after futile search for one, I built my own "roof rack"

[workingonit]

I never liked sunroofs, T-tops, or convertibles, so I didn't like/trust the sunroof on my X5 from the start of ownership...
from a previous thread:

Originally Posted by workingonit

not taking any chances with 20-year-old German plastic parts
Though I've only owned my X5 for 4 months, I've seen how brittle plastic parts get on this car (or any European sourced plastics can get). The sunroof mechanism looks to be a collection of failure-prone pieces of plastic to me. Worst I've ever worked on was a SAAB where everything plastic had to be replaced, inside-outside-underhood. So, I've removed the fuse for the sunroof (F58 on mine), to keep my wife from ever trying to operate the sunroof.

I personally prefer closed vehicles, having many bad experiences with convertible, sun-roof, moon-roof, T-top equipped cars; in Texas, a sealed car with A/C is a better choice. My roof is sealed, with no leaks or air whistling thru, and that's the way it'll remain.

The X5 sits outside (as do the other cars,trucks, and one trailer, as the three-car garage is full of my wife's antiques, lawn and garden tools, and my 4x8 home-built camping trailer), and is therefore subject to whatever falls from the sky. Since the back of the property has two dozen oak trees overhead, oak tree debris is a problem.

All vehicles have received their share of minor dents from falling items (luckily/conversely, the oak trees seem to shield them from the large hail [with large dents] that falls around here), but having an expensive-to-replace sunroof takes it to another level of concern.

In the past two months, I've had two branches fall, one on my covered '04 Chevy truckbed (plywood covering), and the other on the X5, striking the hood and sunroof. One more dent in the hood isn't too bad, but the sunroof received a glancing blow on the front seal, that could've shattered the glass, if it had gone the other way (15lb branch). Time for protection!

I looked to get a roof rack plus crossbars for the X5, but everything I found exceeded my self-imposed budget, and/or was too small or too large for my liking. Much the same situation I faced when adding exterior storage to my home-built camper, where function vs form is my way of building. So, I followed that design philosophy for my roof rack/sunroof protector, and used the same wire shelving components as I did on my trailer.

I'm retired, on an iffy pension (if the funding doesn't disappear), and just bought my last house three years back, using most of my liquid assets, not already tied up. So, I'm cheap, and also used to making (or making-do-with) my own parts, from 50+ years of shadetree mechanics and racing; my roof rack is the evidence of that mindset.

The roof rack is up and firmly mounted, though I haven't been able to wrap the exposed zinc-plated clamps with silicone tape, yet, to make them blend in with the rack & rails; I have a useless left arm, swollen to double size last week, that the doctors say may or may not be usable after the blood-clotting breaks up. Still, I was able to make the roof rack usable, before the next branch falls!