DIY prinsu style shell rack

thats cool

 

One of the end tabs/clips came off in a car wash and rather than order replacements I used some of the leftover moulding and made longer front moulding pieces that continue into the rts tracks a bit. The rear clips seem more secure and the front seam disappears.

 

I followed OP’s design - thanks for the inspiration, loving it so far and saved me $600 towards the next mod! I used the drop in tbolts and lock nuts from tnutz instead of carriage bolts to attach the crossbars to the feet but seems pretty solid.

 

It would be cool to see a 3D version of the air dam, one that follows the contour of the windshield instead of just flat. Both top and bottom edges would also change, the bottom becoming a straighter cut with the top becoming somewhat concave.

 

Do you mean like this?

 

No, that’s flat. I mean curved/bowed to match the windshield/roof not cut out to go over it.

 

ah got it, thats kinda what I thought you meant

 

Here's mine, bent to mostly match the curvature of the roof/windshield with the ends open for wind to go through. No wind noise using this.

 

What material did you use for your fairing?

 

I used 1/4" thick aluminum.

 

@PlumpPossum

 

Oh wow, I assumed it was plastic of some type. Was it tough to get a smooth contour when you bent it?

 

I was debating how to bend it to match the curve, thought "Let me just try bending it". Grabbed it between both hands and started bending it a bit and liked where it was going so I put it on some cardboard, put both knees in the middle and grabbed both sides and pulled up. Result is above and I think it turned out pretty nice but I'm biased sooo ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

Looks super smooth despite the primative bending method, haha! I guess looking close at the pic I can see it isn't perfect but man, for metal that thick I definitely would have assumed it'd be real tough to do by hand like that without tototaly messing it up, lol.

 

It’s not to hard to make a bending jig with some bolts, pvc rollers, and mending plates to join the ends. It gets more tricky where the bends get more severe. Using abs you could cut a negative template and make an oven out of sono tube to acquire the shape.

 

Maybe “not hard” but way more effort, time and supplies than I’d want to put into a fairing

 

OCD is my thing. Either that or I just want to be different.

 

Oh, I hear ya there, I'm very prone to taking on projects I don't have the time or resources for simply because I find it interesting or want to learn something new. And then I spend way too much time trying to make something perfect when it'll never be perfect the first time around.

 

Got tired of my unistrut topper roof rack so made one to match my cab rack using T Slot aluminum, weighs around 35lbs as it is with everything being aluminum with stainless hardware. Only thing not aluminum is the mounts which is 12 gauge unistrut but it's galvanized and painted black so shouldn't have to ever worry about rust. All in all it turned out pretty well, would love to be able to cut slots in the aluminum sides to adjust the bars but I can't figure out a way to do it cleanly with the tools I have available.

 

Looks nice! How did you mount it to the shell? I'm trying to draw mine up but the biggest hangup for me is putting the tracks on the shell and creating the mounting feet.