So I've been hunting around for a while for a good luggage rack for my car(s). After stupidly passing up a nice original VW one removed from a beetle ($300 AUD) & watching some rusted **** ones go by on ebay I decided to make my own.
Sure I could have just bought one from the states but since my mate recently opened a metal work shop near me which gave me access to materials and a welder I thought I'd try and make my own. I like doing DIY stuff, so after some researching off I went.
This is the one on ebay I should have bought, I like the suction cup design (although I'm finding out how difficult it is to find a bloody suction cup to suit a 16mm ID round tube (or any similar size for that matter);
The unobtainium suction caps (if you know a supplier help a brother out!);
######## Making the bends / start of the frame ######
So I decided on 16mm OD tube steel. It's cheap and around the right size, easy to work with etc.
It does rust pretty quickly though once you are handling it with bare hands etc though, won't matter for this as I'll probably get it powder coated.
I bought a 19mm 3/4 plumbers pipe bender off ebay (about $55) delivered next day, they are meant for copper pipe but can do this thickness steel. I did look at importing a proper tube bending from china (as local prices are stupid), but at the end of the day I needed to realise I may only be doing a few of these, I will however look at mounting this bender on a thick plate with a metal stand to make it easier and a 1 man job, I had to call my wife in to assist with holding the end to get the bend done. Got myself a tape measure and used some plastic flexible tube to work out corner lengths
2nd attempt at doing a corner by myself, note the slight kink in the bar, that was the first attempt before realising i needed a better setup system to make the bend, I'll knock that back with a rubber mallet & I'm not to fussed with being 100 percent accurate for this proof of concept;
Fast forward and I had refined my bending process by using clamps, timber to level it, and got the extension off my hydraulic jack handle to make the bending easier
I duplicated the last shot to make the other side.
Then onto some cutting of lengths and welding. I hadn't done any mig welding for at least 3 years since my brother and I built a car trailer, so I wasn't expecting much in the way of decent welds.
Fortunately my mate was able to setup the mig pretty good which if you have welded before you would know that it's 75% in having the welder settings setup properly for your job/application.
Mig welders are messy, my preferred welding is tig welding because it's so clean, but for this job I wasn't to fussed. But my mate showed me a good trick to keep the splatter mostly off the surrounding metal - Spray cooking oil in a can. You spray that stuff around where you are welding (but not on it), and the splatter beads off it rather than sticking and requiring clean up with the grinder later - handy to know).
So anyway, did some cutting and welding and managed to get the 2 sides done. Way to much weld on them, should have just tacked around to avoid some grinding but overall not bad for a first time back in the game.
1 side done
2 sides done (will fix the corner that isn't 100 percent 90 degrees with a hammer).
Ran out of metal & time at this point, but next step is get more material, work out my width again as these are going on my mk1 GLD, then get the cross bars welded in and off to the powder coater who I'm told will charge around $40.
Total costs so far
Metal - $30 (stuff my mate had lying around, would be more from a metal joint).
Bender - $55
Time - 2 hours?
To Buy
- More Metal
- Suction Cups
- Powder Coat - $40?
Once I've done the frame I need to make these which should be a relatively easy. I think you can buy them but for the small amount of time to make them I might just do it "because". I have a tap and die set and can do some basic metal shaping so will see how it pans out.
Will try and keep the thread updated if anyone finds it interesting.
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Originally Posted by eltonking
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