I have been searching/researching roof racks for the past couple months now, for my 99' 4runner with only the 2 black tracks that run along the top.
I didnt indend on getting anything large, or a basket cause I just want a rack for my surfboards. I wasnt willing to drop $100-$300 for some racks,
so my dad and i just decided to build some with all materials from home.

I also did not want to drill any holes into the roof so we intended to use the track holes already there.

Here was the 4runner before the rack


I lost all the pictures of the welding of the two bars we created that go parallel with the black tracks and screw into the track holes. But we rolled two
crossbars so they have a similar curve to the roof then tack welded them to the main bars that were over the tracks:
the bars the screw into the black strips are 3/4" aluminum while the crossbars are 1" aluminum, all found, cut, and welded in our garage.


then we completed all the tac welds all the way around


At this point you can see the black track/strip is gonna act as a gasket in between the rack and roof. We took off the track and rack to grind down the
bottom of the rack so it fits flush onto the track.


Then we fit it back on to see how it looked.



Her is a view of the area to screw in, wherever there is a screw, there is already an existing hole for the track screw. the 3 in screws we used fit perfect
with a length that was long enough to be stable but not long enough to have to go any deeper than was originally intended.

After the fitting we took it off, gave it an acid wash to even out the lack of shinyness then sanded it with 80grit then 220, then added a couple coats of primer




Used Nason black to paint it



Then before screwing all the way on we put silicon on the tip of the screw and around the gaps to keep it water tight and of course wiped it clean


Here is the end product

more pics

Looks super clean and professional! I like it!

Very sharp looking 4Runner! I like the stance, looks solid and planted.

You can paint those center caps pretty easy

Attached Images

 

Thanks man! definitely spent a little extra time on it but well worth it, its extremely stable and wont budge at all!

Looks cherry! Clean looking ride too!

Nice work! It looks solid. If you ever wanted to, you could extend the front a bit, add another crossbar, put in some mesh flooring, and you'd suddenly have one of the better looking racks on the market. The way you added radius to the tubing and triangulated the joints makes this thing look pretty solid, and I bet it's fairly light considering that you used aluminum.

Your rig looks all around reasonable and functional, while maintaining what is so great about these trucks from the factory. You have good taste!

Great build. That looks really clean. Nice work!

Very nice @genmarks

Nice thing about TIG is you don't have to deal with the crazy splatter of MIG, so you can weld in your skivies!

Wish I had some 3/4" Aluminum tubing lying around, I'd have to build one for my truck. I built the one on my Land Cruiser, but it weighs about a million pounds. Again, nice work!

I am curious how you guys rolled the tube for the arc of the roof. Throw me a bone please, I could do it in my tubing bender but it would take forever.

Mahalo genmarks. Rack looks perfect

Thanks guys greatly appreciated!!! @hawaiian05 @wake_rider @papapoopski @Range

Yeah lucked out, my dad used to own a fabrication shop so he has a load of pipes. Thanks for the compliment! We used a Baileigh electric roller. I thought it would have taken a while
to match the curve of the roof but just did the first crossbar little by little until it matched, then we just made the 2nd bar the same arc.

Well done!! Very very clean rack

Here are pics of creating the bars that run along the black tracks,
just found the pics.