Modifying my rack

[apolo607]

Well, my xplorer used to be of my wife, daily drive for her, now I am getting rid of my old pick up and we are purchasing a compact car for her. Since 5 years ago that we bought it, she (the xplorer) was in great shape, but now I think I will get a good time fixing some things. Any way It still in good shape and it worth more to fix the little details than buying a new/used car. And I love my xplorer.

In a near future, I will put some body lift, shackes and tt thing, and put some meaty tires.

so far, I want to install some lights on my rack...but I found some issues:

My rack does not have mounting tabs for the lights...
My current rack shows several scratches (several vacation trips with a lot of things on the rack)...:thumbdwn:
It looks not very off-road, since it is aluminum color.

I was thinking on getting rid off my current rack, and getting some yakima/warrior/big country rack or something more off-road looking.

But finally I decided to keep it, paint it black (at this moment it is aluminum color), modify the stock lugage bars, add some mounting tabs for the lights. And also, since this is a less expense option, I will get a fancy set of PIAA ligths for my rack.

Also, something else that I would like to modify, are the stock luggage bars. I have seen a couple of SUV and I am convinced that the lower it is the profile of a rack, looks the better. Somewhere in the forum I saw an idea about a change for the lugage bars to some square tubing.

This proyect is going a little slow, since I am getting on it only some hours after finishing my shift in my current work.

I am putting some pictures:


this is my xplorer rack fully loaded on one of our trips to Puerto Vallarta.

This is a view of the current rack

scratches...

front

rear

Now I start with installing some square tubing for holding at a lower profile the rack than the oem lugage bars.

welding cross bars

positioning angle shape for holding tabs for the rack

BTW This is my second project with my new welder.

Also I started to sand paper on the scratches, I am planning to get some primer and black paint for the square tubing and the aluminum rack.

I will be posting my advance as possible.

 

[Paraphoe]

Nice work. This is eerily similar to the exact same thing i did last summer:

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=291714

 

[apolo607]

almost done!!!

well, this little project has been long than expected.

painting the tabs

painting the rack

after finish, assembly, retouching, installing (sorry, I think I missed a couple of pictures more)

I take some of these pictures in front of my mother in law house, she lives in the narrowest street in my home town.

It has been almost a week since I installed, at first glance I had a strange feeling seeing my xplorer with a different rack color, but now I like it. With the lights I know it will looks a lot of better.

I have ordered a couple of sets of PIAA 580, I will be picking up them someday by next week, I cant wait to install them... I will be posting some pictures after my lights install.

 

[Jason c]

Any whistling from the open square tubing?

 

[apolo607]

Any whistling from the open square tubing?

None whistling. I will put some plastic tabs for better looking , I just have not find the correct size to fit into the square tubing.

 

[apolo607]

Yipeeeee, PIAA 580

Well, finally I get them, since I saw them I ever wanted to get them in my truck.

I get two sets of PIAA's 580.

This last satuday I made the wiring in the truck through the firewall. It is missing only to pass the wires to the roof and put the ligths.

I think I will finish the installation during this week.

BTW - It is capped now. Sorry fot the cell photo bad quality.

 

[drdoom]

Nice job, very ingenious!

 

[apolo607]

My PIAA`s 580 installed finally!

Well, they are finally on my rack. I still need to aligne them. They look great. I still need to take them some shoots on nigth, the ligth up great yesterday nigth.

I passed the wires through the roof, something that I find during an antenna that I installed on a onther car, was a antena wire rubber grommet, this can be found in any audio store or automotive rubber supply. It only required a drilled hole of Ø 5/8" throug the roof in order to fit properly.

Here a few pictures:



need to align

close up

antenna wire rubber grommet

another view

 

[MidnightRebel07]

Looks great man, The sell caps for the tubing at most parts stores and hardware stores cheap.

 

[Aztec Eagle]

X rack

Very nice!! im gonna do the same thing on my X , thxs for the idea!

Your the only Mexican X i have seen in the forum besides my baby....lol


Saludos!

 

[wiscguy]

I dont understand why I cant see the pics. I see the spaces where they should go but no pics.......bah

 

[apolo607]

they brigth!!!

Well, I just took a couple of pics on nite. They look g r e a t...

Saludos Aguila Azteca desde Querétaro,México!!!

 

[apolo607]

I think I migth be afraid of the dark because I still thinking about adding another pair of ligths to the front end....

 

[Ray Lobato]

You can never have too many lights.

 

[yavapaires]

You will most likely have to up grade your alternator to handle the amperage draw from those lights. Probably a higher amp hour battery too.

 

[apolo607]

thanks yavapires. I did a little search over here and it looks that I have a 95 amp alt, I believe the limited has a 130 amp. Is it easy to identify a 130 from a 95 amp alt? on saturday I saw a xplorer limited on a yunk yard that I would like to swap the seats among another things, maybe the alt from the limited be a good idea.

 

[crazymind]

what about duel battries with the high amp alternator