alloyguitar

I'd like to be able to do that, too. I go snowboarding a lot (was a snowboard instructor for 6 years) and end up in some bad weather where they'd be handy, but we'll see. I need new tires and to build a hitch for my small motorcycle trailer, so they're first on the list before lights.

Lol, well here's the thing with the aerosol cans. I'm pretty sure that my bare arms (wearing a tshirt) would sense any heat issues before the cans would get hot enough to matter. Those have been there for months without issue, so it isn't really a concern of mine. If I was using my OA torch, then yeah, I'd be concerned, but the welding sparks don't really worry me. Stupid? Probably, but it has yet to be a problem. Woodenspoon, Mine's a bit shorter than yours, and the angles aren't really the same, but I have it as far back as I can. The front edge of the deflector is about an inch in front of the sunroof, and it seems to work really well there. I'm still debating on whether I'm going to put lights on it or not. I work at a parts store, so I may take one out of the box and hold it up there to see how it looks before I make a decision.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/speedgood/7042177423/in/photostream There's a quick video of me pulling on it. Safe to say it's mounted pretty securely. Lol

Yeah, I lost a center cap romping around in the woods and never got around to replacing it. I put that door trim around all the "sharp" edges in case I use those holes to tie down a tarp or something while camping. Bolting system Drove it to work yesterday and the wind deflector works great. NO whistle at all. I'm very happy with it's performance.

I'll get a more decent photo tomorrow since I'm off work.

Haha, I was going to say that I borrowed part of it from ya, but couldn't remember what thread I saw it in. Lol.

mine gets around 15 city/19 highway with 210k on the clock. I think a lot of it is that all the stations around here run an ethanol mix, which will hurt your mileage since alcohol has half of the energy potential than gasoline does. Just another reason why my daily driver when it isn't raining is a dr250s. 70-75mpg is hard to argue with. lol

Thanks, guys! It tilts a bit forward, so I need to shim the front up a bit, but other than that I'm happy with it. Hopefully it's not too tall.

Built this for my r50. Has a tubular frame with tabs for adding lights later.

Making sure everything's nice and level. TADA! We're getting somewhere. Added the mounting points. It'll just mount to my stock roof rack with bolts that will slide right in. Fun little action shot. And here's the finished frame after painting and adding a few tabs. I added four tabs in case I want to add lights later, which I probably will. I didn't take photos of making the actual windscreen, but it's made out of a single piece of 1/2" ballistic lexan or plexi or something heated and bent to shape, because it's what I had. It was clear, so I hit it with a quick nasty coat of black paint. The screen itself will be plastered with stickers, I'm sure, so it doesn't have to look too good. There were a few runs in the paint on the actual deflector since I was painting it in a dark corner of my garage at night, so, to hide them, I "embellished" the thing in stickers. Good thing I have a lot of different hobbies that involve buying things that come with stickers. Lol. This, like my cargo cages, was a zero dollar project as well, so I'm really happy with how it came out. Sorry for the last camera phone shot. I'll get better ones tomorrow when I'm off work.

So my pathfinder's roof rack has snowboard racks on it, and they whistle. A lot. It's annoying. So I'm making a wind deflector. Started with a piece of what used to be shelving in a TjMaxx. It's not galvanized. It's just painted silver. I didn't measure the wall thickness, and, honestly, I don't really care what it is. It doesn't need to lift the car off the ground, so no big deal. Lol Mitered the ends and welded 'em to get the angle I wanted. Welded the ends of the little pieces back on reverse from where they started so "cap" the ends of the tubing so I can get a weld all the way around, and so water and such can't get inside the tube. Started on the side plates. Yes, that's a sawblade. Makes great plate steel since I have 20394203948320948 of 'em laying around. Best part about sawblades is that they're tempered, so you can score the steel, then hit it with a hammer and break it cleanly enough. Tacked the two side plates together so I could drill some securing holes and grind them to identical shapes.

Looks good to me! I may end up building a bumper, myself, before long.

I actually do have a 12v cooler, and, after heading to the lake to enjoy the sun (78 degrees here yesterday) I realized that it should have been in my car. I may just run a standard fill-it-with-ice cooler, though, since I don't want to run down the battery. As far as sleeping in a pathfinder, I usually put a ramp of pillows over the folded back seat bottom and almost on top of it. That, with a few sleeping pads on the floor, make for a pretty decent sleeping experience. Somewhere I have a bike rack kicking around, and I hadn't considered that. Another idea was heavy duty velcro, as i've seen some company manufactured overhead rifle racks with that, but i'm not sold on the idea just yet.

I'll get you some closeups photos, but i basically removed the laundry/grocery tie downs and used where they were bolted into, so there's one mount on the top, and two on the bottom. One drawback is that you lose the hooks near the hatch for the cargo cover, but i'm okay with that. Need be I can just hook it onto the cages.

Welllllllll I could get it to the hold downs (I think), but the cage is mounted where the original hooks for it are, so I haven't really tried. I typically use the cover as a divider in the back.

Annnnnd we have a rifle rack in a car. (Disclaimer: I don't keep my AR in my car unless I'm headed to the range, so please don't break into my car looking for it. Mmkay? Great.) I should also add that, even though it looks like the muzzle is pointed at the driver's head, it is not. it's about 5 inches or more above my head, plus I don't keep a round in the chamber, or a loaded magazine in it. That'd be stupid. I also moved my tools around a bit. Picked up this bag at a pawn shop today for zero dollars, and it seems like it'd work much better than the ammo can haphazardly filled with sockets. Most of the tools I'm putting in the bag. I added a lot to what the ammo can had, and I'm pretty confident with the contents of it now. I also carry a 3/8" drive socket set in addition to all of this. All packed up. Ditched the stock zipper pull lanyards and such for a bit of paracord. The larger pieces keep the zipper from opening and make it easier to open when wearing gloves. Still playing with the layout, but you get the idea. Going to move the fire extinguisher to the back of the center console I think, so that's temporary. Whole trunk. The idea is that I can fold the seats down and camp in there without moving a lot of crap around. I'd like to do some expeditioning things where I'd stay in my car, and I think it'd work well for that.

I've been considering making a mount that comes off the back of the center console to hold it where the rear cupholders would still be accessible but haven't found a setup i'm happy with, since mine's a bit too long to fit under the seat. It is on my projects-to-tackle-in-the-near-future list, though.

Thanks, guys! As far as stuff rattling, everything's secured top and bottom so it can't swing, with the exception of the jumper cables, but they're going to get moved to the other side, anyway so i'll secure them there. I mean, there are some things like climbing gear on carabiners that I can't really do much about, but i'm thinking i'll put heat shrink tubing on the carabiners (the cheap ones, not the expensive climbing ones) to reduce the metal on metal clang, but, honestly, nothing really rattles enough to be noticable...yet. lol

Looks great. I have a lot of tubing laying around, so I may whip up something like that with an integrated wind deflector, since my snowboard rack whistles and drives me nuts.

Made this... And installed it. The thread on the whole thing is here: http://www.nissanpathfinders.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=32664&st=0&p=615531&fromsearch=1entry615531 I'm new to this site, so if cross linking is a no-no, please delete that.

Cut them to length and tacked the sucker together in the car. Used priority mail boxes and an old comforter to protect the car from the hot welds. And now to start on the overhead rifle rack. Started by using a contour gage to make templates of each side and cut them out of a scrap of priority mail box. Bent the nails to match the templates. Tacked them up in the car and took it back to the garage to seam weld it. Whipped up some hooks like a standard gun rack. The tops are shorter since the rifle will sit on the bottom ones. Bolted it into my car (...again) and checked for fitment, then braced the rifle rack, since the nails are pretty easy to bend. braced the other side. And the finished product prior to paint with my sks project on the rifle rack as a demo. My windows have that black paint around the edges, so, between the paint and the roof, the gun can't be seen from the outside easily, if at all. The only time it'd be in there would be when I'm headed to the range, anyway, so not a big deal there. I'll post photos of it bolted in tomorrow. Right now it's hanging in my garage with a coat of black paint drying on it.

General layout. The crooked bar at the bottom is going to be cut up, anyway. Bracing the bottom part. Added another hook. I'll stretch bungee cords between them or something. Started on the brackets for it by drilling a few holes in 1/4" plate. Cut the plate into 3 little brackets and made little arms to go between the mounting points and the cage.

Extended the bottom down the side panel. Originally I was going to mount an ammo can on that with my tools, but I'll probably use a molle bag of some sort. Also started on the horizontal bars. Decided to add a few more hooks off the side. Wierd looking, but it fits. No hook. And we have a hook. ...to be continued.

Alright, round two: Started bending and laying out the nails. Made it all the way around. Started welding them up. The notch is for the cargo cover thing. Working my way across on the vertical bars. ...Further. Made it to the end, then ran out of welding wire. Luckily there's a lowes less than a mile away.

Horrible phone photo, but you get the idea. That's a rappelling rope, harness, two belay devices, first aid kit, folding chair, folding shovel, bayonet knife, small camp hammer, jumper cables, 3/8" drive socket set, fire extinguisher, gas can, ammo can filled with tools, a quart of oil, roll of duct tape, 4x6" tarp, and the two bags at the bottom have a change of clothes, funnel and rag for oil, mechanics gloves, and a beach towel all on that one side of the vehicle. All of it is secured, so it won't swing around and make a lot of noise, so I'm pretty excited about how much room it frees up. Most of this stuff I use frequently, so I'm happy that it's all easily removable in a situation where I'd need them, rather than packed away to where I'd have to dig through a bunch of totes to get to it. I'm still working on the other side, so I'll post photos of it when i get it finished.