Ok haven't had as much time as I thought.... while my son is napping great, my 3 week old daughter has decided to give her lungs a workout this afternoon.
I didn't have time to mess around with the rendering to make it look a bit more "realistic" either. I tried a few quick presets but it made the surfaces way too reflective and even a bit harder to see what was going on.
Also did not put the lower clamping plate on or the nut. I figure this gets the point across enough... i'd make a lower clamping plate out of 1/8" thick steel and put a good nut/washer on it and probably call it good. Still debating whether I want to put a 0.1" platform on the one side of that plate so that the washer and nut sit a bit more flush. That's something I can figure out later though and will be pretty consistent regardless of which design i go with. As I started measuring and modeling I came up with some "better" designs... but "better" also means more $$ in materials and almost twice as much machining. As it sits now, I can probably make all 6 of these mounts for about $100 in materials (that includes bolts and hardware).
After I get my rack and see how the rack will mount to the crossbars, I even have the ability to cut down the groove where the load bar sits to bring it a bit closer. Although, as it sits right now, there'll be a little more than 1/2" clearance with the very top of the roof.
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