Poor Impulse Control
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This is my DIY alternative to a "Molle" style overhead storage rack. Made from 20x20 and 20x40 mm extruded aluminum. DISCLAIMER: Current design requires modification of Jeep JT part 6ZW30TX7AA (Windshield molding): the blow-molded interior panel that sits at the top of windshield on the inside. The modification requires 2 holes to be drilled into the panel underneath the front roof latches in order to mount vertical supports for the storage rack. I designed some boots to fit around the supports and cover up the holes and printed them out of TPU. Plastic parts are all 3D printed but could certainly be milled out of aluminum if you wanted.
Rails underwent testing over the summer in Texas where outdoor temperatures are typically >95 deg F. A high temperature filament is recommended such as ABS, ASA or PC and their associated fiber-reinforced blends (GF or CF). All high temp filaments held up well to thermal deformation but non-fiber reinforced filaments were prone to cracking. I used ABS-GF. Relatively cheap and the glass fiber resolves a lot of ABS's drawbacks. I did not use nylon filament as we do not seem to get along. I recommend ASA overall as it has a little bit of flexability and behaves better than ABS.
Everything is held together with M5 bolts and T-nuts. Once assembled, it's pretty solid. Power is routed up the R inner side of the windshield and fed into bus bars mounted on the top side of the rails with a side-mounted rocker switch controlling power to the whole thing.
The idea is that you can mount anything you can think of or design to the rails using T-nuts and the rails can be extended laterally depending on how much stuff you want to store up there. Currently I have a GMRS radio, a USB hub with ports and a flashlight mounted to the rail system.
Updated 09/16/2025 I was going to do this as a 70's Popular Mechanics article bit but....only so many hours in the day. You get the idea.
At the bottom of all the pictures is a zip file of the STLs. Enjoy!
Additional parts like actual holds for the flashlights have yet to be designed. Again, you can bolt on
whatever you can think of and design.
Rails underwent testing over the summer in Texas where outdoor temperatures are typically >95 deg F. A high temperature filament is recommended such as ABS, ASA or PC and their associated fiber-reinforced blends (GF or CF). All high temp filaments held up well to thermal deformation but non-fiber reinforced filaments were prone to cracking. I used ABS-GF. Relatively cheap and the glass fiber resolves a lot of ABS's drawbacks. I did not use nylon filament as we do not seem to get along. I recommend ASA overall as it has a little bit of flexability and behaves better than ABS.
Everything is held together with M5 bolts and T-nuts. Once assembled, it's pretty solid. Power is routed up the R inner side of the windshield and fed into bus bars mounted on the top side of the rails with a side-mounted rocker switch controlling power to the whole thing.
The idea is that you can mount anything you can think of or design to the rails using T-nuts and the rails can be extended laterally depending on how much stuff you want to store up there. Currently I have a GMRS radio, a USB hub with ports and a flashlight mounted to the rail system.
Updated 09/16/2025 I was going to do this as a 70's Popular Mechanics article bit but....only so many hours in the day. You get the idea.
At the bottom of all the pictures is a zip file of the STLs. Enjoy!
Additional parts like actual holds for the flashlights have yet to be designed. Again, you can bolt on
whatever you can think of and design.
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