DIY roof rack for access cab 1st gen taco

I just finished making a roof rack for my 1998 access cab tacoma, and since I haven't found much info for these I thought I'd share the process. This was my first fabrication related project, and it definitely wasn't perfect but I'm happy with the result.

I used 1/4" x 4" aluminum flats for the side rails from fast metals. If i did it again I would go with 3/16, 1/4 was overkill. I used 20x40mm extruded aluminum bars from tnutz for the cross bars and they were pre tapped.

I modeled the side rails out of cardboard to get the roof line right, the hardest part was where the roof bulges out over the rear window.

Next, I traced the carboard model onto the aluminum and cut it out with a jigsaw.

(This process would have been much faster with a bandsaw)

I used 4 cross bars, once I got the front and back bars drilled and bolted on I set the rack on the roof to mark where to put the brackets.


I used m8 rivnuts to bolt the rack to the roof, I would definitely recommend plusnuts over rivnuts. They were a massive pain to install and have the threads pointing straight.


This was the final result with one coat of bedliner, I haven't put a wind deflector on the front as I am planning to put some lights on the front.

 

Looks like you did a great job; congrats! I'm wanting to do the same thing on the back over my topper.