Looks great subscribing

 

Interested to see the spare tire carrier mounted to the roof rack. Looking good. Did you already have the holes in the roof for the factory roof rack? My 90 doesn't, figure I will probably just attach to the drip rails. I'm not too keen on drilling into the roof.

 

I'll start on that once I get the rack all painted up and on the truck. Shouldn't be too long with all my other projects; lol

My 97 had a factory roof rack, so the sheetmetal up there already had the nut-serts. it was be a challenge to add some, but it's doable.

 

Just something you might be interested in. At the Watkins Glen International Speedway, I saw a guy who had a platform similar to your on top of a Grumman aluminum step-van and they were watching the race on top with lawn chairs and beer. I was waiting for them to get drunk and fall off! LOL!

 

It's definitely something that can happen, no doubt. So did they ever; lol?

Progress has been a little slow lately with other projects going on. One of the major hold ups have been the outrageous cost of perforated sheet. It would likely run me around $600 for a single 4'x8' of 11/12GA - No thanks. The good news is that I was already thinking of an alternate route b/c of the weight. So with that, I decided that I will likely be adding a platform that is either removable and/or something aluminum that will be bolted on. With that in mind, I decided to add the tire carrier tabs and paint the thing since it's getting a little rusty hanging around and getting handled so much. Not to mention, it's not small and takes up a lot of room in my shop. Plan is to throw it up on the truck tonight and then start planning my tire carrier/ladder that'll connect between the rack and back bumper.

 

the ladder is a great idea! I am working on a similar project but plan to remove the spare off the roof. the spare is really heavy and a ladder would have been helpful.

 

I actually don't want to store anything up top. The idea behind the ladder, outside the obvious, is to use it as an adjustable spare tire mount. I plan to fabricate a quick release, or just re-relocatable, spare tire mount that utilizes 2 of the rungs on the ladder. That way I can mount the spare high up on the trail for clearance and low while on the road so I can see out the back.

 

Well it's up there. I dipped the rail mounts in plasti-dip although it's kinda hard to see; I guess that's a good thing. I still need to paint and dip the clamps, so for now I'm just using the skin hardware. I also plan to circle back around to a decking material once I make up my mind on a material. For now, it's on with the ladder! Sure looks cool I think.

 

Any progress on the ladder? I picked up a welder, a tank and reg, and a bunch of wire yesterday from a buddy. $100 and he threw in a chop saw and a miter saw! I'm psyched.

I have so many questions lol. One, could you throw a picture up looking down the gutter rail so I can see the way you mounted the tabs?

I have the factory 3/4 rack meaning no holes up front. I wonder how hard putting 2 or 4 more holes would be.

Any chance you could give me dimensions? Just length and width. This setup looks like the perfect base for the rack I want to build. I'm such a rookie on welding though. Lots of practice before I start making the actual rack. How do you keep the tubing level when you're mocking everything up? I feel like mine would be twisted or crooked for sure without some kind of jig or giant table.

Keep up the good work man.

 

No so much actually. I haven't touched the rack since I installed it on the Jeep only b/c I'm using every extra minute to finish this bathroom renovation I've been slacking on. Once that's off my plate I plan to go back and finish the ladder, but for now it's on the back burner.


I did this layout on the floor. You just need to be careful that your floor is in fact level, but in reality, you would need to do the same on a welding table too. Just do what you can to keep it true by corner measuring and going slow with your welding. Not putting too much heat into something is really the biggest challenge here. Also, everything I did I tacked up on my truck. So you can bet, it's not perfectly true but unless someone crawls all over it with a tape measure, nothing's going to show unless you're WAY out. my measurement won't help you I bet.

 

S14
$600 a sheet ? Check out prices at Metal depot .I am planning on using expanded mesh to deck mine with and it's only $61 for 9 ga / 1 1/2'' diamond . . I/8'' diamond is only $178 per sheet .

 

Looks really good. Thanks for the tips

 

Expanded is WAY cheaper than perforated. Two different things.

 

Thanks! I'm super happy with it.

Another quick tip: careful about welding around the glass on your windows. The spatter from MIG welding can melt little holes in the glass. You can buy welding blankets fairly cheap to protect the glass, and paint for that matter, while you weld.

 

So you were tacking the mounts in on the jeep I'm guessing?