Custom Roofrack build r50 pathfinder

[Methfinder]

So I have the design all made up for my custom roof rack on my 2000 R50 Nissan Pathfinder. It's going to be 6 feet long by 40 inches wide, about 5-6 inches tall, and have a 60 degree wind brake, or a light bar on the front.

This is a super cheap project that I'm doing to practice bending tube, well pipe in this case. I'm using the same techniques that I would be using to build a bumper or a full cage, making bend gauges and basing my project off of actual blueprints.

Even though I'm using cheap materials, I figure they're suitable for a roof rack, and this is just a practice project after all. I'll post pictures as I go along, or you can follow my unfinished blog if you want: http://captain4x4builds.weebly.com/

If it turns out looking good, I might even sell it, so let me know if you're interested. I don't actually need it, so if I want your money more than my roof rack, you may be able to persuade me

 

What I'm using:

-1" conduit bender from Home Depot with a 7" centerline radius
-1" regular (not rigid) emt conduit
-140 amp Lincoln mig welder with flux core (no gas)
-Grinder with grinder wheel and cut-off wheel
-Compact Harbor Freight Bender (for flat bar mounting brackets)
-Black Automotive Enamel or wrinkle black spray paint

-A drill and a sanding wheel.

 

Let me know what you guys think.

[Slartibartfast]

I wish you the best of luck welding conduit with flux core! I used flux core with my 140 when I got it and it was fine for welding thick stuff together but it was a real pain on the thin steel barbeque stand I made my welding cart out of. I ended up doing a lot of little welds and a whole lot of wire brushing between each weld to clean off enough of the soot from the last weld for the wire to make electrical contact again. (It didn't help that I hadn't quite figured out the whole wire feed rate setup yet.) When the sample spool of flux core ran out, I got a gas bottle, and I haven't welded with flux since.

Also make sure you've got good ventilation. Maybe even a respirator. Besides the obvious fumes from any welding process, and the additional fumes from the flux, the conduit I've seen is galvanized.

 

I've been kicking around ideas for a roof rack myself, so I'll be interested to see what you come up with!

[Rebelord]

^^^heed above advice. Galvanized metal makes very bad fumes when welding.

I'd also look to add more cross bracing. Right now, the floor is just a ┼ I'd try to make it more like ╪

Well, you get the idea.

[Methfinder]

Dually noted on the gas fumes. I've welded this stuff together quite a bit actually, and I either do it outside or turn on a fan and point it outside, or hold my breath

The floor of the roof rack will also have a bunch more cross bracing, just haven't decided whether I want to use small diameter round bar, or steel mesh. The reason for the dumbed down drawing is that I can easily change the sketch above to any size I want, since I also plan on making a roof rack for a RZR that will be a lot smaller.

[The_Magicians_Eye]

Good luck with this project. You got to learn some place and trying it is better than dreaming about it.

I have a few recommendations based upon what your plans are.

*** Buy a proper tubing bender. If you plan on building a cage you need this to bend the tubing properly. Yes their are hacks that people claim will work. However if you're serious about doing this sort of work you need a tubing bender. The quality of the bend is a major aspect to the structural integrity of a roll cage.

*** Stay very far away from welding galvanized metal. Just because it sticks together doesn't mean it's structurally sound and we could go on for days about the health concerns from breathing in those fumes. Steel tubing of this same size is not expensive at all. I pay $20 per 24 foot length of 1" tubing 16 gauge wall. I'm sure you local steel supplier wouldn't be much different.

*** Go buy a gas tank for that welder and start burning MIG wire to do this sort of work. It's an investment that pays for itself almost instantly. Flux cord burns hot and as a result isn't good for welding up thin steel. Sure it can be done but when welding flux core on thin metal you'll be forced to stop and start to keep the heat from building up and having your puddle drop out. Starting and stopping when using flux core or stick welding is bad news. Every time you stop you should be cleaning up the area before starting to weld again. The slag will get into the new weld and cause porosity.

You don't need to do any of this to build your roof rack. But if you are using this build to gain the skills needed to do a cage you should really try and build it properly. This way everything you learn will move you forward in your skill set rather than having to sort out what problems were caused by cutting corners vs what problems are from just not knowing any better.

It's just my advise. Good luck with the build.

[PathFindMe]

any updates about this project?

[Methfinder]

One crappy job and about a year later, I might actually get to continue this project. The 1" conduit main hoop for my roof rack is still decorating the wall on the side of my garage, but I'm changing the game up a bit and ditching the home depot bender. I invested some time and money into a new JD2 model 32 bender, bought a 1.75" 5.5 centerline radius die, converted it over to air over hydraulic controls, and built a cool little stand for it. Not too shabby. This machine is intended for light production work within my personal business, so the pathfinder project is still for practice. For the pathfinder projects, I'll now be using 1-1/4" schedule 40 pipe, which is 1.660 inch O.D., a 1.380 inch I.D., and a 0.140 inch wall thickness. It crushes slightly more than 1.75" DOM, but at $12 for 10 feet, it will have to do. I did a test bend with it, and it looked great! I'll be using this material to build the rack and front/rear bumpers for now.

[Methfinder]

Went ahead and redrew my frame using 1-1/4" schedule 40, 1.40" wall pipe, Should be plenty strong, and I can tie it in with an exoskeleton if I so choose. I set up the drawing so it would be easy to make changes in the tube/pipe size, and also change any dimensions such as bend radius, height, width, etc. Now the whole thing is set up to be bent with my 5.5" radius die on the new bender.

[tristan1035]

Awesome looking rack, but how are you thinking of mounting it?

[Methfinder]

Awesome looking rack, but how are you thinking of mounting it?

 

Haven't decided yet. I have a finger brake on my hydraulic press, so I'll probably bend some 1/4" sheet metal brackets and use the stock mounting locations for the roof rails. I made the bottom rail for the rack sit directly over the stock roof rails so that whatever mounts I use will place the weight directly down onto the stock mounting locations.

Open for ideas for the mounts though. Not a whole lot of info out there on this.

[Methfinder]

Awesome looking rack, but how are you thinking of mounting it?

 

This should do the trick. Puts the weight right where I want it. I'll have six of these that I can bolt into the stock rail attachment points.

[tristan1035]

 

This should do the trick. Puts the weight right where I want it. I'll have six of these that I can bolt into the stock rail attachment points.

That looks perfect, I really that can bare enough weight, how many were you thinking for the entire rack, three on each side?

[LittleFR]

I weld a lot of sheetmetal for body work with flux core. It just takes technique and practice. I even drug my welder to work and put wheel arches in a truck. Cab corners in another and rocker panels... Then got to paint them and a dump truck it all on the clock. Best week ever.

 

I use .30 flux core it seems to be perfect for thin metal. .25 is too hot and any bigger you need a better 220 welder than mine to properly utilize. A lot of people hate flux core because it pops and burns you, I personally keep welding until I'm on fire enough it lights up the inside of my helmet. It just doesn't bother me anymore... Except overhead welding in a tight place with no helmet just look close your eyes burn off your eyebrows then do it again.

 

I have a friend that stick welds old rusty exhaust pipe and sheetmetal, he is the best welder I know (I'm not a welder... I'm a guy that can weld and he is proof)

 

Welding galvanized is bad... My brother and I have both got ten 'welders flu' from cutting galvanized culverts at our jobs. It's bad all the way around. I'm glad your going a different way on that, I still do it when it's required but all the ventilation in the world can still catch you in the end.

 

I'm ready to see some metal on an R50 on this project underway.

 

Are you replacing the flimsy slider racks too to keep it lower?

Edited September 25, 2016 by LittleFR

[Methfinder]

I weld a lot of sheetmetal for body work with flux core. It just takes technique and practice. I even drug my welder to work and put wheel arches in a truck. Cab corners in another and rocker panels... Then got to paint them and a dump truck it all on the clock. Best week ever.

 

I use .30 flux core it seems to be perfect for thin metal. .25 is too hot and any bigger you need a better 220 welder than mine to properly utilize. A lot of people hate flux core because it pops and burns you, I personally keep welding until I'm on fire enough it lights up the inside of my helmet. It just doesn't bother me anymore... Except overhead welding in a tight place with no helmet just look close your eyes burn off your eyebrows then do it again.

 

I have a friend that stick welds old rusty exhaust pipe and sheetmetal, he is the best welder I know (I'm not a welder... I'm a guy that can weld and he is proof)

 

Welding galvanized is bad... My brother and I have both got ten 'welders flu' from cutting galvanized culverts at our jobs. It's bad all the way around. I'm glad your going a different way on that, I still do it when it's required but all the ventilation in the world can still catch you in the end.

 

I'm ready to see some metal on an R50 on this project underway.

 

Are you replacing the flimsy slider racks too to keep it lower?

 

I only weld galvanized outside, even then, I hold my breath. Nasty stuff. Grinding a couple inches off with a sand flapper helps tremendously. My welds on this stuff using my 140 Lincoln are actually pretty good, nice and smooth. Not too much popping, I just don't have a good power supply in my garage, I keep popping breakers.

Yes, the stock rails are coming off. I'm bolting directly to the mounting pads on the roof.

[Methfinder]

So something to be aware of when deciding to bolt your roofrack directly to the roof instead of using the tiny 6mm machine cap screws. There are unwelded nuts as anchor points that will fall off into the roof liner when you remove the stock rack isolation pads, so doing this job requires removing the roof liner to get to those nuts. Also those isolation, or mounting pads, are formed to the holes into the roof, and are the only thing keeping water out. I plan on re-using these mounting pads, so I will bolt my brackets directly to them, possibly with longer bolts.

 

Edited October 28, 2016 by Methfinder

[hawairish]

So something to be aware of when deciding to bolt your roofrack directly to the roof instead of using the tiny 6mm machine cap screws. There are unwelded nuts as anchor points that will fall off into the roof liner when you remove the stock rack isolation pads, so doing this job requires removing the roof liner to get to those nuts. Also those isolation, or mounting pads, are formed to the holes into the roof, and are the only thing keeping water out. I plan on re-using these mounting pads, so I will bolt my brackets directly to them, possibly with longer bolts.

 

 

Wish I would've read this sooner...could've warned you about that. Not interested in using the existing channels with some channel/square nuts?

[Methfinder]

 

Wish I would've read this sooner...could've warned you about that. Not interested in using the existing channels with some channel/square nuts?

No worries, a little more work is all, and ever since deciding to go with the heavier material, I decided those stock roofrack channels wouldn't be strong enough. The bolts going through the roof are relatively large, and should be pretty strong in comparison to those tiny 6mm bolts.