After months of wanting a Gobi Stealth Rack for my 5th gen, but without the cash for one, I finally pulled the trigger...and built one.
Gobi is kind enough to provide specs on the material their rack is made of on the product page (16 gauge, 1 inch steel tubing) and the length, width, and height. This gave me a good starting point.
I drew it up in Fusion 360 just for kicks, and 3D printed a little model to get a look at it.
I bought 8 20' lengths of tubing, a sheet of 3/4" expanded metal, and some 6x6x1/4" plates. Also picked up some pre-punched weld tabs for misc mounting points. Total about $180
As for tools, I decided to pick up a pipe notcher from harbor freight ($50). Rather than buy an expensive bending tool, I made my own wooden bending jigs ($10), and they ended up working just as planned. These were mounted on a sheet of plywood and moved around, and I hand bent each piece around them. It gave me a good result for the simplicity, with very little flattening and no kinking issues.
I had access to a wire welder (much needed when working with the relatively thin tubing)
After getting everything cut, bent, and notched, I tacked it together to make sure everything fit and that I liked how it looked. The hardest part was the feet that connect the rack to the mounting points on the car. It took a lot of trial and error to get the mounting holes to line up.
Once I was sure everything was going to fit, I finished welding and cleaned it up with some grinding.
Planning on a coat of primer, followed by some some spray-on black truck bed liner.
Until that's done, lots of pictures!
Cheers
