For the past three years, many of you know I have building an

aluminum rack-top box to carry, well principally, windsurfing

gear. An “around the edges” project that was supposed to be

done in one summer morphed into ongoing odyssey that took

up an inordinate amount of both my free time and garage space.

Backstory:

Ok first an admission: yes, I do realize that my fixation with carrying stuff on the roof of my vehicle is gone well

beyond a fixation, compulsion, or even obsession – its now clearly a full-blown chronic, untreatable psychosis.

Symptoms first showed up with when I lived back in Boston and got interested in windsurfing through my bud-

dies at Ski Market (Stan, Ken, Ben, Warren, Dan -- aka Elvis-- and the rest of the “Scary Crew”). After Stan con-

vinced me I “had to have” my third board (F2 Starlet Wave – circa 1986), my challenge was how to transport a

10’6” F2 Comet Slalom, 8’ 3” Sunset Wave and the Starlet – on top of

a puny Toyota Tercel. Answer: WindReady (thanks Yakima Racks) – a

three foot contraption that bolted to my roof rack and could carry up

to FOUR boards on the roof. Yippie … that works – but let’s take it

easy on the corners!

When I moved to Seattle in 1991, the venerable ‘Turd- cel’ did yeo-

man’s duty for a few more years before getting replaced by the Nis-

This time in aluminum!

san Pathfinder (re-using the same WindReady rack technology for many years). The after getting married,

two kids, I upgraded in 2002 to a windsurfing/family camping rig (see that clever spin to gain spousal support

- right there??!) -- a used Ford E-350 full-size Club Wagon van

which earned the moniker the BRV—Big and Rumbly Van. You

would think a 15 passenger van would be big enough to fit all my

windsurfing gear INSIDE. However, it wasn’t big enough for the

family (people AND gear) AND camping equipment AND adventure

toys (including windsurfing stuff), so I went about building a hei-

nous, gunmetal gray plywood storage box that would bolt to the

insanely overbuilt lumber rack that I had inherited from the van’s

previous owner. I whipped it up quickly in the course of several

weeks – it was functional but *very very* ugly. I engineered in “quick release” bolts so I could take the box

off quickly if I chose. But never did. Four years ago, when I took my van out of its winter storage siesta,

there where mushrooms growing inside the box. Ick. The thin plywood top had finally failed -- but rather

than a.) fixing the roof or b.) just walking away from it like any sane person would … I opted for Plan C: I de-

vised its replacement … bigger … better … in aluminum. Yeah!

Air Streamy goodness: The new box had to have a few design upgrades: First it had to be an aesthetic im-

provement over its plywood predecessor - hence the aluminum which would look boss on my silver van. Had

to be aerodynamic (my engineering buddy John chided me regularly of this failing of Box 1.0) Had to be wa-

tertight (duh). Access ports near the front to recover items tossed forward by hard braking. Had to be insu-

lated, carpeted and ventilated to keep “my lads” (read sailboards)

comfortable. No highway rattle, please. As noted above, it had to

be quickly removable with rapid release bolts and sit on nylon

runners to aid in moving it – why? Not sure … I have no

track record of voluntarily taking a box OFF the roof of my van be-

fore its time - ever.

Originally, I had thought about making a shorter box as wind-

surfing boards had become down- sized in length. But then, the

paddleboard craze hit … and “long” was back in – so, basically,

the box is a little longer than the lumber rack at 14’10’ from nose

to tail. Several feet longer than the wooden version.

I was told that welding aluminum is a very difficult skill to learn – so I never did. There is not a single weld in

the box. It is completely constructed with 3/16 sealed alu blind (or “pop”) rivets, 1” square alu tube, L-

brackets cut from alu angle stock, 1/16” alu sheet metal” and four three-way nylon corner brackets (thanks

to Esto Connectors ) for the main body of the box. All additional fittings and fasteners are either alu or stain-

less (thanks Sandra, Tum-a-lum Lumber, Hood River and Hardwicks Hardware, Seattle)

So after chainsawing the plywood box off the van in the spring of 2014, I spent the next few months finaliz-

ing” the construction details and thought I could finish by summer’s end. Ok … that timeline was

wildly, delusionally, irresponsibly optimistic.

One summer becomes 24 months of manufacturing trial and lots of errors:

I wanted a nice “Space Shuttle-y” looking nose – to look good and improve aerodynamics (yes, I *was*

listening John) and a cool rounded tail cone –

well, for the same reasons. I had a bench

metal bender (thanks Harbor Freight) but no

idea how to bend tube alu (or even that

some grades of alu can be bent and others

can’t). Schlosser Machine Shop in Hood River

(thanks Vinnie and the gang) straightened me

out and even lent me a 7” die that was per-

fect for bending square tubing – albeit at a

very shallow radius. Nose and tail cone

frame were finished. Schlosser also had a 10’ break for bending material so the main box was rede-

signed to – you guessed it – ten feet long. I had them build the “roof” by taking my 5’ x 10’ piece of

sheet alu and bend a 1” lip on each of the long sides. With a one piece metal roof – that *should*

lessen the leaking potential, right? But was I going to stop there? …

“noooooooo .. I’m out of the mushroom growing business, Mister!” … the

invaluable online hardware store McMaster-Carr sells 1/16” by 1” by 25’

rolls of neoprene (wetsuit material) with adhesive on one side. I ordered

like ten rolls. Anywhere the outer skin of the box is attached to the under-

lying frame, I sandwiched in a strip of neoprene with the idea that NO WAY

water could get through (even if the rivets leaked) AND it would have an

added bonus of minimizing dreaded “box rattle” at “warp” speed on the

highway. Nice. But other details continued to slow down construction:

needed to find cool but beef hinges for the tail cone access door (got some

classy ones from McMaster-Carr), nylon for support runners and anti-

abrasion points within the box (thanks TAP Plastics - Seattle), pneumatic

lifts (called “gas springs” which I think NAPA Hood River ordered for me.)

for making it easy to open the rear door. The rear access door proved ungodly challenging both in

getting it in alignment with the main body of the box (ok … Note to Self: bending square aluminum

tube in an arc produces *very* imprecisely trapezoidal results) AND figuring out some way of have the

door securely latch to keep “the lads” from any extra-curricular, gravity influenced excursions as re-

sult of a capricious and unauthorized opening of the rear access door (Eeek! perish the thought!)

Thanks to Matt at Southco who set me up with a slick paddle latch and two basically automotive-grade

actuators that securely close the box tight with a satisfying Mercedes-like thud! I also needed cables to

go from the latch to the actuators. After mis-measuring several times (and now accumulating several

“samples” at some expense), I finally got the right set of easily sliding cables (thanks David at California

Push Pull). The rear access door with gas springs for easy opening and reliable latches was complete.

I also wanted two side access doors to get into the front part of the box– I found only one company to

manufacturing these for me with van-matching naked alu finish outside at a reasonable price (thank

you, thank you to Jason at Challenger Door). Scope creep continued to plague me as I added “water-

proof” side vents (the “lads” gotta be cool and dry), nylon-faced alu brackets – which prevent the box

from sliding side to side in the lumber rack (safety feature) as well as a handle above the access doors

to make it safer to reach items from inside the front end (ease of use feature). The scope list went on …

electrical hookup for the roof top solar panels (2 x 60w ea.), sectionally-bent cover to protect the rear

door latches, raised interior platform that booms, masts and other flat things can fit under, fully car-

peted interior (including walls) … you get the idea – I couldn’t stop.

Final Assembly:

So over the past three years at spurts and stops, I

have spent untold hours noodling on, tinkering,

prototyping, building, rebuilding, redesigning and

re-engineering virtually every aspect of the box.

My aluminum suppliers (Alaska Copper & Brass -

Portland, Online Metals – Seattle (thanks Casey!),

Metal Supermarket - Everett, Schlosser Machinery

HR have happily kept up with my seemingly end-

less requests for additional pieces of alu (as well

as gleefully taking my money) – most the result of

numerous screw-ups and design changes.

This spring, I assembled the box’s flooring system in my garage in Seattle and then trailered the whole pro-

ject to Hood River for final assembly. When I was ready to attach the nose to the main section of the box,

the whole assembly line was moved outside where I had more room to work. With help (thanks Clark!), we

joined the nose to the main assembly with nine herkin stainless steel bolts and sealed up the joint with 3M

5200 adhesive (you know it is going to be watertight if it takes seven days for that stuff to cure!).

Then it was my trusty pneumatic rivet gun (thanks again to Harbor Freight) and air compressor’s time to get

busy. In the last two weeks I probably put well over 1,500 rivets into the structure attaching the sides, roof

and nose… I had used a steel tube with holes drilled at 2” intervals as a guide for this process and had to re-

drill the guide holes twice because eventually even a 3/16th inch guide hole in steel becomes two or three

times oversized after serving as a guide for a hardened steel drill bit for hundreds and hundreds of rivet

holes.

Finally, I deemed the bloody thing DONE and

drove it up the hill to a local fabricator/

machine shop (thanks John, owner of Nesbit

Enterprises in Hood River) who has a humong-

ous forklift and a steady-handed operator. In

about 20 minutes, they lifted the box/lumber

rack combo off our boat trailer with two slings

and deftly placed it top of the BRV for the first

time. Ten minutes of securing bolts on the

lumber rack’s 10 gutter attach struts (think

that’s enough?) and we were ready to roll!

Project complete! PSYCH!!

Project Post mortem:

I’m writing this from Florence, OR where I came to es-

cape the endless smoke fest that Hood River has be-

come since the start of the Eagle Creek fire last week.

This sojourn also serves as a shakedown for the box and

it completely rocks and looks, well, … magnificent. Came

out better than I could ever have hoped. I have already

attracted attention from people asking me “where did

you get it?” I’m calling them my “Box Buddies” – includ-

ing Mark from Bend and Gerry the surfer/kiter I met on

Florence’s South Jetty (where this photos were taken).

When the question comes around about what did it cost and how much time did it take to build – I can only

vaguely answer one of these questions: conservatively, there is probably at least $3k worth of materials in

the box, maybe more? As far as man-hours of labor – I have *no* idea, and not way to even tabulate the

weekends, nights, mornings, afternoons, days, I spent not only actually building but also ruminating on, re-

searching, locating suppliers, chasing down orders and so forth. “Countless” -- might be a good number. Too

bad its not a number. With box on, the van is just shy of 10 feet tall

(so the Arboretum Bridge is OUT) as it adds about 30 inches above

the top of the lumber rack. I have no idea how much weight I’ve

added to the vehicle but I’m guessing about 500 pounds empty.

The other thing I learned is that aluminum is a WONDERFUL material

to work with. Its light, strong, readily available, forgiving and rela-

tively cheap.Furthermore it can be worked with traditional wood-

working tools (thanks Dad! ). With only minor tool investments (ie:

carbide saw blades with high tooth count on a chop saw) it can be easily and precisely cut, drilled, bended,

fastened and so forth. Its relatively soft (for its strength) so every task is quicker with aluminum AND in ma-

chining it, you don’t create lethal metal shards to imbed in fingers, feet and other body parts. LOVE IT.

Lastly, I am thrilled, absolutely *thrilled* this project is done as now I can do something in my spare time

*other* than work on the silly box. So … I have a request if you are a close friend of mine: in a month or in

two months, or a year, two years, five years, I may hatch a plan to take on an equally ambitions, hair-

brained, ill-conceived personal project like Box 2.0. When I say some-

thing like – “you know, I’m thinking about building a ‘thing-a-ma-

widget’ .. what do you think?” -- Please, please, I implore you to talk

me out of it and get me into compulsion therapy right away! My pre-

sent self, thanks you for my future self -- in advance!

— Nat

Sept 2017