Chevy & GMC Vans

Today I smoothed out the bending die and bent up some test corners:



Round corner comparison to original Con-Ferr rack:





Two 45deg bends separated by 12":



Two 45deg bends separated by 8":



I like both the round corner and 8" separated bends. I think I'm leaning more towards the two 45deg bends though. I like that it looks modern, that there is exactly 6" of straight length between the bends (which is the same as the porthole plate sections) and that the steel will be easy to form and tack down around the gentler bends. I also like that I can weld a small tab on that corner and mount an offroad light there without it protruding from the rack width. I think the 90deg round corners will look too pointy, like a tiara on top of my pavement princess (FY ..i.. ).

Now I think I need to bend another 2x45deg section and weld a corner piece to it. I need to be sure I like how it looks before I bend up all this steel I have laying here. I also need to figure out how I'm going to bend up the 10' lengths to make a rack the size I need. I'll probably do front and back pieces like this [ ] and then weld in straight bars for the sides. I know I will waste at least one tube trying to get the width right. I always seem to F that up when bending U shaped conduit.

Now I'm off to bend up another corner and try out my conduit punch.....

Nice. Where did you find the bender? link?

I bought the bender on ebay:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/290630513753?ss ... 1439.l2649

So I'm making some progress today, but still just experimenting. Last night I went to Harbor Freight and bought their cheapo $40 bending brake. I definitely got a $5 brake.....but it looks like it will do the job. I also bought a 10# spool of solid core welding wire, two wrenches (15" and 24") to work the conduit punch and some C-clamps.



Punching the hole (I got by with the 15" wrench):





Sawzalled the crap outta it:



Bending up the corners so they provide compression and shear strength:



Test fit:



I found these hollow steel rings at the metal shop. I'm still debating their use due to the added weight. They will add maybe 3 lbs to the total weight. I think I like them to facilitate the depth appearance the dimples in the original Con-Ferr rack gave, but they also serve as thick anchor points for bungee cords:







They will be welded to the backside, but this gives you an idea of the concept with it on the front. I will drill maybe 4 small holes around the big hole so that the bungee hook tip can go through and have a secure wrap around the ring.





Comparison to Con-Ferr:





Sorry for the crappy cell phone pix.

Dude, This is really moving along.

Congrats, Jim

Ahhhh...my friggin arm feels like it's gonna fall off:

I turned one of these strips:



Into exactly 16 of these:



And then cut out the corners and broke all the hard edges:





"Band saw" just jumped to the top of my tools wish list. Anyway, I got it done. I need to go get a 3/4" drill bit so I can slip the arbor through for the conduit punch. I drilled a 1/2" hole in my test piece and filed out the rest. I'm sure as hell not gonna do that for 16 more. I can't bend up the edges till the holes are cut, so looks like I'm done for tonight.

Nice work so far! If you are thinking about a bandsaw I would recommend going with a hand held portable one. Then make your own stand. It works great as a vertical bandsaw, and can be easily removed and used portable. I built mine a little larger and floor mounted it, but then I have the space. The one in the pic below is nice and compact. Total cost about 300 up north here. You will come in much cheaper. Every bit as good as an expensive full size saw, cheaper blades, and still portable when needed.

I have been eyeballing those for years! I have never seen one on a stand like that. That's an awesome idea. The stand construction looks pretty simple too. Thanks!

This was A LOT of work! My hands are very sore. I made 16. I have no idea how many I will use but a few extra can't hurt.





I need to acquire more of those rings to weld to the backside. I won't be able get those until this weekend. I hope to start bending up the rails this week. I don't think I'll be ready to weld this weekend...but you never know!

I was surprised the Harbor Freight bending brake help up. You should have seen the way the steel was flexing, I thought for sure it was going to snap. I went slow and steady. A little patience paid off.

Lookin' good!

Very cool! Great progress!

There has been a lot of progress, I just have not been sharing it on this forum. I'll post it now for sake of completeness and the one or two people who were watching. This work spans over several weeks and work days have been separated with *******************.

PIX! I just finished welding the rings to the porthole plates:













Oh and I did some test placements of the rack corner to try to figure out how long I want it:









It's lookin' like 9ft long by 57" wide. Or something like that. It will be back just far enough to tie into the windshield aerodynamics and not to cover the running lights I'm going to install.

I think I settled on a corner design.

There will be two 45deg bends separated by 5" which gives 6" of flat steel tangent to the chopped corner. I will bend an 18" long sheet of steel with two 45deg bends to match the tubing. The corner will have a porthole but the sides will not:





I need to get real anal about quality control. I'm going to have to make some big angle gauges to make sure the tubing is bent exact.

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I ditched work today to bend tubing for my rack. It's proving to be a time consuming process because I want precision angles and the bender doesn't have a gauge. It took me a long time to figure out the measurements for the bends but now that I have them down the other three U shaped bends so go quicker.

Here is the angle gauge I quickly threw together. Made from Home Depot goods. A meter stick, Right angle ruler and two C-clamps. It works perfectly:





If this rack was 6" wider in any direction my bender location would not have worked! It just fits:









I was shooting for 57" and it came out to 58". Good enough as long as I can make three more exactly like it.



Just an idea of what it will look like:







Now I think I will cut a porthole in each facet. We'll see.

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More pix of my tight spot:







I now have 4 perfect U's for the front and rear. This is going to be a big ass rack! 58" wide by 108" long. Here is the footprint:



Mock-ups:

































As far as porthole spacing and light placement nothing is set in stone. These are literally just brainstorming pix. I still need to fab up the 3 hole corners. I just threw on some singles to give an idea of what the corners will look like. I think I made decent progress today.

I might do an awning mount, hand rail mounts, pipe holder and maybe a hatch door. I would not put a tire up there. My FJ40 had a tire mount on top made by Con-Ferr and it broke loose from vibration. It was holding a 33". I thought about a retractable ladder too. I do like how it would look on the door though.

As far as the hatch.....I'm thinking about cutting a hole in the roof and putting in a 24" X 24" hatch door. The rack floor will have to have a door too. I like that I can just pop up through the top and start shooting. I'm also thinking it would be nice to have a hatch for a roof top tent. Then I could have a ground floor and a penthouse suite upstairs and I wouldn't have to go outside to get to it.

I might also do mounts for an extension so I can attach another platform over the hood. The rack could be like 13-14' long if I wanted.

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Made some more progress:

























I still need to bend up two more corners, cut the portholes and weld the rings in. I might be ready to start connecting stuff this weekend. Once I have a basic structure then I can figure out what else I'm going to add on to it. I'd like to weight it first. It's gonna be heavy.

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I bent up the last two corners tonight:



The portholes require a two punch procedure since I don't have a 3/4" drill bit:



I started with a 1/2" conduit punch:











I'm not sure how stupid it might look but I'm contemplating a 1/4" thick clear polycarbonate (Lexan) wind fairing in front of the rack. Or at least I'm going to buy some and test it. I expect to loose a few mpg's with the rack and all the other goodies I'm adding so I'm trying to be smart about it and minimize drag.

Looks Good.
What do think it will weigh?

Cool project, nicely done so far

I spent a few hours welding today.

The corners are all welded up now:









I welded the rings together too. I knew it would look like poo but I didn't want water seeping in the slit and rusting it out from the inside. Who's gonna notice when the rack is 8ft. off the ground?





Supersized!



I stopped by the metal shop on the way home from work yesterday and picked up an assortment of metal tabs. It's pretty cool, they have bins of this stuff and it's somewhat cheap:



I'm going to use these for my light mounting tabs:

That's coming out nice!