fightman80

It ain't much, and may not look the nicest, but I made this thing out of discarded Retail Clothing Racks.

Here are some of the pieces left over from the racks I disassembled to build the rack.


Here is a shot of it mocked up


Another shot of the mock up


I'm currently Rubber Coating it, with Rubberized Rocker Guard spray.



I'm still looking into getting some sort of Metal Grill to mount on the bottom of the rack to act as a floor. In the meantime, I'll just run the rack like it is.

toyota4x4907

Haha! I LIKE IT!!!
Is it all bolt together?
Are you going to be carrying very heavy stuff?

Also, Home Depot and (I'm sure) Lowes carries some expanded metal type things for a grate you're looking for.

fightman80

It is all bolted together. However, the center section was actually all welded during it's original fabrication. I re-used alot of the original hardware to assemble it, and then bought some bolts, lock washers, and nuts to finish the assembly.

I checked out Home Depot last night, looking for the meshing, but was going with a larger sized base of 39" X 36". I think I'm going to reduce it to 20" X 36" and see what I can find. The meshing I found at Home Depot, was about $30.00 for one sheet. So far, I only have about $10.00 bucks into this thing!

toyospearo

Nice

sickntwstdtoy

Thats sweet, cheap and green gotta love it.

Ron Helmuth

way to re-use and improve

fightman80

Thanks guys. I've been wanting a safari rack for a while now, but couldn't find one I could afford. I was driving by my store one day, and noticed that they had a large Garbage bin outside in the back of the store. It was just loaded with scrapped clothing racks and light fixtures. I came back the same day, and found some guy in the bin, taking off all of the casters off the racks. I grabbed a couple full racks, and put them in my Runner......and well, you know the rest.

Blue_petersen77

Sweet! That's what I'm looking into doing, fanning a dirt cheap yet functional safari rack.

JWaldz

iTrader: (1)

Nice.. I like it, especially cus if anything happens to it you don't have to imagine you wasted a lot of money! Time to fab up some mounts for a hi-lift, tire carrier, and other doo-dads...

fightman80

I might fab up some mounts for a hi-lift, or a trail axe. I don't need a tire carrier up there, as I already built one for the rear....https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f88/...arrier-202047/

JWaldz

iTrader: (1)

ahh hahh.. I forgot you built that. Def. a cool mod, and lookig forward to seeing how it plays out later down the line. But back to your rack (roof rack ) keep us posted with updates. Interested in seeing how this "goin' green" rack turns out.

fightman80

I definately will keep this thread updated. I'm still waiting for some of the paint to dry. My next step is to find something to use as the floor of the rack. Then I might fab up some brackets to mount some lights, and a trail axe and maybe the high lift......

fightman80

I fabbed up some mounts for the lights, I'm going to wire it up, in the coming weeks. I'm planning on going through the plastic plug under the stock rail, to run the wires through the roof. The wiring will be routed from the driving lights to the inside of the cab to a toggle switch, and the rear will be wired directly off my back-up lights. Here's some pics of the mock up on the truck.......

Front view of Driving lights


View of the Back-up lights


Quarter shot


Side View


What do you guys think? So far, it cost me about $90.00 for the lights, and $10.00 for the paint and rubber guard!

JWaldz

iTrader: (1)

looks pretty good.. close up pics of the fabbed mounts?

WildCountry

I like the rack but I think the lights make it look really cheap.

4Yoter

I think it looks good but i think it would look better with the bars on the side sticking out cut off to make it just rectangular

fightman80

I know.....but I couldn't afford to buy better lights, due to the fact that I'm currently buying a house, and trying to save some cash for the down payment and closing costs....Once the front one's crap out, I'm thinking of buying some PIAA's or some Hella's......

fightman80

Thanks! I left the bars long, so that If I decided to put a canoe or a small Aluminum boat up there, I could do so without strapping wooden boards to the rack. It's a little more functional that way....I think??

fightman80

I don't really have any closeups of the mounts right now, but all I did was re-use some of the hardware from the clothing racks! All I did, was drill some extra holes, and bolt them up. The mounts are just some flat "L" shaped pieces of Steel that were chromed like the rest of the rack.