roof rack for Convertible

[Hans Efde]

Has anyone ever thought of making a roof rack for the Convertible? In order to fix my surfboard to my convertible I need to have a sort of bar above the windscreen. I was thinking of making something that fits in the holes of the soft top fixings. Has anyone tried this?
Cheers, Hans

[Rich]

Would the inflatable ones be any good Hans?

[Hans Efde]

Hi Rich,
I have no idea what you mean. Can you give me a link or a pic.?
This evening I have been playing with a piece of rod, nuts, washers and bolts. But the hole in the fixing is quite awkward.
Cheers, Hans

[Rich]

This sort of thing.. http://www.rip101.com/product/HandiRack-Inflatable-Roof-Rack-35024.aspx

I'm assuming you are wanting to leave the roof in place?

Rich

[manifold]

Hans,

Thats easy (assuming that you are thinking of using this setup without roof on......)

Get a soft top header rail moulding off Alistair, a couple of spare handles and build up a little mould above that.

Im assuming you will use roll over to secure rear.

Job done...and should look fit for purpose too.

Cheers,

David

[Hans Efde]

Hi Rich and David,
The idea is to leave the soft top off. These inflatable things won't work on a soft top I suppose.
Indeed the roll over bar with a bit of foam around it will be used as the aft roof rack bar. For the front it should be as simple as possible. A complete soft top front molding with handles seems a bit overengineered to me. It should be possible to have just a alu or steel bar with 2 brackets that click inside the holes of the fixings. I already worked out a simple way to fasten the brackets with standard nuts and bolts, but it requires spanners to fasten en loosen. Would be much easier if it would be a handle type. But the standard handles won't work without the moulding.
I have to pick up a surfboard this week I just bought, so it has to do for the moment. But if anyone knows a standard DIY item that could be used, I'd be interested.

[Colin]

Hans, you may remember that I used to own convertible number 1, and when I got it the hood locking arrangement was next to useless. After some hunting around I found some long Dzus clips that worked really well and locked the front edge of the hood down really tight. If you can track some down they would be ideal, I would have thought, to mount the small bar that you are talking about and far better than a nut an bolt with only a quarter turn to lock them in place.

[Hans Efde]

Thanks Colin. That looks promising. Another idea is how my camera is fastened to its tripod.

[Colin]

Not sure that a camera tripod would take the load

[Hans Efde]

No, not the tripod, but the way the camera is bolted down. It´s very simple and all done by hand. It´s a special bolt and collar nut. The bolt goes into the bottom of the camera and the nut pulls it down on the pivot bracket.
But first tomorrow I´ll make a quick and dirty setup to get the surfboard home and hope it doesn´t start flying on the highway.