I have my own lathe/mill/drill machine and a pretty good supply of tools in my shop.. I also have access to a pretty solid machine shop where I help high school kids build robots to compete in competitions. So i'm well covered there; just need to buy the material and find the time.

I was actually thinking about mounting the roof rack directly to the stanchions, but the rack would have to be about 52" at the front stanchion and 49.5" at the rear stanchions and it gets a bit more complicated.

Also, by making these "low pro" stanchions for my Thule load bars, I have some more options down the road if I ever take this rack off (not sure why the hell id ever do such a thing though..)

Man... but now my mind is working a million miles a minute now... I bet you could easily weld on 6 mounting tabs that would simply bolt to thru bolt with my stanchions (like the load bars would) and eliminate the need for the load bars altogether. They would have to be gusseted pretty good in the fronts since a 48" wide rack would be cantilevered on the front 4 mounts... it'll rest right on the rear two.

Doc, a quick question. When we say "48 inches wide", is that 48" to the outside of the tube? Or is that 48" on-center (which would make the outside dimension a total of 49" if you're using 1" tube)? That'll help me determine what kind of interference I'll have with the rear most mounts...