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Hi All,
Thought my recent addition may be of interest to some/many.
Since acquiring my roadster I have always thought that the rear end looks somewhat ‘naked’; that there is little space to carry ‘stuff’; that with the roll bar surrounding the windscreen rear safety is compromised and whilst driving there is much ‘turbulence’ from the rear!
To ‘dress’ the back I have looked for a spare wheel cover but nothing has ever struck my fancy so I began to envisage a luggage rack. Any design during much searching, over probably more than a year, has failed to inspire me so I began to visualise...
I did not want to compromise the integrity of the car so drilling holes in the tub was never an option. Therefore the rack had to be secured to the spare wheel bolts. But such an, essentially, one point of attachment would not be substantial so I decided to fix the rack to the bumper, with again no drilling.
The joy of fabrication, at least to me, is the sourcing of material and items. Luckily through a lifetime of (some serious) DIY projects and a short history of building carnival floats (it’s a Somerset thing) thinking outside the box is common. Also, luckily, the area is particularly well blessed with numerous, very helpful, small businesses supplying an infinite range of bits and pieces.
With a sketch in my mind and on paper the gathering of materials began followed by construction with countless measuring thrice and cutting or drilling once!
The most taxing part was making an exact mirror image of the side tubes whilst the key to the build, as I unfortunately have no welding skills, is anchor nuts: a means of joining tubes at right angles. The most time consuming was finding a fine mesh material for the wind spoiler whereas the most satisfying was solving the method to ‘fix’ the rack to the bumper enabling it to be raised to access the spare wheel.
It may not be to everyone’s / anyone’s taste but it is large and secure to carry a serious amount of ‘stuff’; the front tube, well covered, gives me peace of mind should I be involved in a shunt and I hope that the fine mesh does indeed deflect the wind. My initial plans had this section of the rack more vertical but the area the mesh covers a quite large.....
I must go for a fast drive......
Marlin Luggage Rack.JPG
Thought my recent addition may be of interest to some/many.
Since acquiring my roadster I have always thought that the rear end looks somewhat ‘naked’; that there is little space to carry ‘stuff’; that with the roll bar surrounding the windscreen rear safety is compromised and whilst driving there is much ‘turbulence’ from the rear!
To ‘dress’ the back I have looked for a spare wheel cover but nothing has ever struck my fancy so I began to envisage a luggage rack. Any design during much searching, over probably more than a year, has failed to inspire me so I began to visualise...
I did not want to compromise the integrity of the car so drilling holes in the tub was never an option. Therefore the rack had to be secured to the spare wheel bolts. But such an, essentially, one point of attachment would not be substantial so I decided to fix the rack to the bumper, with again no drilling.
The joy of fabrication, at least to me, is the sourcing of material and items. Luckily through a lifetime of (some serious) DIY projects and a short history of building carnival floats (it’s a Somerset thing) thinking outside the box is common. Also, luckily, the area is particularly well blessed with numerous, very helpful, small businesses supplying an infinite range of bits and pieces.
With a sketch in my mind and on paper the gathering of materials began followed by construction with countless measuring thrice and cutting or drilling once!
The most taxing part was making an exact mirror image of the side tubes whilst the key to the build, as I unfortunately have no welding skills, is anchor nuts: a means of joining tubes at right angles. The most time consuming was finding a fine mesh material for the wind spoiler whereas the most satisfying was solving the method to ‘fix’ the rack to the bumper enabling it to be raised to access the spare wheel.
It may not be to everyone’s / anyone’s taste but it is large and secure to carry a serious amount of ‘stuff’; the front tube, well covered, gives me peace of mind should I be involved in a shunt and I hope that the fine mesh does indeed deflect the wind. My initial plans had this section of the rack more vertical but the area the mesh covers a quite large.....
I must go for a fast drive......
Marlin Luggage Rack.JPG
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