DIY Aluminum Rail Mounts

I know there's been other threads about making mounts of the Tacoma bed rails but for those like me that are not too handy, here's a quick and dirty photo tutorial on how to make your own rail mounts to mount all kinds of things. In my case, I wanted to mount some Delta bicycle fork mounts and didn't want to juggle with a bunch of washers.

I have an undercover top that uses threaded aluminum squares fit inside the rails to lock down the brackets. I found that a fairly elegant way to get a firm attachment to the bed rails so I just copied that idea. I'd never used a tap and die set but found it surprisingly easy. Here's the end result and here's a
photo guide to DIY rail mounts.

tacomarailmount06 by JLeePhoto, on Flickr

Here's the complete photo tutorial: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jleephoto/sets/72157635116099560/

1)Using 1"x 1/4" Aluminum Bar Stock from Hardware Store (Lowes @$12), mark off 2 1/2" rectangles and drill pilot holes in center of each slightly smaller than desired size.

2)With a die/tap set, (Harbor Freight @ $10) tap the pilot holes to the desired size. In my case I used 1/4-20 threading.

3)Cut rectangles with hack saw or dremel. I used a dremel cut off wheel to cut, then used the grinding wheel to smooth out the edges. (Will get extremely hot, use cutting oil or wd40.)

4)Remove caps from rail ends and slide the new mounts inside the rail.

5)Screw bolts through whatever you're mounting (in my case Delta fork mounts) into the new aluminum mounts and tighten.

Turned out to be a great rainy day activity that took me about 2 hours including shopping for parts.