before the lift gate went up finally if you have a Sun roof you may want to leave a cutout for it
so in my 2004 toyota 4runner measuring from the rear of the lift gate to the front windshield
measured about 91 inches the rear mounts are 7.5 inches from the lift gate and the rear mounts
to the front mount is about fifty eight point three seven five inches the front mounts from
one another are about forty five inches apart and the rear mounts from one another about forty three
points six to five inches apart and last the location of the mounting holes are fifty seven
millimeters apart based on these measurements I went with an overall basket size of 84 inches
long and 44 inches by me being OCD practice with me being a mechanical engineering talking to my
cat software saw words to draw this thing up in 30 down to the last detail started out with the
layout sketch where I would define my factory locations to be used as a starting point then
around that I sketched out the framework of the basket then use a weldment feature in solver to
turn them into tubes then I drooped the brackets that would hold the one fairing then I created
the base plates where the roof rack mounts would connect to the basket then the actual mount that
would attach to the roof was the forerunner to the basket I wanted to do a bent plate but later
changes into three separate place that would be welded together then I added some gussets
for style points they also serve as anchoring points for tie-down straps since I wouldn't
be mounting an awning in the near future I also modeled it into the assembly and for future mods
added in the winch and table mounts that would be fabricated and installed sometime after this
video I have to model what's completed and cut layers was automatically generated the Cutlass
would show me what and how much material I needed to buy for this project I didn't search locally
where I can buy and online Meadows comm had most of what I needed and then I went to inter
West meadows to pick up the remaining items on my Cutlass now we build the first thing we had
to do was get the tubes bit luckily I found a guy on off-road with the professionals who've
been there willing to do all events for 80 bucks after I got the twos bent I decided to design a
simple fixture and build it out on some two by fours this would prevent things from shifting
while I welded and when allowed me to clamp the tube say they were flat and aligned correctly
to join the main tube to one another I used a large tube that would packed as a collar this
lives over where both the tube halves meet along for a stronger connection now it was time to get
comfortable and do a lot of tube notching this and mocking up the mouth took about 80% of the build
time the knotch piece has served as verticals and horizontal pieces of the basket frame
next was to make six top place that would connect the basket to the mounts
mocking up the mouse was the biggest pain in the butt it consisted of a rubber gasket steel plate
and plastic spacers standoffs that would give it height that was more manual to mount something
on to I cheated and reprinted my spacers with the heart material then I cut a few gaskets to
seal and prevent mounts from scratching the be able to make the main part of the mounts I cut
three pieces of 3/16 thick steel and tag them together using some nominal angles as a starting
point I didn't mounted it to the factory location then tapped the mount with him forever mallet to
tweak it until I got it to say right with the basket and the roof of the VGO then I repeated
this three more times for the rest of the mounts after getting the basket Square to the roof of the
vehicle I think lamp each mounts to the basket plate and drill holes for where the naughty
fasteners would later be installed before I can install two expanded metal I flipped the basket
over and laid the 4x8 sheet down and trended to size to prevent water from getting trapped between
the cross tubes and expanded metal I raised the buyer quota by temporary shimming it with some
flat bar I had laying around after 100 or so tag welds the base was nice and sturdy not with the
basket out of the way I moved on fabbing up the wind fairing after mocking up and test fitting a
few made with cardboard and then made a template and got some aluminum sheet and trimmed out the
wind frame to mount the wind fairing on I got some flat bar and bedtime clothes 220 degrees or until
the bottom of the wind fearing sat flush to the roof to prevent the wind Fang from scratching the
roof I used some trim Luxio after all the metal splitter had been grunting down I didn't gave
it one last wipe down with some acetone to clean off any dirt or grime that was left over I've been
doing some research I had three options for top coat power coat two parts Sigma stage paint and
trucking line erato can ultimately I wanted the power coat option it was just more durable and
is more uniform however it just wasn't feasible as far as cost also if I were to make changes
down the road I say I want to add something to the roof rack I'd have to grind it down and then
reapply it that just wasn't in the cards but that all said and done I ended up applying a
self etching primer from Estonia I went through about four cans which gave me three coats of
coverage then I lit a cure overnight to be ready for a top coat for the top coat I use a hotrod
paint and applied three pills using a Philip II gun this would give it a nice even semi-gloss
black finish after an hour or spraying I was finally done and here is how the finish came out
after a few days have passed it was time to finally install the
rack system I became first with the mounts using some silicone in between
each layer to weatherproof it after all four mounts were in I had my wife come
help me lift the Basques onto the roof and finish installing the remaining fasteners
all that was now left was installing the wind fairing here is the final outcome
after I did some road testing there was no wind noise I was pretty happy so I pulled
it over hopped on top and this is this rack was pretty solid it wasn't anywhere
now it was time to load up all our things and get ready to go camping so now you know how it
all went together I would say the toughest part of the build would be getting the mountains where I
need him to be the roof of my car isn't flat and there's a slight curve so this makes it difficult
to measure accurately so now I'm gonna go into what I like about the rack which is pretty much
95% of it I'm pretty happy how it came out but there's always room for improvement starting off
with the basket size I like the depth of it and the stealthiness however if I were to change one
thing I would add about two inches to the width of the basket so this way it's more proportional
with the 4runner in the near future I plan on installing a winch after I make my boat mounts
which will allow me to transport my jon boat without the need for a trailer I also have a CVT
awning that I need to install I'll probably make the bracket soon after this video and to make it
easier to reach the roof rack I'll probably put in an order for a goby ladder to complete the setup
anyways I hope you like this video hopefully he serves as an inspiration it maybe kicks off
an idea that you may have on building your own roof rack project or regards to the dimensions
don't you don't have to use the exact dimensions use whatever you feel is necessary to expand to
you fit your personal needs overall this video is meant to be more about over you and a step-by-step
I appreciate you watching if you do want to see more of the behind the same stuff checking out
an instagram at raw to the doctor Chindi if you liked the video don't forget to give it
a thumbs up and subscribe for more stuff like this I'll see you guys in the next one later