jakerunner
New member
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
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
