How to make rails on the roof of the car with your own hands

Often rails on the roof of the car compared with large all-wheel drive off-road cars, and even with rest and exciting trips. Although if you look at them more closely, it will not be difficult to determine their real, extensive range of applications. But the roof rails are installed not only for the sake of aesthetics - they carry a very practical function. Judge for yourself - thanks to several steel cross-pieces, you can easily transport any goods, household items, clothes, mountain bikes or a baby carriage. Due to its versatility, this part is widely used not only in minivans and jeeps, but also in passenger cars, both domestic and imported. However, the cost of them is sometimes very high, because of which there is a need for their independent manufacture. How to make rails on the roof of the car with their own hands? The answer to this question will be found in the course of our today's article.

What is the advantage of self-made rails?

First, it's cost. Buy railings on the roof of a car type VAZ "Kalina" can be from 4-4,5 thousand rubles. The cost of homemade analogs will not exceed one thousand rubles. Secondly, this is a vernal appearance. If you are the owner of a full-size SUV, luggage carriers on the roof of the car, manufactured for industrial purposes, obviously will not adorn its appearance, and even more so give it aggression. Agree, 1,5-centimeter cross-arms will clearly look ridiculous appendage on the background of a 4-5 meter jeep with a width of 2 or more meters. Third, it's strength. Of course, the factory products are also designed for a huge load, but more than 60-120 kilograms here is unlikely to put. And on such rails, as shown in the photo below, you can safely carry even sheets of construction slate:

On the manufacture of the trunk

Before performing the work you need to determine exactly its dimensions. The dimensions of the railings must match exactly with the width and length of the roof of the car (at least their fastening places). As for the height parameter, it is not so important for the car, so here you can take any value that you want. After determining the size of the crossbeams, the pipes of the required length should be cut. The number of crossbars is from 2 to 4, while the support should extend to 8 points (so as not to bend the roof). It is best to start from the bottom.

We make the bottom base

Before we tell you about the intricacies of carrying out these works, we note that in the absence of experience with welding machines it is better to practice welding some other iron. To learn the basic technology of cooking metal is very simple - it takes no more than 1-2 hours of time.

To carry out the work on the production of railings, we need a flat surface. Ideally, a metal table or several metal stands will do. The tree is discarded immediately, since at a melting point of a couple of thousand degrees Celsius it is possible that some of the sparks will burn or ignite the surface. After welding, the seams must be ground. Also, make sure that there are no burns at the connection points - this will significantly reduce the strength of the structure.

We make the upper base

This part of the trunk should be made strictly according to the dimensions of the lower base. Remember that even the slightest deviation will noticeably distort its appearance. Next, we connect these two halves of the parts by means of jumpers. Here you can go in two ways - fix everything tightly with welding or leave the top part removable, which will allow using the design in the form of a platform.

Then grind the remaining seams and proceed to painting the structure. If the trunk is to be used frequently on the car, you can mount the matched cataphores that duplicate the stop lamp or the reversing light, but this is not necessary. Of course, all this technology requires additional holes and wires for connection to the onboard power supply network. The color of the design can be any, however it is better to use either black matte or silver metallic. Preliminary it is necessary to clean cross-members from rust, degrease and to process a first coat (it is desirable in 3 layers as here the part of metal constantly will be rubed).

How to install trunks on the roof of the car with their own hands?

The final stage is the installation of the structure on the car body. A great difficulty here is the fasteners, which often have to be manufactured independently. For each fastening, you need to use 2 bolts with nuts and the same number of tubes for the diameter of the bolts. Remember that the trunk should not cause damage to the car, so we definitely install special rubber gaskets in these places.

How long will these jobs take?

Many motorists believe that the process of self-manufacturing and installation of luggage on the roof is very long and complicated. But in fact, for this it is enough to have no more than 2 days of free time. It is not necessary to be a professional design engineer and to have expensive equipment for welding.

What advantages will this give us?

In addition to the fact that installed self-made rails on the roof of the car can safely transport a large number of a variety of goods, it should be noted that the cross-pieces significantly change the appearance of your vehicle. The presence of several steel cross bars from above can become the final chord in the transformation of the design of the machine. Railings (especially chrome-plated) look very stylish and elegant. In addition, such a trunk can easily become a highlight in the exterior and make the appearance of the car more individual.

So, we found out how to make roof rails on the roof of the car with our own hands, and what advantages it gives us the presence of this design on the machine.