Homebrew Con-Ferr Style Porthole Roof Rack Build

[97CargoCrawler]

I'm a big fan of the old school Con-Ferr porthole style safari racks that most often adorn the top of older hardcore off-road vehicles. Since Con-Ferr has long gone out of business and their successor makes a hideous rack roughly based on the old design that makes me wanna , I have decided to build my own from scratch.

This is a Con-Ferr porthole rack atop my FJ40:



On my van I envision something like this, only with closed in corners:



Today I picked up the steel I ordered and had cut to my specified dimensions. Having the cuts made was very expensive, but it was necessary since I have no idea how I would have sliced up a 4'X10' 16ga. 100lb. sheet of steel into 6" wide strips for the corners and porthole panels. I don't have a shear the size of a motor-home like they do! The 3/4"X3/4" 16ga. square tubing was sold in 20' lengths so I had to have it cut in half to fit inside the van. If I had a rack on top that wouldn't have been necessary!

The goods:





I also made an impulse buy that I shouldn't have. I discovered some really nice square plates that I thought would make great feet for the rack, and they would have...if they were the right size. I bought plates with 3" centers between the holes when in fact I need 4" centers in order to have the correct spacing to utilize the structural beams that cross the inside roof of the van. #-o One simple measurement I neglected to make so I guesstimated and ended up with $40 in steel that I can't use. I should be able to exchange it though.

Since the roof is ever so slightly curved I will need to weld the feet at an angle, and these plates I found are perfect for that. I won't have to cut the steel tube at an angle but rather angle it within the bunghole and weld it into position. Saves me a ton of time and saw blades!

The feet and back plates:



With the plate held up to the roof cross memeber you can see why I need 4" centers on the plates:





The top of the foot bracket will weld to the rack, or at least to a plate that I can bolt to the rack, which might be better. Then I can unbolt the rack and leave the feet in place since removing them will expose about 40 holes in the roof! I can't imagine I will be pulling the rack off too often...or ever.

So I'm well on my way. The design in my head will evolve as I go. I still have no idea how I'm going to cut the portholes. Having them punched out is an option but will likely be too expensive. I can cut them out with a reciprocating saw but 16ga. steel makes that VERY time consuming. But I think it's the only inexpensive option. As soon as I am able to scribble down a drawing of my envisioned rack I will post it.

I have never built a rack before so I know I have many more obstacles and mistakes ahead of me. Hopefully this thread will help someone out there build their own rack and avoid the mistakes I'm going to make and share here in this topic. Stay tuned, this might take me a month or two!

[astrozam]

Good stuff Crawler, going to be an interesting build to follow..

[LiftedAWDAstro]

A hole saw will cut your portholes if you have a drill press. You could go fancy and have them dimple-died.

[MountainManJoe]

I would definitively make the rack removable just in case you ever need to fit somewhere. Over here they will also charge you more to ride the ferry.

[97CargoCrawler]

I'm thinking maybe a 3.5" or 4" conduit knockout punch and die set. Between that and the pipe bender I will spend as much as all the steel cost. But I don't mind too much, I like adding useful tools to my collection. I'm still going to look into the dimple punching though since that will give a look closer to the Con-Ferr porthole. I'm going back to the metal candy store tomorrow to see what else they have. I might find something pre-punched. I'd be inclined to think I might find something like this in a plumbing or electrical warehouse, but most likely it would be thin galvanized steel.

[97CargoCrawler]

I stopped by the metal shop again today. I could spend days looking around in there! I was hoping to find a similar bracket to what I had bought only slightly larger. They had brackets with larger pipe holes, but the bolt pattern was still spaced 3". So I think I need to scrap that idea. I did find something else that may work. I like that it weighs a lot less but I will have to use the 0.75" tube for my mounting legs as opposed to 1.25". I like that I can still weld the leg at an angle without having to cut the end of the tube. The thinner leg will support the load just as well, but it will give a wimpy look:



The foot and backing plate:



I think I'm getting waaaayyyyy too ahead of myself. I should be concentrating on the rack itself and purchasing tools instead of blowing cash on stuff that may or may not work for mounting the rack. I'm also considering just getting some pre-made rack mounts for gutterless roofs. Something like this:



But I will need to know the bolt pattern measurements before I can buy them.

I think the mounts are going to be a severe PITA since I want to tie into the cross beams. I'm going to have to make spacers of some sort and they will need to be two different lengths and possibly angled on one end too. The cross members do not follow the exact curvature of the roof on the sides. The spacing is more like a triangle:



Any way I look at it I need some sort of angled spacer, otherwise part of the roof will squish in as the bolts tighten down. If use the outer lip of the cross member I'll make individual spacers, and if I use the center I will chisel out some of that foam filler material and slide an angled delrin spacer in there.

At this point I'm guessing that most of the racks on StroFari work vans are bolted to the roof sheetmetal only. Or else there's some interesting hardware involved. Does anyone have a ladder rack on their van with pix of the inside mounting hardware? I'd like to see what they did.

[astroturf]

I have only seen one, it was at the junk yard.

It was a drill through the roofs sheet metal affair. Not too pretty at all.

PS I think you are on the right track. You have gone from four bolts at each legs position to two. Maybe if you dropped it down to one bolt at each legs position and increased the amount of legs and inner crossbraces involved, you may solve the roofs curvature issue.

Just thinking out loud. Sorry

[97CargoCrawler]

Please do share any ideas, I like to know what people think. I find I get too involved in the details and sometimes loose sight of the bigger picture. My guess is I will go through 10 more designs before I find one that actually works! I'm going to use every cross brace, I think there's 5 or 6. I have a feeling I'm going to have to make something as opposed to grabbing pre-fabbed stuff out of a parts bin at the metal shop. :-k

[photo_van]

Hey, found you over here! I'll keep an eye on it. Figured out how to do the bends yet?

[97CargoCrawler]

Yep, I didn't want to hijack your thread! Especially since there's a few people here who try to poopoo on my posts wherever I go. Your gonna want to reserve some space on there for your rack build!

I want 6" radius bends but the affordable benders only do 3". So Im either going to have to make my own bender or buy the 3" bender and do two 45deg bends. Im actually starting to like the latter idea. I think it might be cool to have slightly squared off corners. It might give the rack just enough old school appeal but also look modernized. I bought enough steel tubing to make two racks so I'll probably do some experimenting with the corners. I grabbed a Grenlee 3" conduit punch off ebay for $50. That was an awesome deal...most on there are $150 and up. The original Con-Ferr racks have 3" port holes. I might make up a die to do the dimple too. Although I may have a better alternative to that as well. I hope to get the bender situation worked out this coming week.

[97CargoCrawler]

Finally got a bender that will do the 3/4" square pipe. At $200 it's certainly not the best quality bender but I hope it will do the job. I need to get some bolts so I can secure it to one of my benches in the shop. Even though it's cheap the parts weigh quite a bit. The whole set weighs about 60lbs. Now I have everything I need to get started on my roof rack.

[WoodButcher]

I think the mounts are going to be a severe PITA since I want to tie into the cross beams. I'm going to have to make spacers of some sort and they will need to be two different lengths and possibly angled on one end too. The cross members do not follow the exact curvature of the roof on the sides. The spacing is more like a triangle:



Any way I look at it I need some sort of angled spacer, otherwise part of the roof will squish in as the bolts tighten down. If use the outer lip of the cross member I'll make individual spacers, and if I use the center I will chisel out some of that foam filler material and slide an angled delrin spacer in there.

At this point I'm guessing that most of the racks on StroFari work vans are bolted to the roof sheetmetal only. Or else there's some interesting hardware involved. Does anyone have a ladder rack on their van with pix of the inside mounting hardware? I'd like to see what they did.

I don't have pics but when I got my van it had mounts to the sheetmetal only, they were in the right locations to catch metal underneath but couldn't / wouldn't / didn't make the connection. I did. I used wood and glue, Ipe and PL Premium adhesive, comes in caulking tubes. The wood I could work to the irregular angles and shape with the PL filling the gaps. I don't remember if I used threaded inserts or long connecting nuts for threaded rod but mine are bolted to the wood with 1/4" 20 ss bolt rather than through because of where they were drilled originally, like your 3 1/2" plate they didn't align well. The blocks rest on top of the supports and are glued to them. You could through bolt if you wanted but I've run this for more than 10 years w/ exsessive loads and had no problems at all. The glue hardens like a rock eventually and fills voids, (expands slightly, maybe 3%) it can be drilled and shaped if it is cured.(takes a week or more to harden ) Whatever wood you wanted to use must be a hardwood and dry, not green that will shrink.

[Krank88]

I had four of these holding my ladder on with self tapping screws(for a total of 8 screws). I climbed on the ladder a number of times(260+lbs) with no problems. The ladder bolted on to this.



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The back door on my 88 looks like pretty thick metal. I seems like I remember a rubber gasket or spacer in there also.

[97CargoCrawler]

I need to figure out how I'm going to attach my ladder as well and eventually a tire carrier. I'm still debating whether or not the tire carrier will be on the door or on a custom swing out bumper. I'm leaning towards the bumper on that. I probably won't get to that until this summer.

Thanks for the photo/info.

[97CargoCrawler]

I bolted the pipe bender to the workbench tonight and made a quick test bend.



I need to use a Dremel to clean up the cast iron die. That seem there left a crease in the tubing:





Considering this item is about the same quality as something you'd get from Harbor Freight (though they don't have them) I'd say it works pretty good.







So far I have spent about $260 in tools between the conduit punch and the pipe bender. That's not bad because I know I will use both of those tools again. It doesn't concern me that I may be spending more than what a pre-made rack would cost. The satisfaction of having built it myself is priceless to me. I'm still buying materials but I anticipate this rack will fall within a $600 investment.

The bend radius is 3". It is not quite as sharp as I thought it would be since the material is 3/4" wide. Tomorrow I am going to try two 45 degree bends to give a larger squared off corner.