It's cooling down here but the sun is still shining so I got to painting the shelf. The original shelf was designed to fit in a box. Second to that it was designed to be a hitch rack cargo carrier. I omitted the 2" receiver and decided to weld the two pieces together. This would keep it the width I needed (I actually lucked out on that) and welded would be better and nicer looking than bolted.

Because of the welding the factory paint/coating was removed or burned off. I used this opportunity to remove some more and weld on some tie down spots on the perimeter. Again I used nails, smaller ones than my roof rack, and tacked them on. These little nails were way harder to get prepped and held in place. As such I used more weld than I wanted which resulted in a lot of grinding. My neighbors must hate Saturday mornings when I have a project because that's when I make my noise.

Removing material to make it more pleasant to the eye started with a grinding wheel, flap disc, wire cup then Roloc. In the end it turned out nicer but damn it was a lot of work. I also grabbed some nicer hardware while out.






When I get some time I need to finish the legs. I'll probably bring down some gear from the attic and load it up in a configuration that requires the rack to be higher than it is now. I'm stare at it awhile then decide whether to make more holes in the legs or make a second set of legs. Once that is figured out I'll cap the ends of that c-channel.