By D1gger
#4888729
Just finished mounting the new Radome to my roof rack. Total cost not including tools: under $20.

It started out as the upper half of a smaller diameter, out-of-date SCBA composite tank that I was given for free since it was just going to be thrown out anyways. I just chopped it off at 9" tall with a big chop-saw and sanded the dome end nice and round/smooth.
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Some paint and red tape added. I cut out the mounting plate from some scrap plywood.
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I have no access to a welder, so for the support post, I went to Home Depot and bought two 3/4" mounting flanges, a 12" long black steel pipe already threaded 3/4" on the ends and eight 1/4" carriage bolts/nuts. I cleaned the flanges and pipe, painted them and the plywood platform red, then mounted it all together onto the left rear corner of my roof rack.
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According to the blueprints I found digging around on here, the dimensions called for the dome to be 6" in diameter and 9" tall. Mine ended up being 6-1/4" in diameter and 9" tall. Considering I was unable to add the angled support braces to the post, I think the measurements are close enough to look good. Especially since the car is not an older professional car, but a modern conversion(GMC Terrain). Now to dress it up with an ESD warning label and a small antenna or two on the rear corners of the mounting plate.
Last edited by D1gger on January 21st, 2017, 2:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Kingpin liked this
By D1gger
#4888927
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Now what to do with the other half of the tank I chopped to make the new Radome? I removed the valve and discovered 1/2" pipe threads in the neck of the tank. A quick run to the local Home Depot for the 1/2" threaded-to-3/4" pipe adapter, some paint, bolts and brackets later and here is the result:

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A new base for my sniffer tower. I just need to add the warning label, finish gluing the pieces together and bolt it to my roof rack. Again, while not exactly screen-accurate, it's much more accurate than it was with just a 3/4" pipe upright from the rack, plus I was able to use up leftover pieces from other projects for less scrap waste, so it's a win-win!

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