# Scrap metal headache rack



## thewizard (Feb 8, 2010)

i bought me a whelen justice mini bar and i wasnt about to permenant mount it to my roof. i dont like the idear of drillin onto the roof at all. i decided i would mount it to a headache rack. i could have just bought one, its not about the money, i just take alot more pride in somthing i make rather than somthing i buy. plus i just like playin with metal. 
the design is simple, i wanted somewhere to mount my light bar, and mount it low, and i wanted to hang additional work lights on there cause plowin backward at night just sucks. i also decided that from a saftey stand point i would add another set of tail and brake lights to this bar. i somtimes pull trailers without working lights so i figured this would be a good idea. although i dont have my lights yet, they are surface mount stop/tail/turn 6" led units i found at a trailer store online. they should be here by monday or so.

like the title says, its scrap metal. heres 2 shots of what i was workin with. the blue stuff, it used to be a peice of exercise equipment i found while scrappin. those are the chunks i had left after cuttin my peices from it. they are double scrapp lol they were used in some other contraption i made a few years back. 
the 2nd pic is the material i made the top rail out of. this is a small section, i had a whole length of the stuff and it all looks just as crsty as that peice does.
















more pics on the next post


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## thewizard (Feb 8, 2010)

here it is startin to come together. 








heres part of mounting. i dont have pics of the front of the bed mount, but i will get some later









the mini justice has set scres that hold mounting plats in a channel. its a pretty nice setup. here you can see one of the magnets where it sat, and the rest removed. the holes the magnets screwed onto take regular old 1/4-20 bolts. 








i made the bar mount work with the factory whelen mount so i didnt have to molest it incase i want to sell it later. this way i can still put the magnets back on it if need be. my mount is simple, just 2 peice of flat stock drilled to match the bolt hols on the mini justice. i installed the flat stocks and then tacked the top bar on while on the light bar. do not weld the whole thing up on the light bar, you will destroy it. 








more pics ont he next post


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## thewizard (Feb 8, 2010)

here it is mocked up on the back of the truck. you can see the flat plates i added as gussets for the work light arms, as well as a spot where i will put the surface mount tail lights i got coming. notice how low i got my mini justice, thats tits.


























and a coat of primer. hopefully i will get it painted and completely mounted by monday, we supposedly got another storm comin!! i'll post more pics as i get it painted and wired up


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## ScottPA (Nov 11, 2009)

Very nice.


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## thesnowman269 (Nov 7, 2009)

Lookin good Wizard, I have to rebuild mine in the spring, Im not an Origonal fan of my original design....and i never painted it..


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## HitchC&L (Mar 6, 2008)

Looks very cool, definitely a different style but I like it.


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## thewizard (Feb 8, 2010)

HitchC&L;1005814 said:


> Looks very cool, definitely a different style but I like it.


ya, the style is kinda simple, i wasnt really worried bout protection for the window, more of just a light mount that got a little outta hand lol


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## Lux Lawn (Jan 5, 2004)

I really like the style of it.
It looks different then all of the others you see.


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## groundbreakers (Jan 16, 2004)

thewizard;1005858 said:


> ya, the style is kinda simple, i wasnt really worried bout protection for the window, more of just a light mount that got a little outta hand lol


how do you like the justice ? .... i was gonna get one of those but ended up getting a liberty with 2 modules in the middle ... ... my problem i like both bars ..... BTW like the headache rack design ..


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## thewizard (Feb 8, 2010)

thanks on the props on the rack. i really like the justice. it is retina burning bright, which is what i wanted. spose to have 95 flash patterns, thats good and bad, good cause i wont get bored, but it takes a while to find what you want and if you pass it by accident you gotta go all through them again to find it. i like that its low profile and almost looks like a satellite tracking device. this may come in handy when it comes time for inspection in jersey. i am supposed to possess a permit for the light. i dont know if i can get through inspection without it. im thinkin bout poppin off the lense when the time comes and covering the inside with a black cloth and puttin the cover back on. instant sattellite head. i would just remove it, but im planning on hard wiring it through the 3rd brake light and im also going to put a tack weld on each screw to prevent theft. if it has to come off later a little amount of grinding and it will be off. if it comes off it will be done in my shop anyway so im not worried bout not bein able to remove it. 
other than that, its deffinetly going to allow me to be seen. since it hurts your eyes, hopefully mall tarts wont get close to me with their beamers and lex's when im clearin the parkin lots


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## Tosa93F250 (Dec 4, 2009)

thewizard;1005972 said:


> thanks on the props on the rack. i really like the justice. it is retina burning bright, which is what i wanted. spose to have 95 flash patterns, thats good and bad, good cause i wont get bored, but it takes a while to find what you want and if you pass it by accident you gotta go all through them again to find it. i like that its low profile and almost looks like a satellite tracking device. this may come in handy when it comes time for inspection in jersey. i am supposed to possess a permit for the light. i dont know if i can get through inspection without it. im thinkin bout poppin off the lense when the time comes and covering the inside with a black cloth and puttin the cover back on. instant sattellite head. i would just remove it, but im planning on hard wiring it through the 3rd brake light and im also going to put a tack weld on each screw to prevent theft. if it has to come off later a little amount of grinding and it will be off. if it comes off it will be done in my shop anyway so im not worried bout not bein able to remove it.
> other than that, its deffinetly going to allow me to be seen. since it hurts your eyes, hopefully mall tarts wont get close to me with their beamers and lex's when im clearin the parkin lots


I like it. Though I wouldn't be too sure about the idiots staying back now.. They seem to be attracted to shiny objects so they may just try to get closer now.


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## groundbreakers (Jan 16, 2004)

thewizard;1005972 said:


> thanks on the props on the rack. i really like the justice. it is retina burning bright, which is what i wanted. spose to have 95 flash patterns, thats good and bad, good cause i wont get bored, but it takes a while to find what you want and if you pass it by accident you gotta go all through them again to find it. i like that its low profile and almost looks like a satellite tracking device. this may come in handy when it comes time for inspection in jersey. i am supposed to possess a permit for the light. i dont know if i can get through inspection without it. im thinkin bout poppin off the lense when the time comes and covering the inside with a black cloth and puttin the cover back on. instant sattellite head. i would just remove it, but im planning on hard wiring it through the 3rd brake light and im also going to put a tack weld on each screw to prevent theft. if it has to come off later a little amount of grinding and it will be off. if it comes off it will be done in my shop anyway so im not worried bout not bein able to remove it.
> other than that, its deffinetly going to allow me to be seen. since it hurts your eyes, hopefully mall tarts wont get close to me with their beamers and lex's when im clearin the parkin lots


yah ive never had issues with any of my whelen bars ....i use to run rotators then strobes and now LEDS.... ya you pay a lil more but you get reputation with that name also .... soo thats what sells me .


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## Danscapes (Jan 12, 2008)

Judging by the looks of the back of your cab, you need that back rack,LOL. 

What are you going to mount on those steel plates on the top, or is that just for support?


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## thewizard (Feb 8, 2010)

ya, kinda hahaa the bed is mashed forwards from my grizzly slammin around back there and the big mark on the passenger side is from a wake boarding ramp we had in the back. the rest of it is from me thrown tons of scrap in the bed. been lucky, havent mashed out the windows yet lol.

here is whats goin on the plates, its a 6 inch led stop tail turn light. it measures 7-1/2" by 3-1/4" in total size. i wasnt crazy bout the chrome but i couldnt find it in black.


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## Danscapes (Jan 12, 2008)

why not just cut holes in the plates and use grommet mounted leds?


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## Tosa93F250 (Dec 4, 2009)

thewizard;1006476 said:


> ya, kinda hahaa the bed is mashed forwards from my grizzly slammin around back there and the big mark on the passenger side is from a wake boarding ramp we had in the back. the rest of it is from me thrown tons of scrap in the bed. been lucky, havent mashed out the windows yet lol.
> 
> here is whats goin on the plates, its a 6 inch led stop tail turn light. it measures 7-1/2" by 3-1/4" in total size. i wasnt crazy bout the chrome but i couldnt find it in black.


It looks like that chrome surround just pops off it.

If so just get some sand paper and a can of black spray paint and you no longer have chrome.

Or you could go and buy some black duct tape and use that to change the color.


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## EGLC (Nov 8, 2007)

Tosa93F250;1006484 said:


> It looks like that chrome surround just pops off it.
> 
> If so just get some sand paper and a can of black spray paint and you no longer have chrome.
> 
> Or you could go and buy some black duct tape and use that to change the color.


or instead of being a hick for like $5 you can buy the black shroud


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## thewizard (Feb 8, 2010)

if i can find a black shroud i will get it, so far i havent had any luck. sanding and painting may be an option. i didnt get the grommet mouted kind because im really funny about wires. im so anal when it comes to wiring that i have rewired entire fourwheelin trucks because they looked all rat nesty and it drove me nuts. i just didnt want to see wires when i walked by and glanced at the back of this thing. an option would be to build boxes, but i didnt want a spot for water to get trapped in and rot. even with grommets it still finds a way in there.


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## Danscapes (Jan 12, 2008)

Oh, I thought they were boxed in. I couldn't tell from the pics.


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## Burkartsplow (Nov 1, 2007)

I had to get my justice as low as possible due to some accounts are parking garages and I onoly had a couple of inches of clearance. The mounting setup that comes with the justice makes it easy to get it as close to the back rack as possible. I will have to post some pics of my setup.


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## thewizard (Feb 8, 2010)

Burkartsplow;1006990 said:


> I had to get my justice as low as possible due to some accounts are parking garages and I onoly had a couple of inches of clearance. The mounting setup that comes with the justice makes it easy to get it as close to the back rack as possible. I will have to post some pics of my setup.


im kinda in the same boat with the parkin garages, i party alot in atlantic city and i cant remember if its 6'8" or 8'6", but either way, my radio antenna on the truck hits now in the garages, i gotta measure how high the light bar is once i mount it and see whats up. might have to start parkin on the expressway and ridin the train lol i could take a different vehicle down there but i get hassled less by the man driving somthing official looking like a work truck. hell last week i went down there plow on and all and got free parkin!! on the way out of the garage i told the pakistani at the booth that i was on the roof plowin snow and that jimmy in maintenance said i didnt have to pay $10 for bein here. all this on sunday morning at 430 am over a week after the storm hahaahaahaa 
:laughing::laughing::laughing::laughing:


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## snowfighter75 (Mar 10, 2007)

Ya made a nice job of that rack. I like the style of it. All the best.


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## thewizard (Feb 8, 2010)

heres some update pics. extra tail lights came in and got them on it and got everything mounted up. 
heres the preliminary wiring. i used a trailer harness and split it all up. i used the extra un used portion of white ground wire i had in the harness for the passenger side running light circuit, which should be brown wire on a trailer harness. you use the ground in the harness, but i had a few feet cut off from where the gound wire connected to the rack so why waste it lol. the red wire is the main power wire for the work lights. its 12 gauge wire. 









here you can see the wire with connections to the work lights made, and short lenghts left hanging out for the tail lights. at the time of this pic they didnt arrive yet, infact they didnt arrive until after i had the rack on the truck already. where the last wire clamp is, is about where the frame on the truck is. its a strait shot down to where the rack gets its power.the harness is tied in a loop just for the pic so you can see the plug. i made the rack easily removable by putting a trailer plug on the tail lighting harness and a male/female connector on the power wire for the work lights. there is a relay for the work lights mounted in the cab of the truck. if you do this, put the female conector on the relay side of the wire so later it wont arc out if it is touching anything when you put the vehicle in reverse, oh yeah, i forgot to mention the work lights are on a on off switch and also wired into the reverse light circuit and come on automatically.
look how nice you can make it look for about an extra $10. the clamps i got at napa and you can get loom there too, or be like me and pic peices off cars when you go to the junkyard. its way nicer than tape and zip ties which will fail on you when you really need it to work.









ford must have anticipated people installing warning lights and going through the third brake to make a connection. when i pulled the brake lite out, there was a hole into the trim inside the cab. once the trim was removed inside the cab i pulled the wire for my mini justice right in and then easily hid it all up behind the trim all the way to the dash. i didnt want to pinch the wires behind the light, or cause a leak by having a gap in the lense frame, so i just drilled right through on of the cargo light lenses and siliconed it. looks nice and works well. 









here is the forward mount i didnt have a pic of before. some of you might not want to do this to a new truck or to somthing nice, but it works for me. its just a peice of flat stock with a hole in it that i welded to the bed of the truck. the rack goes inplace and bolts to the flat stock. very simple and effective and makes for easy removal of the rack . this mount accompanied witht he lower mount made the rack very sturdy. 








more pics on the next post.


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## thewizard (Feb 8, 2010)

here it is mounted up inside my shop with out the tail lights on it. 









and outside today with the tail lights inplace


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## thewizard (Feb 8, 2010)

oh, i forgot to mention, i made another trailer harness under the truck coming from the back of the truck up to the connection for the rack. its tied up all nice and out of the way and simply plugs into the trailer 4 pin connector at the rear of the truck. this keeps the 4 pin nice and out of the elements. i did this because i didnt want to hack in to my trucks rear harness to make a connection. i made that desicision because of how bad the environment is donw under the truck with salt and other grime. i figured it would corrode the connections and then i would have to fix the main harness after finding out i had no tail lights, and prolly finding out at a bad time too


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## swtiih (Nov 30, 2008)

In the last picture on post # 23 it shows what looks like the back rack being screwed into the back of the cab. Is that correct?


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## thewizard (Feb 8, 2010)

swtiih;1013780 said:


> In the last picture on post # 23 it shows what looks like the back rack being screwed into the back of the cab. Is that correct?


looks like that but it actually isnt screwed to the cab. i should have gotten a pic pefore i installed the rack so it could be seen better. there is a peice of flat stock welded to the front rail of the bed. the rack butts up to it and gets bolted to the flat stock thats welded to the bed. i made sure nothing was touching the cab as the bed and cab move independently over bumps when the truck flexes a little.


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## Humvee27 (Feb 5, 2008)

Nice job. Clean and elegant. I especially like the fact that you just used what you had instead of buying one, thats what I do.


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## thewizard (Feb 8, 2010)

thanks


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## sjosephlawncare (Jan 17, 2008)

i see ta ta's!


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## thewizard (Feb 8, 2010)

sjosephlawncare;1014207 said:


> i see ta ta's!


NJ might be a screwed up state but atleast the scenery is nice


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## PLOW-NECK (Jan 14, 2010)

Hey 'thewizard', i was wondering how you got the long wiring for the brake/tail lights? All of the lights i see when i look at them have really short wiring and i want to do the same thing you did on your rack. Also, how did you wire the brake/tail lights? through the trailer hitch wiring? By the way, love the rack. awesome style. thanks


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## thewizard (Feb 8, 2010)

PLOW-NECK;1034489 said:


> Hey 'thewizard', i was wondering how you got the long wiring for the brake/tail lights? All of the lights i see when i look at them have really short wiring and i want to do the same thing you did on your rack. Also, how did you wire the brake/tail lights? through the trailer hitch wiring? By the way, love the rack. awesome style. thanks


thanks!! the wires on the lights themselves were short but workable, they were three or four inches long. i just butt connected them with crimp connectors into the harness i made.

i basically made the whole thing a trailer as far as the wiring goes. it has the 4 pin trailer connector on the end of the racks harness. this harness stops right at the frame. i did this so it was easy to remove the rack to paint it or whatever the case would be.

from there it plugs into an "extension cord" i made with a length of trailer harness and trailer connectors. basically it was a connector to hook up to the racks harness, and then another connector to plug into my trailer connector at the back of the truck. i didnt have to cut into the vehicles wire harness, wouldnt want to do that anyway just to keep away from corrosion problems later on down the road. the "extension cord" is routed in a permenant fashion to the rear of the truck so it looks neat and hopefully shouldnt get damaged.

thanks for the reminder, i almost forgot about this part. when i set all this up i was in a hurry for a storm. my plans for permanant connection is to get another T shaped trailer harness hook up, the kind that you unplug the rear vehicle harness and just stick it in between the 2 plugs. i got one of these in there now for my 4 pin, i would imagine i can piggy back them and have 2. this way i dont have to unplug my racks tail lights everytime i pull my trailers. im gonna do this this week.


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## EGLC (Nov 8, 2007)

thewizard;1013787 said:


> looks like that but it actually isnt screwed to the cab. i should have gotten a pic pefore i installed the rack so it could be seen better. there is a peice of flat stock welded to the front rail of the bed. the rack butts up to it and gets bolted to the flat stock thats welded to the bed. i made sure nothing was touching the cab as the bed and cab move independently over bumps when the truck flexes a little.


be careful if those bolts are even like 1/2" near the cab they will scratch....when I had my back rack they installed it wrong and had like 1/4" of play between cab and bolt and needless to say bed move a little and bolt put a ton of pressure against rear window and it shattered.


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## RBRONKEMA GHTFD (Dec 17, 2006)

sjosephlawncare;1014207 said:


> i see ta ta's!


And the mods pull down thong pics in the calender girls thread.


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## A.Landscaping (Feb 27, 2010)

RBRONKEMA GHTFD;1034994 said:


> And the mods pull down thong pics in the calender girls thread.


haha i guess we have to put a plow in the backround in order for them to leave it 

Looks great!


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## PLOW-NECK (Jan 14, 2010)

Thanks for the reply and awesome info wizard! i really like that idea of using the trailer method instead of hacking into the wiring harness. i asked how you did it because i wanted to avoid the same thing. Im definitely going to setup my lights that way, because its the easiest and it can all be put together pretty simply. I will have to post pics and show you how progress is coming. thanks again!


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