Custom ext roof rack, wiring and Paint questions...

[essaycho348]

Long time no chat eh!?

ok so just finishing fabricating a roof rack for the Tb ext.

1st question:
I need to know anyone who is running lightbars what are the best ways to run the wires? through the doors, rear hatch? or does this make it leak? would drilling a hole in the roof and siliconing it be a better option? i need to run approximately 8-10 wires to the roof rack, Off road lights, marker lights, rear facing strobes, roof strobe, front facing strobes, rear extra brakelights and rear backup lights.

2nd quesiton:
along with the roof rack i made some step bars that can double as slider bars i want to paint them both with bedliner, from your experiance whats worked the best? and id like to prime the metal beforehand too, any opinions on that? brush on/spray on, self etching, sandable...

a few pics to give you an idea with what ive got...

 

[willn513]

Looks great! I unfortunately don't know the answers to your questions but the roof rack looks awesome and I felt it necessary to say so...

 

[HARDTRAILZ]

Nice rack

I am about to try monstaliner. I have not found a spray on bedliner worth a shit.

 

[Phantom]

Nice rack

I am about to try monstaliner. I have not found a spray on bedliner worth a shit.

Make sure not to get it on your HOOTUS!!

 

[hockeyman]

The grill on my envoy was chipped to crap, so I removed, sanded/cleaned, then painted Rhino Liner on it. I wanted to use a durable paint, and I think I found it

I have an air compressor and a HVLP spraygun (with a 2.0 tip), so that's how I applied the Rhino Paint.

I'll try to remember to take pics later and post them here.

 

[NewfieEnvoy]

No answers to your questions, but Beautiful Rack!!!! Well done, I really like.

 

[The_Roadie]

Agreed. Elegant and well-designed rack.

I had the first rock sliders ever, and used brush-on Herculiner. Nasty stuff. Wore off in a couple of years. Never did anything to renew it.

To get wiring through the roof panel, marine stores have the products you need. Called "waterproof glands", feedthroughs, or connectors. They have versions for everything including HDMI connectors now. If you want to be able to disconnect the lights and rack, I'd use a waterproof connector.

 

[essaycho348]

thanks, ive spent a lot of time trying to decide what the best lines would be for the truck.

Thanks roadie on the waterproof glands, have you used this yourself? will this work to feed multiple wires through or will it only seal good with one wire?

Where can one get the rhinoliner? I painted the rear equipment with rust oleum bedliner and it just doesn't seem too heavy duty. At work we use this stuff called Raptor Upol, we paint all the dump boxes on our trucks with this and it holds up really well, but its very pricey...

 

[HARDTRAILZ]

Interesting...Jeep guys use Raptor cause it is cheap for something that is actually tough.

 

[hockeyman]

Pics, as promised.
A few bugs found their way onto the grilles though...somehow...

 

[essaycho348]

So monstaliner and raptor are both rated pretty high. I bit the bullet and bought raptor and an epoxy primer kit, ill be painting tomorrow. I'll keep you guys updated.

 

[revamp]

Great rack! I would love one like that! A great design to maximize the real estate on the roof.

 

[mcsteven]

First - awesome rack and guards. Truck looks really good.

I would suggest a complex, but elegant setup and something that is a lot less likely to leak.

A roof top box with relays, a heavy power cable with distribution to those relays, and then light weight cable from switch to relay. You could go through the side of the truck (a B or C pillar is probably less likely to flex than the roof and less water buildup) and have a quick disconnect plug. You could use a connector like you'd see on emergency vehicles with a light bar (like a cop car where they might need to change out the light bar). A light smaller hole with only 1 heavy cable through it, and you could also use a flexible conduit. The waterproof glands Roadie mentioned are probably what they use on the emergency vehicles. Yeah, a little more complex to set up initially, but probably easier to maintain if issues come up.

Agreed. Elegant and well-designed rack.

. . . marine stores have the products you need. Called "waterproof glands", feedthroughs, or connectors. . . .

 

[revamp]

What are the dimensions of that rack? I am about to build one and want to see if my measurements are on track.

 

[essaycho348]

mcsteven, thanks for the info, i think im going to have all the relays set up inside, the only one that needs heavy guage wiring is the HID driving lights, everything else from the marker lights to strobes are LED and don't need too heavy duty wiring, plus i think the more going on outside of the cabin of the truck may pose problems.

revamp, ill take measurements tomorrow, a lot of it was just by eye, i cut two pieces of angle iron and drill holes in them to be able to mount up to the rear existing roof bolts from the stock rack and a piece of flatstock to mount to the front roof holes and just tacked a bent the lower half of the rack together, pulled it off the truck and built the rest of the tubing, final welded everything and checked for fitment.

What are you making yours out of? i used 1 1/4 .065 tubing and a tubing bender i borrowed from a friend, a really nice one i add. The rack contours to the roof line so i had to bend it accordingly. i thought it would have looked silly being straight and square.

 

[revamp]

I have seen quite a few designs using EMT tubing. Next week I am going to price parts. I am thinking about the same length as yours and leave an opening for the sun roof. We do a lot of camping and I am trying to get all my gear on the roof and on my hitch rack so my dogs can sit in the back.

I may use unistrut to replace the stock rails. I don't have access to benders, welding tools, etc, so the emt tubing, sheet metal and pop rivets is my solution... Then a nice black paint job.

I am also debating building a ladder to hook from the back.

 

[Short Bus]

I have seen quite a few designs using EMT tubing. Next week I am going to price parts. I am thinking about the same length as yours and leave an opening for the sun roof. We do a lot of camping and I am trying to get all my gear on the roof and on my hitch rack so my dogs can sit in the back.

I may use unistrut to replace the stock rails. I don't have access to benders, welding tools, etc, so the emt tubing, sheet metal and pop rivets is my solution... Then a nice black paint job.

I am also debating building a ladder to hook from the back.

You do realize that essaycho348 has a EXT, right?

essaycho348, that rack is sweet!!! I would love to have one like it, but without the sunroof opening (I don't have one).