My take on the DIY camper shell rack

I posted about my finished project this morning on the “what have you done today” thread, and had a lot of people asking for more details on the build I did. I got inspiration from another member’s thread, titled something along the lines of “DIY prinsu with woodworking tools”, can’t remember the member’s name, but gotta give shout out anyhow. Flipped through their thread a bit, and then dove in winging it from there.

I wish now I had recorded or at least taken more pics along the way but I was figuring things out as I went so it would have been a very long recording.
I will to try to sum it up...

Things I bought:
•12’ length of 3” x 1/4” aluminum flat bar ($50+/-)
•Seven of the prinsu style extruded aluminum 1”x2”x47” bars from tnutz ($180+/-)
(in hind sight I could have got the 51” bars and cut them down to 48.5” to allow for carrying 4’ sheet goods easily)
•Twenty-eight 1/4x20x1” stainless steel machine screws and lock washers for fastening crossbars to side rails
•Sixteen 1/4x20x1/2” stainless steel machine screws and lock washers for attaching the “z feet” to the roof tracks and cross bars
•Eight 1/4x20x3/4” stainless steel machine screws, lock washers and lock nuts for attaching the two pieces of aluminum angle together for the “z feet”
•one can of rustoleum aluminum primer, two cans of rustoleum truck bed liner, and one can of krylon fusion matte black

Things I had:
•4’ of 2”x2”x3/16” aluminum angle
•corded dewalt jigsaw with a few metal cutting blades
•dewalt 60v angle grinder with a few cut-off and grinding wheels
•dewalt 20v compact router with 1/2” bottom-bearing flush trim bit and 1/8” roundover bit
•dewalt 20v impact driver and drill set with 1/8”, 1/4” & 9/32” drill bits
•a few bar clamps
•WD40 spray with straw
•1/4x20 tap and drill bit set
•100 and 150 grit sand paper

It would be helpful to use a drill press to ensure straight holes, but since I don’t have one I made due with a cordless.

Basically I held a 6’ section of the aluminum flat bar up in place and drew some angles I though looked good, cut it to length (50something inches), pulled a layout of even spacing and drilled the holes for the crossbars, cut out my general shape with the jigsaw very slowly, spraying a very little bit of wd40 in the cut every few inches, I stayed about 1/8” away from my line to allow for clean-up with the router. I then used the fall-off pieces of 3” aluminum flat bar clamped to to finish line as a guide for my router bit bearing to ride on and routed out the final shape for the side rails, spraying wd40 along the entire edge to be routed beforehand. I then picked a spot for the oval cutout for tie-down straps, etc. and cut that in the same way and routed it out, finishing the opening with a 1/8” roundover bit. Once I had one side rail cut to shape, I traced it out on the second piece, made the jigsaw cuts, then clamped the first to the second and used it as a pattern to route from. For each of the “z feet” I used two pieces of angle, one cut down to 1.5”x1.5”x4” with a 45degree bevels, the other cut to 1.5”x2”x2”. All edges got sanded smooth with the grinder and then sandpaper.
For the “nuts” that ride inside the channels of the roof tracks I cut 4” pieces from the left over aluminum angle that were 3/4” wide strips and 3/16” thick. I then tapped 2 holes in each to receive the 1/2” screws from the “z feet”. Same thing for the top of the feet where they meet the crossbars except the “nuts” were made from 1/2” wide pieces of the same material but cut to 1.5” long.
As for paint, I did a couple coats of aluminum primer on the side rails topped off with the bed liner spray, and the feet and all screws and washers got the matte black.

I know it’s a hell of long explanation, and hopefully I explained it in a way that makes enough sense for anyone trying to tackle the project on their own. There are a number of ways one could go about any of these steps maybe better than what I did, this is just what worked for me. My best advice is take your time, especially when it comes to the jigsaw. When the blade seems clogged up or melted the teeth just need a good cleaning, but be patient and constantly use little sprays of wd40. If you’ve never used a router before, this is not the job to learn on, but if you are comfortable with a router you will be surprised at how well it works. Hope this helps anyone wanting to try this out. I’m already itching to make a matching one for the cab, and maybe even one for my 4th gen 4Runner.
Salud

 

Ya did good sir. I'm a huge do it yourself guy and you just shoot up the list of over achievers lol. Great work man.
Zim

 

Good writeup! I'm planning to do this soon and I was still a little unsure about mounting feet after reading the other thread that you mentioned, this helped a lot.

 

Thank you, I’m pretty proud of it. Haven’t done a whole lot to my truck yet but everything I have done I’ve done myself, other than mount the tires. I had my doubts With this project at first but said what the heck and went with it. Very happy I did. Wasn’t sure at first that my little 1.25hp cordless router could handle the 1/4” aluminum, but it’s a champ and now I like the thing even more.

 

Thank you. Wouldn’t seem like it but the feet were definitely the part that took the most pondering, but in the end this design worked out great. I went with 1.5” height on the feet reason being that it made the rack just clear the top of the shark fin antenna

 

I’m really digging your work, you make it sound so easy i got all those tools except the taps. I’ve never fabricated a rack like that but I’ve built custom sub enclosures and amp mounts back when i worked at a shop, that was with wood, one thing i learned about routers is take a little bit off at a time otherwise u can cause serious damage or injury.

 

Thanks man. I am a carpenter, but used my knowledge and techniques and applied it to this situation and in the end it all worked out. What I found with the router was that with a sharp bit, it was no problem to take 1/8” in one pass as long as I sprayed wd40 in the edge to be cut first.
You can get individual taps at Lowe’s inexpensively, however if you get the drop-in style t-nuts from tnutz it would save a lot of time and work for that step.

 

That's great work, man. Now you've got me thinking...

 

Thank you. If I were to do it again I would make a pattern out of some 3/8” mdf I have extra of, and just route to that in the first place. But all in all it went well

 

Nice work!

 

The perfect mix of form and function - very well done. Really like the profile on the side rails!

 

I’ve got a buddy with a cnc plasma cutter... I’d probably just draft something and have him cut it for me. I don’t know why I never thought about fabbing my own rack before.

 

Awesome stuff in this write up. I'm thinking of tackling a DIY bed rack (as I don't have $1000's to throw at one) and for some reason I feel like I could get pretty close to the high end popular ones. I'll definitely be taking some ideas from this. Thanks!