How difficult would it be to fab a roof rack... Bending pipes and such? what is the easiest gauge steel / aluminum to bend but also be able to hold up against a lot of weight

 

That's a tough question to answer, because there are SOOO many different ways you can build it. You can build a small, easy, no weld rack, or you could build an all out camping or expedition rig, with welding and multiple attachment points and tons of design.

Use the forums search engine to find "Roof Rack" and you'll have tons of ideas. Then you can narrow down what your ideas are, price range is, and skill level will be.

Welcome to the forum, and have fun. We all love pics!

 

Mine's all bolt on.
Stainless is painless (scrap tag ends from work).
Utilized forming / punching dies at work.
Replaced all the thru roof fasteners of the roof tracks with expansion anchors to insure no pull out from loads. Used additional stock cross overs to distribute weights. If you were to mount a rack with gutter track brackets, I'd suggest 3 or 4 per side to insure you can do heavy weights up top (how much does a spare 33" weigh?) without your rack separating.
Consider materials that are readily available to you at low budget cost.

 

did you remove the factory bars on top and use those holes or bolt it on to the top bars and I think it weights around 40lbs... I would definitely have a lot of weight on it... could it be possible to use square bars over round? would the squares break first