KevinD3 wrote:

What’s the width of the rack? I think the distance between the D3 roof rails is 122cm so won’t be far off that, have you looked at a set of universal roof bars to get you past the holiday?
Something like these?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/235110520806?mk...media=COPY

Cheers Kevin, I've taken that advice and put on some standard T-track aero bars and feet. They're gripping the steel frame well, albeit it is not a long term solution for me. Practical perhaps, but I don't like the design of having a rack, then feet, then crossbars, then whatever I'm carrying. It seems counter-productive having a snuggly fitting custom rack only to stick on Halfords crossbars and feet that could've simply been fixed to the original D3 rails. That said it's a good idea, thank you, just to get me through a few summer trips with the bikes on the roof.

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ronp wrote:

Have you looked at setting bars across the full width on the base/floor section?
In doing that, if you have enough of them you could do away with the mesh (apart from the antenna rear section) to make tethering items down easier.
You would then have the upper frame of the rack to act as a basket/sidewall to secure items from moving about.
And it’d also give a lower/neater profile.
A good few lengths of hollowed square tubing would do the job, with plastic plugged ends - even using long roof bars if (as Kevin suggests), but without the footings.

Oh, and get a solar panel fitted to the front raised section.

Cheers Ron, I do like that idea. It'll be supremely useful to have maybe four or five crossbars set across the lower rails on that rack, and as you say I can cut out the mesh perhaps. My plan next spring is to strip back the rack, treat it to a fresh coat of paint and perhaps then at the time I can weld in some permanent rails.

I'll still need some movable bars on the upper rails too, not least because my Kamei roof box is too long to fit snug into the tray. This mk1 version has raised rails at the front where the sunroof opens, unlike (I think) the mk2 version that has a deeper tray in that front bit.

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In the meantime, my Halford jobbies above will get me through. Albeit it now touches just over the 2m height I suspect - I can just squeeze under those carpark barriers with the rack, don't reckon I'll get through them now...