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My First Roof Basket!

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Old 04-20-2013, 08:45 PM
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Default My First Roof Basket!

So I decided to go ahead and make my own roof basket instead of buying one. This will be my first time ever fabricating something and ever really using a welder for something important. I used a combination of my 90 amp harbor freight flux welder and a lincoln 125 mig welder.

I used 1x1 16 gauge square tubing for everything, and 6 JCR gutter mounts.

I started with just making the base of the rack on the first night, getting it perfectly square was the hard part, it ended up being only a quarter of an inch off, ill take that!

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welds cleaned up pretty good
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I wanted the front of the basket to follow the angler of the windshield, and i wanted the rear of the basket to follow the angle of the back hatch, so the front is angled 45 degrees and the rear is angled 30 degrees
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I mocked up the basket on the roof by setting it on some foam blocks, then tacking the gutter mounts in place, so i could then finish weld them with the mig, how do my welds look??
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And here it is on the roof!
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Im going to take off the tracks on the roof, and ill also paint it flat black and add the two 6.5" LED light bars I have on the way!
Old 04-20-2013, 09:00 PM
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It looks pretty good. The only thing is it doesn't look like you cleaned the joints before you welded them. Hopefully you did and I'm just not seeing it to well. I would hate to see the welds snap on you. But other then that the welds look pretty good.
Old 04-20-2013, 09:35 PM
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That looks really good, I like that you followed the angles of the front and rear.
Old 06-01-2013, 01:09 AM
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its been a little while but today i've finished all the small things like light tabs and hi-lift mount and last night i put the last coats of Rustoleum Flat Black Enamel on it so i was able to put it on for good today!
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Old 06-01-2013, 02:02 AM
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Looks a lot like how id like to do mine. How much tubing did you end up using? Looks pretty good!
Old 06-05-2013, 06:39 PM
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I like it. I may use your design when I get ready to make one.
Old 06-07-2013, 03:09 PM
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Originally Posted by Marks2000XJ
I like it. I may use your design when I get ready to make one.
go for it! just make sure to post up some pics!
Old 06-09-2013, 12:25 AM
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Dude.. Jealous of your tool box!! Good looking rack too
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