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Thread: DIY Roof Rack, Seanz0rz's Low Profile Rack

  1. #21
    Good job on the acid. I welded through it while holding my breath while being blasted by a fan.

  2. #22
    I watched the acid clean up the galvanized pipe, and it was pretty cool!
    -Daniel2000 4Runner Sport | V6 | 5spd | 4x4 | Leather | 265/75-16 BFG AT/KO | OBA | BudBuilt front skid

    1990 4Runner SR5 | V6 | Auto | 2wd | 3.90 rear | Cobra CB | 265/65r17 Bridgestone Duelers H/Ts | '08 Tacoma 5 spoke rims | Has an 11:1 crawl ratio! SOLD

  3. #23
    Mike, I've done that on smaller jobs, welding gates and fence posts, that kind of stuff. But this is a lot of welding, and it needs to look reasonably nice as well.

    My back was hurting pretty bad last night, so I took some wonderful pills and slept in. I feel better, so now it's time to get out there and notch all my tubes!
    2005 Lexus LX470 - Stock for now...

    1998 Toyota 4Runner SR5 V6 4x4 + a bunch of goodies. Lifted, Locked, Illuminated and Armored. Winner,"Best Offroad Truck" - 2010 Pismo Jamboree. It's been upside down and still drives me to work.

  4. #24
    Today was a much better day...

    The pattern I made sets the saddles exactly parallel, and the correct distance between them. Every piece should come out nearly the same:


    Not even close to half done:


    I have 7 done, I still have 8 more small ones, as well as the 5 cross bars and 3 forward uprights. Not bad. I lost my shade for the day and I can feel myself roasting in the sun, time to call it a day and work on something entirely different.
    2005 Lexus LX470 - Stock for now...

    1998 Toyota 4Runner SR5 V6 4x4 + a bunch of goodies. Lifted, Locked, Illuminated and Armored. Winner,"Best Offroad Truck" - 2010 Pismo Jamboree. It's been upside down and still drives me to work.

  5. #25
    Finally got a chance to work on it a bit more today.

    Got the rest of the pieces in the above post cut. Not too bad, just hard holding on to them and not taking a finger off!

    Welded up the hoop and made sure it was all square, equal, etc, etc. It looked pretty good, so I added the first of the cross bars (rear most). This one will be attached to the roof, and is actually 3/4" Rigid Metallic Conduit with a .100 wall thickness.




    I added in the next cross bar, and skipped the one after that to get the next thicker bar welded in so I could retire the strap that was keeping the sides from bowing out.


    As far as I got today:


    Next time, I will add in the 2 remaining cross bars, and test fit it on my truck. Once it is up there, I will measure for the mounts, fabricate them, and weld them to the bars. Then I will get started on the basket part of the rack. A bunch of work left to do, but it is looking pretty nice. I will have to clean up many of the welds. Welding on thin tube sucks!
    2005 Lexus LX470 - Stock for now...

    1998 Toyota 4Runner SR5 V6 4x4 + a bunch of goodies. Lifted, Locked, Illuminated and Armored. Winner,"Best Offroad Truck" - 2010 Pismo Jamboree. It's been upside down and still drives me to work.

  6. #26
    It looks like it's coming along nicely. Nice having shore power I'm sure. Are you using gas or flux core? I used flux core with my emt and I wished I had gas to run less power and keep from blowing holes. I had a tank that expired and just turned it in instead of re-upping. The cost of tank fill ups is a bit high for something I don't use a lot. Even if I did use it more there would still be a lot of cost involved.

    I don't have a lot of experience or great work welding round to flat or fish mouth gussets. It's a bit tricky for me. My bike rack took some time to make it look good. I had drilled 1 inch holes, fed the emt through then welded the emt to 2" square tube that was twice as thick. It turned out all right but had to keep the heat on the square section.

  7. #27
    Using gas. It's not so bad. I only really blew one hole in it, where the notch didn't fit right. I also forgot to turn on the gas a couple of times, and forgot to grind off some of the zinc.
    2005 Lexus LX470 - Stock for now...

    1998 Toyota 4Runner SR5 V6 4x4 + a bunch of goodies. Lifted, Locked, Illuminated and Armored. Winner,"Best Offroad Truck" - 2010 Pismo Jamboree. It's been upside down and still drives me to work.

  8. #28
    Looks good Sean!

    How's the VW coming along? I saw the Nacho Drive Westfalia van on Expo got a Subaru engine transplant, which somehow led me to youtube (it always does) of a guy that put the 230-240 hp Subaru SVX 3.3L F-6 in his Westfalia van. The best part was he filmed two videos--one of him doing a full throttle pull onto the highway up a slight incline both before and after the engine swap. It took him something like 47 seconds to hit 55MPH with the VW engine and something like 10 seconds with the Subaru engine. I have never seen such a night and day difference, I can't imagine how much better his V'dub drives now.

  9. #29
    I haven't touched it in months. It needs brakes, seat belts, and some other small things to drive, including re-upping the registration and insurance (its PNO now). Engine runs OK, but needs a major tune up and all of the vacuum leaks need to be fixed, valves adjusted, etc. Needs a new muffler, all new window and door rubber and seals, etc. I figure all of the body stuff is about $1-1.5k.

    I think the goal is to stuff an EJ in there at some point. I could do it super cheap right now (about $2000) and use my current trans, or spend about 5k on a really nice install with a subaru transmission. It is on the way back burner. I would sell it but I'd lose money on it at this point, and it is not really in the way too much. I would like to get it down and back on it's own wheels so I can move it around.

    Someday...
    2005 Lexus LX470 - Stock for now...

    1998 Toyota 4Runner SR5 V6 4x4 + a bunch of goodies. Lifted, Locked, Illuminated and Armored. Winner,"Best Offroad Truck" - 2010 Pismo Jamboree. It's been upside down and still drives me to work.

  10. #30
    Wish I had known you were thinking of an EJ swap. My friend just scrapped her Forester. It had a blown headgasket and a bad trans, but the motor you could have repaired.

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