My back rack design

[ratlover]

Finnaly got around to taking a pick of the thing. I stole most of the bowtie idea from the custom racks I saw on this site and the other site but I cant remember who was making em to give em credit :confused: Anywho, I figured it might give you guys some ideas.

[ratlover]

Hers one of the side

[ratlover]

Built the it mostly outa 3”x1” square tubing. The side little triangle pieces (that are pretty hard to see) are all bent to fit the rounded angle of the side support. Were the side support comes down took a lot of welding/grinding to round it out. Capped the ends with some .75” bar stock. I then welded some .75” bar stock to the inside of the rack and welded the expanded mesh to that on the inside of the lip I made. I printed out a scale bowtie outa autocad and laid out my pieces of 3/4” into the shape of a bowtie and tacked em all together and then welded the side you can see and ground that smooth. Welded that to the expanded mesh and used an air cut off to slice out the inside of the bowtie. The hole pretty much lines up with my rear view mirror so I have a pretty much unobstructed view behind me. Oh……I welded some 3”x1/4” to the bottom 3”x1” piece that sits on the front bed rail. I tacked the 1/4"X3” to the tubing while it was on my truck because everything isn’t all square. I the 1/4"x3” gets sandwiched between the toolbox and the bedrail and is held in place by bolts. I drilled the holes for the bolts before I had my bedliner sprayed in and had the rails done at that time. I butchered a trailer plug bracket and welded that to the top driver side corner so I could install a trailer plug and make the whole thing quick disconnect with all my wiring going through it. This was my first BC/CC job and it didn’t turn out too bad. The bowtie was sprayed with rattle can silver and the rack was just black. Then I cleared the whole thing. Think that’s about it…..once again thanks to the guy that gave me the idea to incorporate a bowtie into the design.

[ratlover]

Forgot to add......having a GF around when you are trying to fabricate will lead to you not concetrating on what you should be(definatly shouldnt have been concentrating on that one:rolleyes: ) and thus insufficinent tacks and stuff that aint 100% straight :mad: Notice the bowtie for instance :headwall

[Mick]

Originally posted by ratlover
......having a GF around when you are trying to fabricate will lead to you not concetrating on what you should be

They'll do it everytime:D . But there's a cure for that... called marriage. Then they don't hang around anymore while you're working.:(

[Plow Dak]

Looks pretty darn NICE from from this view..:salute

[BWhite]

Nice fabrication work Philip !

[Adams Plowing]

looks good... i feel your pain on the gf thing too mine tends to get in the way too...

[Pickering Snow]

Very nice job and like mick said marry the girl and you wont have to worry the garage is all yours baby just dont touch the tv remote:D

[ratlover]

Thanks guys:)

One other thing I forgot to add is prerping that expanded mesh to paint it a royal PITA without a sandblaster.

[snowjoker]

Looks very nice!!! I like it!:cool:

[ratlover]

Again thanks:)

Heres a better pic of the side showing how the thing is actually being held down and sandwitched between the box and the bed. Evedentaly my co's digital camera sucks and dosnt show things well. So for those that asked I hope this helps show things. And dont mind the drity paint :p

[ratlover]

Nothing goes in the stake pockets BTW....

[Roger Dodger]

Originally posted by Adams Plowing
looks good... i feel your pain on the gf thing too mine tends to get in the way too...
You have a truck with a blade on it and you let a girl get in your way?:burnout

[ratlover]

Yeah but fisher yellow is kinda expensive and I dont want to have to touch it up;)