Have anyone made a roof rack?

I have a friend who is a professional welder , we are looking for some ideas , homemade roof racks ....

Im thinking to built one with aluminum for lightweight .. Not sure how to get it attach to the roof ... Of course needs to be easy removable with style and adaptable to the sunroof

Any idea appreciate

 

Hey H2Miami, I actually just finished making new cross bars for my H2. I didnt like how large and bulky the factory ones were so I made my own out of 1 inch round conduit from home depot. I probably have between 30-40 dollars for the two rails combined. I use them for hauling kayaks on top. Made them wide enough to put three up there instead of two on the narrower factory ones. The mounts are very sturdy and I am considering building a basket to go in place of the rails. The mounts could be adapted to work with anything you wanted to put up there as long as you could drill it and put a bolt though it and the bracket.

The first picture shows my initial design with a clamp holding the rail to the angle bracket. I decided this wasnt strong enough and that I would just drill the rail and put a 1/2" bolt though it as shown in the second picture.

The third and fourth pictures are the finished and installed rails. The fifth picture is how I mounted the angle brackets to the roof. Ground a washer down so that it would fit under the track that the factory rails go into and then welded it to the bolt so that when I tightened the nut on the top of the bracket the bolt would not spin with it. I used a washer between the angle bracket and the roof rail and another washer between the nut and the angle bracket. The bracket was just a piece of angle that is used to hang electrical conduit that cost between 2-3 dollars a piece.

I am very pleased with how strong it turned out. Hope my explanation was understandable. Let me know what you think.

Thanks

Ross