Started building some cargo racks for my daily driver/bov suv.

[alloyguitar]

So I carry quite a bit of gear in my car. Stuff like my rappelling gear, tow straps, first aid stuff, camera gear, and so on flaps around in my car and the sound of it has been pissing me off, so I'm building a small cage like thing to hang stuff on.

Cleaning out the car. Here you can see the amount of crap I carry around. Lol

Ropes, towels, harnesses, gloves, yadda yadda yadda.

More gear. The ammo can has tools in it.

This was my old setup. Bungee cords with knots tied in it where I had carabiners hooked to. Fancy, I know.

Other side.

Pulled the upper side panel to make a template off of.

Priority Mail boxes make the best templates. You can peel the folding things and stick 'em to the table, and they don't move. Try it. Works great.

This is what I'm building the thing out of. Old, rusty, HUGE nails. We have a bucket of them in the garage. Why? I have no idea, but I'm using 'em because they're here and I'm broke.

I was surprised how easy they were to bend.

Working my way around the outside. I marked a grid every 2", give or take, for the center bars. They probably won't come out perfectly, but I'm fine with that.

...to be continued.

 

[alloyguitar]

Continued...

I'm wire brushing all the rusty nails prior to welding. Here's a before and after.

Working my way around the outline, wirebrushing as I go. Takes a while, but oh well.

Tacked the frame together and started working on the vertical bars.

And so on...

The longer spans I'm having to make out of two pieces.

The square will be cut out so my cargo cover thing will be able to be installed/removed.

Getting further.

FINALLY made it all the way across with the vertical bars.

 

[alloyguitar]

Started on the horizontal bars. I'm just tacking them on the back. Nothing fancy.

This is what it'll look like from the front.

Moving on.

Made it all the way up with the horizontal bars.

Should look something like this.

Made little brackets to tie into existing threaded inserts on the body of the assfinder.

I'm not seam welding the pieces together. Only tacking them. After all, it's made to hold gear, not protect from zombie attacks or anything.

It's cool and all, but I needed some way to hold my first aid stuff. This first aid box has been kicking around the garage for a bit, so I'm using it.

Wire brushed spots in the back to weld brackets onto.

Bent a piece of stainless (because it's what I had) to make hangers to go over the bars on the "cage."

Made a single hook, and cut it in half to make two.

And welded the bastards on.

Works like so. Note the bottom hook to keep it from swinging around.

Holds firm. I can shake the hell out of the cage and it stays firm.

Example of how stuff will hang on it.

Satisfied with that, I started painting it with rubberized undercoating, which had been in my garage for 24058u230942384 years and never dried, so I wirebrushed it off and hit it with black krylon fusion. I would have bedlinered it, but I'm currently broke and this was a 0 dollar project.

I also painted the back of the first aid kit in red (didn't have white) so nothing rusts.

 

[alloyguitar]

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.

I should add that none of that is my bug out gear. That's just the stuff that's always kept in my car.

 

[paddling_man]

That is so freaking cool!

 

[alloyguitar]

Thanks! I think that being able to recycle the stuff you have on hand is a fantastic skill to have, whether the "world ends" or not.

The other side is basically the same, but it MAY have provisions for an overhead gun rack if I can find a design I like, and a holder for my ammo can-tool box. It also has a bar every 4", instead of 2", like the first one. Reason being that, since it'll mostly hold ropes and other large stuff, the added bars would be added weight.

It's about half done, so we'll see how it comes out.

 

[WC Deer Hunter]

Wow that's a lot of stuff! But it's also an awesome job you did making the rack and organizing it! Way to go.

 

[alloyguitar]

Thanks. I was amazed by how much I was able to fit on just that one side of the vehicle. The other side only has one of my rappelling ropes and some transmission fluid. I managed to fit everything else I put in the back of my car (camera gear excluded) on that one side.

Not bad for a bored 23 year old with a pile of rusty nails, old spray paint cans, and some welding wire I suppose. Lol

 

[grunt soldier]

very cool concept. a bit to much out in the open for me, as in to many people see to much and might want to break in for it. but definitely a awesome concept

 

[alloyguitar]

Forgot to mention that. Regarding the out in the open issue, my windows in the back are tinted pretty dark, so, unless a light is on in the car, you can see outlines of something, but that's about it.

I should also say that, currently, I live in a very small town in East Tennessee (just moved here and, honestly, tngo doesn't jive with me) where car breakins aren't really an issue. I'm not thrilled about it being way out in the open, but around here I don't think it'll be much of an issue.

I'll shoot a photo of it during the day from the outside and let you guys make your own judgements.

I can say that, from the passenger side, you can't really see anything since it's so close to the tinted window so light can't really get in. I'm hoping it'll be the same way when I get the other side done so not much light will get in there. Maybe that, coupled with the tinted windows, will make it very difficult to see in.

We'll see.

 

[DCM8513]

Ever seen the show hoarders!? Seriously super cool though. You should patent that! Id buy one.

 

[alloyguitar]

Haha, I have a problem with gear. And deals. And, especially, deals on gear. Lol

Plus I have some dumb friends that tend to get vehicles stuck on lake bottoms when the water is down and such, so a lot of that comes in handy.

I've changed my mind on the other side. I'm going to make it extend down the side panel in addition to the window so I can mount a molle pack, or something similar and not have it swing around on rough terrain.

 

[Adamz04]

Thats awesome and when the zombies come they wont be able to get you either. did you just attach it to the plastic or did you screw it to the frame as well?

 

[alloyguitar]

There were little hook things to tie down grocery hooks that were bolted to the body, so I removed them and used the threaded bungs that they were bolted to. It's held in with 3 m8x1.25mm bolts to the body. Not as secure as I'd like, but it seems to hold well.

Anybody have any experience with the molle radio pouches that are incredibly cheap all over ebay? I'm thinking about using one of those mounted to the other side to hold tools, instead of an ammo can to get it off the floor. They seem to be something like 9x12" or so, which is bigger than an ammo can and I could probably get the girlfriend to sew a carry handle on it, or make something out of paracord.

 

[alloyguitar]

I was talking about the ilbe ones, like this.

Just to clarify.

 

[Zoub]

Holds firm. I can shake the hell out of the cage and it stays firm.

Just make sure things will stay on if the vehicle rolls over or goes airborne. Your perspective changes when the roof is now the floor, gravity is working against you and gear is flying all over the place. I never did it, but an associate did and I took a lesson from that experience.

I also come from the generation where people were sometimes killed by giant speaker boxes when they were in a wreck and the speaker boxes flew forward.

 

[eldirector]

Very cool project!

Another +1 on making sure things are secured. Pitching your SUV over is bad enough. Getting clobbered by a flying First-Aid kit just adds insult to injury (or, well, injury to injury).

 

[Kedric]

Awesome concepts, well done and you gotta love a little ingenuity and creativity using on-hand materials.

I would be interested in seeing the other side when it was completed, as well as pictures taken from outside on a bright day, or with a flashlight hitting the windows from outside.

As others have said, be mindful of what may happen if you roll or crash your rig, because things can get messy real quick.

 

[alloyguitar]

Well the rack is bolted to the car, and everything is secured in at least two places (top and bottom), so, in the event of a rollover, it should all stay put with the exception of the jumper cables, which are secured at just the top.

The first aid kit I put on the rack, and turned it upside down and shook it a lot. I think the only way it'd come off is if my car was thrown in the air and landed hard directly on it's roof, and, in that event, i've got much bigger things to worry about. Lol

 

[alloyguitar]

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.

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.