Mid-engined luggage rack - attempt no.3
Discussion
This is my second blog on the luggage rack.
Sorry if I'm repeating myself and sorry for being boring. I tend to say too many words when I'm trying to put my point across. Just skip to the pics, there's only two so far.
Being a big road trip lover and fortunate enough to have a partner who likes come along and not moan (wishing she was in the Bahamas of Tenerife pissed on the beach) we try to do a big one at least once a year.
The Lancia has the space but its always broken, we could take her car but its boring so the only option is the Elise.
Now believe it or not the Elise has a big carry capacity. People think it has no boot space but there's plently of room for two people to go on a jolly for two weeks no problem, also able to squeeze in a few holiday purchases along the way.
The only downside is 'where do you put the soft-top'? You can't get it in the boot.
First road trip in Lottie was from Perthshire to Ploiesti in Romania. We had no choice, the roof had to stay on.
Our second road trip was a bit of a blessing. I was working in Romania and told to go to Germany for a job, I persuaded the company to pay for the petrol bills instead of flying me there and took the misses with me. It was a really hot summer sothe roof was coming off. I only had a few days to sort out a rack so bought a plastic veggy crate, gaffa taped a yoga mat around it so it didn't damage the paint and strapped it down with lorry ratchets.
It was a bit dodgy, the straps came lose every now and then, we were constantly looking behind us to see how far down the engine cover the crate was moving. We made a holiday out of the company fuel and drove around 4k miles. The temperature was regularly hitting 40 degrees, with no aircon. The car was also over heating when we were going through big busy cities, it went into limp mode a few times which was a bit scary.
When we got back home the veggy crate had melted a bit, but done us proud. Even managed a few trips to the beach a few hundred klms away.
Early last year I started on a more professional approach to the luggage rack. See below:
I started a thread on this but was told basically that I was an idiot, possibly genius but I'm sure the odd poster who said that was just a happy drunk.
After leaving the 'contraption' on top of the fridge I ignored it. I couldn't stop thinking about it flying off and wiping out a family following me. Which was very likely. Didn't matter how I looked at it, upside down, in the dark, drunk, on the car or on the fridge I had no idea how I could finish it. Got so bad that I started thinking not only was it extremely dangerous but looked f###ing horrific.
Last week I decided to buy a hard top for the car. I've always wanted one but never really got around to it. They look so much better than the soft top, apart from that, cats and dogs were using the roof as a mattress, hairs everywhere, scratches up the paint and it was starting to smell like a junkies bedroom.
Gladstone Brookes came up good for me so I thought why not spend some cash. The bodywork also needs attention so in the bodyshop it went.
I'm on a pretty crap rotation working in Africa now with too much time on my hands and my mind tends to wander. We were chatting about doing a road trip to Athens in a few months so got me thinking about the 'contraption' again.
I was getting shudders. No way was that going to make it on a road trip. All the money and time spent building the death trap wasn't worth a prison cell and the guilt of ruining families lives.
So I decided to permanently leave attempt no.2 on the fridge.
The hard top is a reproduction and not badly priced, so I thought about buying a reproduction engine cover from Jon who supplied it. I dropped him an email but he doesn't do these, he told me to try ebay, this is the last piece of body work to survive a crash. He was right, there's loads of them and all very cheap.
So I'm now waiting on the delivery of a new secondhand engine/boot cover. Its booked into the spray shop to be made like new. I'll be able to drill holes and do whatever I like to it without damaging or altering the original car.
So this is my latest idea.
Had to be strong, not too heavy, and not dangerous.
I wanted some sort of shape to work with the design of the Elise so copied the lines at the lower bumper around the bottom grill and regy plate.
I wont be using wood like the mock up pic, I got the misses to purchase some Plexiglass for me instead, this will be melted and formed to the same shape. Sunken stainless allen head bolts (rubber backed washers+ thread lock) securing it to the engine cover- with some yoga mat between for vibrations.
To beef it up a bit some polished flat bar aluminium strips underneath secured also to the engine cover.
Running up the centre there will be two long bolts with a pipe sleeve for extra vertical strength.
Underneath the case will be more polished aluminium flat bars for rigidity and to prevent scratches on the plexiglass.
The case will have three pipes running through it secured inside.
90 degree aluminium rails will run alongside the case with holes drilled to match the pipes in the case.
3x aluminium rods will run through the rails and the case to secure the case to the rack.
I'm still undecided how to stop the rods coming out. R-clips are obvious but look crap and not secure enough.
The last thing will be to do something about the case. It looks bad. I had thoughts about fiberglassing something better, even making a small 'Lip like spoiler' but will probably just end up replacing the handle/brackets/corners with something a bit nicer and taking it down to the spray shop to colour code with the car.
There's plenty of LED lights on the market too so thinking about a high brake light formed into it. This is way off any how.
The roof will sit behind like the other failed attempts and be fixed by two leather belts salvaged from the 'contraption'.
Can't wait to get stuck into this one. there's a 50/50 chance it may work.
Sorry if I'm repeating myself and sorry for being boring. I tend to say too many words when I'm trying to put my point across. Just skip to the pics, there's only two so far.
Being a big road trip lover and fortunate enough to have a partner who likes come along and not moan (wishing she was in the Bahamas of Tenerife pissed on the beach) we try to do a big one at least once a year.
The Lancia has the space but its always broken, we could take her car but its boring so the only option is the Elise.
Now believe it or not the Elise has a big carry capacity. People think it has no boot space but there's plently of room for two people to go on a jolly for two weeks no problem, also able to squeeze in a few holiday purchases along the way.
The only downside is 'where do you put the soft-top'? You can't get it in the boot.
First road trip in Lottie was from Perthshire to Ploiesti in Romania. We had no choice, the roof had to stay on.
Our second road trip was a bit of a blessing. I was working in Romania and told to go to Germany for a job, I persuaded the company to pay for the petrol bills instead of flying me there and took the misses with me. It was a really hot summer sothe roof was coming off. I only had a few days to sort out a rack so bought a plastic veggy crate, gaffa taped a yoga mat around it so it didn't damage the paint and strapped it down with lorry ratchets.
It was a bit dodgy, the straps came lose every now and then, we were constantly looking behind us to see how far down the engine cover the crate was moving. We made a holiday out of the company fuel and drove around 4k miles. The temperature was regularly hitting 40 degrees, with no aircon. The car was also over heating when we were going through big busy cities, it went into limp mode a few times which was a bit scary.
When we got back home the veggy crate had melted a bit, but done us proud. Even managed a few trips to the beach a few hundred klms away.
Early last year I started on a more professional approach to the luggage rack. See below:
I started a thread on this but was told basically that I was an idiot, possibly genius but I'm sure the odd poster who said that was just a happy drunk.
After leaving the 'contraption' on top of the fridge I ignored it. I couldn't stop thinking about it flying off and wiping out a family following me. Which was very likely. Didn't matter how I looked at it, upside down, in the dark, drunk, on the car or on the fridge I had no idea how I could finish it. Got so bad that I started thinking not only was it extremely dangerous but looked f###ing horrific.
Last week I decided to buy a hard top for the car. I've always wanted one but never really got around to it. They look so much better than the soft top, apart from that, cats and dogs were using the roof as a mattress, hairs everywhere, scratches up the paint and it was starting to smell like a junkies bedroom.
Gladstone Brookes came up good for me so I thought why not spend some cash. The bodywork also needs attention so in the bodyshop it went.
I'm on a pretty crap rotation working in Africa now with too much time on my hands and my mind tends to wander. We were chatting about doing a road trip to Athens in a few months so got me thinking about the 'contraption' again.
I was getting shudders. No way was that going to make it on a road trip. All the money and time spent building the death trap wasn't worth a prison cell and the guilt of ruining families lives.
So I decided to permanently leave attempt no.2 on the fridge.
The hard top is a reproduction and not badly priced, so I thought about buying a reproduction engine cover from Jon who supplied it. I dropped him an email but he doesn't do these, he told me to try ebay, this is the last piece of body work to survive a crash. He was right, there's loads of them and all very cheap.
So I'm now waiting on the delivery of a new secondhand engine/boot cover. Its booked into the spray shop to be made like new. I'll be able to drill holes and do whatever I like to it without damaging or altering the original car.
So this is my latest idea.
Had to be strong, not too heavy, and not dangerous.
I wanted some sort of shape to work with the design of the Elise so copied the lines at the lower bumper around the bottom grill and regy plate.
I wont be using wood like the mock up pic, I got the misses to purchase some Plexiglass for me instead, this will be melted and formed to the same shape. Sunken stainless allen head bolts (rubber backed washers+ thread lock) securing it to the engine cover- with some yoga mat between for vibrations.
To beef it up a bit some polished flat bar aluminium strips underneath secured also to the engine cover.
Running up the centre there will be two long bolts with a pipe sleeve for extra vertical strength.
Underneath the case will be more polished aluminium flat bars for rigidity and to prevent scratches on the plexiglass.
The case will have three pipes running through it secured inside.
90 degree aluminium rails will run alongside the case with holes drilled to match the pipes in the case.
3x aluminium rods will run through the rails and the case to secure the case to the rack.
I'm still undecided how to stop the rods coming out. R-clips are obvious but look crap and not secure enough.
The last thing will be to do something about the case. It looks bad. I had thoughts about fiberglassing something better, even making a small 'Lip like spoiler' but will probably just end up replacing the handle/brackets/corners with something a bit nicer and taking it down to the spray shop to colour code with the car.
There's plenty of LED lights on the market too so thinking about a high brake light formed into it. This is way off any how.
The roof will sit behind like the other failed attempts and be fixed by two leather belts salvaged from the 'contraption'.
Can't wait to get stuck into this one. there's a 50/50 chance it may work.
Does the soft-top roof not fit in behind the seats?
Even if one seat is all the way back mine would still fit.
As you say plenty of space in the boot, especially if you take stuff in smaller bags, or pack it loose.
Two tents, two sleeping bags, two sleeping mats, two overnight bags, disposable BBQ, lots of food.
More than enough for two blokes for a couple of nights 'wild' camping.
Even if one seat is all the way back mine would still fit.
As you say plenty of space in the boot, especially if you take stuff in smaller bags, or pack it loose.
Two tents, two sleeping bags, two sleeping mats, two overnight bags, disposable BBQ, lots of food.
More than enough for two blokes for a couple of nights 'wild' camping.
JM, I've never tried to get roof behind the seats. It never entered my head and you're the first person I've every heard doing this. Genius!!
This space does always get used though, also the space past the passenger kick plate.
Haha with the camping!! we do this a lot, I bought one of those 2 man 3 second erections- no pun intended, fits nicely behind the drivers seat along with a beach umbrella and a few towels
I can't believe the roof fits behind the seats, I am stunned.
I'm sure mine fitted rolled up, but you could probably push both seats forward and unravel it a bit if required.
I/we also managed to squash other stuff, jackets etc in there as well. And yes useful space around passenger legs of needed. Depends on the size/shape of the passenger though!
Edit:
Did a quick search and found these two options.
https://www.eliseparts.com/products/show/16/610/s2...
Or
http://www.boot-bag.com/elise.htm
I/we also managed to squash other stuff, jackets etc in there as well. And yes useful space around passenger legs of needed. Depends on the size/shape of the passenger though!
Edit:
Did a quick search and found these two options.
https://www.eliseparts.com/products/show/16/610/s2...
Or
http://www.boot-bag.com/elise.htm
Edited by JM on Thursday 19th January 23:08
The idea you've mocked up is about what I was suggesting in the other thread.
I'd visit a local fabricator tbh. And just pay for them to knock something up.
I don't know what's under the fiberglass, but I'm sure there will be suitable mountain points for an aluminium frame.
It's clear you want to do a decent job, so visit a guy and pay him t make something.
You could tkae it another step and get a custom carbon fiber box made up. There are people that could do that quite happily.
I'd visit a local fabricator tbh. And just pay for them to knock something up.
I don't know what's under the fiberglass, but I'm sure there will be suitable mountain points for an aluminium frame.
It's clear you want to do a decent job, so visit a guy and pay him t make something.
You could tkae it another step and get a custom carbon fiber box made up. There are people that could do that quite happily.
We never plan ahead for the road trips, every day is a new adventure and pretty much just go where we feel like that day.
I totally scraped the last idea and went for this copper piping monstrosity. Its nearly finished, just needs polished up and and a strap on the top of the case.
The engine cover was a bargain price and spraying it was free of charge when I had my hard top and front of the car resprayed.
I totally scraped the last idea and went for this copper piping monstrosity. Its nearly finished, just needs polished up and and a strap on the top of the case.
The engine cover was a bargain price and spraying it was free of charge when I had my hard top and front of the car resprayed.
There a a risk that copper pipe will work harden with vibration and eventually crack. Expansion stress when hot will have to be taken into consideration. This grade of copper pipe was never meant to be load bearing nor are soft soldered couplings. Something similar made up in bicycle steel tube may be a better bet . Some extensive testing fully loaded would save some grief.
A further look at this worries me a bit, those through tank fittings used as mounting feet are cast brass only designed to compress two rubber washers to a thin tank wall enough to form a water seal. Where the cut thread ends they are very thin . I would suggest that in any impact these would snap off instantly.
A further look at this worries me a bit, those through tank fittings used as mounting feet are cast brass only designed to compress two rubber washers to a thin tank wall enough to form a water seal. Where the cut thread ends they are very thin . I would suggest that in any impact these would snap off instantly.
Edited by duckwhistle on Sunday 20th August 18:39
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