Thread: I want to make a DIY Tropical (or Safari) roof for my County. Has it been done before

Make life easy. Go to a wrecker and get a Series III station wagon roof and tropical roof. Tropical roof was standard on SIII wagons.

I would not attach any plate directly to the ribs, you would still lack strength. I'd get a sheet metal shop to bend up some aluminium Z shaped rails, rivet and seal them to the roof, then add the new plate about 40-50mm away from the roof.

Originally Posted by bee utey

I would not attach any plate directly to the ribs, you would still lack strength. I'd get a sheet metal shop to bend up some aluminium Z shaped rails, rivet and seal them to the roof, then add the new plate about 40-50mm away from the roof.

Why do you advise against attaching to the ribs? Would this add strength to the design?

Also, is there an advantage to the Z bent design? Or could I achieve the same outcome using aluminium rectangular profile?

Perhaps another thing to consider is using "Dimpled" plate instead of "Chequer". It's like a golf ball surface.
Why I say this is because a bloke I go camping with occasionally has a camping canopy on his Patrol and it is dimpled aluminium plate. After some advice from his welder and by doing some simple, pre-construction, temperature tests he found it was noticeably cooler than chequer plate and, after sticking my head inside the canopy on a rather hot day, I won't contradict him.

Steve

Originally Posted by alittlebitconcerned

Why do you advise against attaching to the ribs? Would this add strength to the design?

Also, is there an advantage to the Z bent design? Or could I achieve the same outcome using aluminium rectangular profile?

What gives you the strength is the distance between the top and bottom surfaces of the roof sandwich, just like a bridge girder or a builders metal plank. Close together will just buckle under load. The Z sections are there to make riveting easier, as you can get full access above and below. Box section means no access from above for the bottom sheet unless you drill it full of holes. And an excessive number of holes to fill gives vermin more places to set up shop and more opportunities for whistles to arise. You could use C section or box tube cut in half but that still makes riveting more difficult. IMHO you want enough room up there to shove/pull a bundle of rag through to clean out any funny bits of shrubbery left there by four legged fiends.

Don't forget the roof is not designed to take any real load at all it has no vertical strength in it.
The ribs are there to keep the roof straight and sturdy and to attach a lightweight safari roof to.
If you want to carry a load anything you design should be supported off the gutters only or have a roll bar underneath in the cab and loadspace to take the load from above. Just because some fool attached a rack to the ribs dosnt mean you should also.
The gutters are strong as and the more supports the better.
I have 4 on each side of my disco1 and I can carry over 50 3m sticks of pine on it over speed humps and all. It's just a bit high up the only weight issue is with body roll so not really advised....


Sorry I missed the tiny little part where you mentioned the gutters.

Gutters also sag with excess weight on a 110 roof.

Originally Posted by rar110

Gutters also sag with excess weight on a 110 roof.

I've had this fear with the disco.
At least with the series/def the roofline is much straighter than the disco, you can run a horizontal support like a 20mmx3mm on edge along the whole gutter length. I've been meaning to do this to my disco so it spreads the load rather than supported by 100mm on each leg.

Cheers jim