Cheap Vintage Roof Rack Revisited

[mcaden]

I built one of Clay's cheap and easy vintage looking roof racks over the winter. I picked up some Quick-n-Easy roof rack clamps off Craigslist for $30 last fall. Then Clay kindly gave me some of his old futon wood to sand and varnish. Clay also helped me get the right hardware and drill holes based on his measurements. Here is Clay's initial post discussing: http://www.bmw2002faq.com/component/option,com_forum/Itemid,0/page,viewtopic/t,354629/highlight,/sid,41d967e5446ec4d3a00171603435fbb6/

I am attaching pictures below. For under a $100, it is a solid rack that is vintage looking. There are still probably some ways it could be improved upon. I think it would like nice with some raised rails like a vintage VW rack.

Thanks much to Clay for the idea and his assistance!

[Simeon]

Never mind the roof rack, that is one sweet ride.

Go on, the roof rack is cool too ;-)

[NickVyse]

Looks great, but is that aluminium along the edge? Hope not - wouldn't want to put anything heavy on that, or large enough to catch the wind. Once up to speed the wind resistance is pretty strong and I could see that failing quite quickly.

I just threw on an €8 roof rack I found on a local classified ad site. Did the job for a 900kms round trip to the Savoie Alps, just got back.

[eastsidebimmer]

Savoie Alps, just got back.

Nick--your photos are always stellar. Keep em coming, love your cars!

-=Ben

[ClayW]

Looks great, but is that aluminium along the edge? Hope not - wouldn't want to put anything heavy on that, or large enough to catch the wind. Once up to speed the wind resistance is pretty strong and I could see that failing quite quickly.

It's 1/8" thick 1-1/2" aluminum angle. I haven't seen any deflection in mine, and I've had it on for over a year.

[NickVyse]

It's 1/8" thick 1-1/2" aluminum angle. I haven't seen any deflection in mine, and I've had it on for over a year.

well I'm no engineer, but I'd be worried about a tare - my skis started to oscillate against the wind resistance at about 85mph so I backed off. A lot forces going through not a lot of metal. And replacing that with steel would be cheap insurance. But as I said, I'm no pro, and haven't seen your set-up in the metal, so I'm not trying to be critical, just throwing my thoughts out there.

[NickVyse]

Nick--your photos are always stellar. Keep em coming, love your cars!

-=Ben

cheers Ben - I'll put a couple of other pics in a new thread. edit: http://www.bmw2002faq.com/component/option,com_forum/Itemid,50/page,viewtopic/t,371143/

[scoTTlarock]

Looks great, but is that aluminium along the edge? Hope not - wouldn't want to put anything heavy on that, or large enough to catch the wind. Once up to speed the wind resistance is pretty strong and I could see that failing quite quickly.

I just threw on an €8 roof rack I found on a local classified ad site. Did the job for a 900kms round trip to the Savoie Alps, just got back.

that is an amazing picture. new screensaver!!

[mcaden]

Keeping it real - my rack is more for show than practical reasons (altho I guess you never know when it will come in handy)... so I am not really concerned about it coming unhinged at speed.

I do, however, have one question. Anyone know if a 2002 roof rack will fit on an E30 without modifications. The roof dimensions look roughly the same.

Nick - great picture!

-Marc

[ClayW]

Anyone know if a 2002 roof rack will fit on an E30 without modifications. The roof dimensions look roughly the same.

There's one way to find out.