How To: Bedside Utility Racks

[bryce88]

Any trick to tracing the profile of the wheel well? Did you do just do a little trial and error, eyeballing it, until it looked just right?

Yeah pretty much. Start with a rectangle of cardboard and then cut away more and more of the area of the wheel well until you get the fit you want. Same goes for the area around the tiedown point near the tailgate. I just held it in place, used a pencil to draw how much I thought needed to be taken away (erring on the side of not taking too much) and then cut it out. You can always tape some more cardboard and try again if you cut away too much.

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[mkcummins66]

thats pretty slick!!!

 

[grumpygirl]

Adding this to my DIY list. Two quick questions what size rivnuts did you use and what diameter was your nylon rod for the stand offs.

 

[grumpygirl]

Two sheets of red for the price of one black.cut and drilled together. Plan to paint it black to shadow the tools. More pics in my photo album.ATTACH=full]218894[/ATTACH]

 

[grumpygirl]

Fit check good with minor trimming.

 

[autumnwalker]

What a great idea! Thanks for sharing.

 

[grumpygirl]

Did a little more work on my racks. Still waiting on the rivnut gun so I can mount them.

 

[Ray12345]

Looks awesome!

 

[RJH104]

Hi Bryce, if i may ask, where did you get the plastic from here in utah? This is a pretty cool set up. Thx for sharing

 

[bruce219]

Dude, thats fantastic. Very tidy and convenient

 

[Spsully]

so all these years later, Im searching google and it gives me this link. Going to use this as motivation on mine for sure. I probably will do the peg board like you said you wouldnt do. but instead of putting nuts on the back, I just add rivnuts to each hole as I need to add stuff. Thank you for the inspiration. Its EXACTLY what I was looking for.

 

[Jigs-n-Fixtures]

I know this thread is pretty much dead. But just for folks who find this in the future, I'm going to anser this question:
How to scribe to an edge. To get the bottom profile matching the bed, you set the template material on the wheel well. (I use 5/16 tempered hardboard). Then set a compass so the pointy end touches the bottom of the bed, and the pencil, just touches teh bottom of teh template material. Then scribe a pencil line keeping the pencil directly above the point, on the bed. This is scribed line. Then cut along that line.

 

[JBRINEHAR]

So I'm starting a project. I want to increase the utility off my bed by adding some bedside racks to the inside walls. I want to be able to mount a shovel, axe and other things in there under my tonneau cover to keep in there all the time. My plan is to use 1/2" HDPE and cut out holes in a molle pattern so I can use molle pouches or also mount quickfists for handled tools. I'm planning on using rivet nuts to attach it around the perimeter and I have a nylon cylinder with a 1" diameter that I'll use as standoffs at varying depths because the side of the bed has different depths in different places.

The piece of HDPE that I have is 24"x 48" so that's why it's not running the entire length of the bed. Which I'm fine with because the head of my shovel can hang off the end and that part of the rack is hard to access anyway.

I'm also planning to incorporate some bed lighting under the rail after the rack is in.

Let me know your thoughts! Any ideas or advice would be welcome. I'll keep posting and keep this thread updated as I make progress on the project.

Here are some pictures of the cardboard pattern that I've started.

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Smart!!

 

[JBRINEHAR]

Ok I finally got around to finishing this project!

Transferring the template to the HDPE
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Cutting it out with a jigsaw
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Drilling the mounting holes
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I did some experimenting with a molle pattern but because the material is so thick it's not going to work for a lot of pouches since they're designed to work on the thickness of nylon webbing. I'm glad I did some experimenting because it would have been a lot harder to cut a molle pattern and it wouldn't have even been useful!
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I decided to just do round holes. This is a 1" grid I printed off to use as a guide
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Used a center punch to start all the holes and to transfer the pattern onto the panel
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Drilling the holes. Over 500 of them... I'm glad I have drill press. The ones it couldn't reach I just finished up with a cordless drill.
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Ok, now the part where there's no turning back. Drilling into the bed of your truck. After using shims etc. to get the panel placed where I wanted it, I used a punch through the mounting holes to mark where to drill. Then, using a step bit, I drilled holes that were 11/32" wide which was perfect for the rivnuts I have. They need to be nice and snug to work correctly.
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I used a little black silicone adhesive to kind of seal the hole to prevent water from getting behind there on the bare metal.
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All mounted up they turned out looking pretty clean. *Pro Tip - run a tap into the rivnuts after mounting them to clean up the threads, sometimes they can get a little squished or bent and you'll get your bolt stuck and then if you crank on it, you'll spin the rivnut which is bad news. (Don't ask me how I know)
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Now to cut the standoffs. I bought a nylon rod on eBay and cut two different sizes. A short and a long for the indentations on the side of the bed. That way everything ends up nice and flat.
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Drilled holes in them
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All the standoffs ready to go. You can kind of see how they work in these photos.
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Now the fun part. I placed the tools where I wanted them and mounted the quickfists.
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All mounted up!
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I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I'm still planning to mount a pouch in that leftover area for ratchet straps etc. So that is still to come.


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This is REALLY cool!!