Hail Guard

[Timothy Stiffler]

Hello everyone! i have a 2005 chevy malibu ls non hatch and i was looking to put a hail guard on it. This is a chase only vehicle so things dont have to detach. my plans were to attach to a roll cage on the inside by means of bolting it down through the roof and sealing it off so it dont leak water. then making a shelf of sorts with frame mounted support bars. so heres my question as it stands what should i make the shelf out of? not the frame of it but the bottom of it. someone told me a steel mesh but i dont think its strong enough. heres a rough picture of what i was thinking.

 

[Jordan Doane]

I was thinking about using just a roof rack and welding an extension over the front windshield. as for the other windows look into 3m window protection. I know that Daniel shaw has 3m window protection on his Toyota rav4 and it goes through hail all the time, along with el Reno's rfd /inflow in the video he posted of that tornado where the semi truck hits him from the rear and flips. that sold me on that product.

 

[Marc R. O'Leary]

Expanded metal is plenty strong. If you encounter hail large enough to damage it, you've already got bigger problems.

Go here (it's not cheap):
http://www.mcnichols.com/products/expanded

 

[Travis Cruz]

Expanded metal is plenty strong. If you encounter hail large enough to damage it, you've already got bigger problems.

Go here (it's not cheap):
http://www.mcnichols.com/products/expanded

I second that; Expanded metal is incredibly strong. I stood both feet together on expanded in a 2x4' frame and it didn't give much at all.

If you're going to build both a roll cage and hail/debris protection, I would suggest building them separate - Unless your only reason for the roll cage is "gently" rolling on your side or top in a ditch, not getting tossed at all. But maybe I'm misinterpreting what you were saying. If you do want a roll cage to protect you from being tossed let me know and I'll give you a little more info about it.

If you just want to protect your roof and windows, and add functional storage, I would suggest building something like we have. I'll post a few pictures down below. Smittybilt Defender mounting racks are perfect if you're going to build your own rack and don't mind bolting through the roof. In your picture, you have the front mounts going through the hood and bolting in, I would have them go down and bolt on top of the firewall like we did - the firewall is extremely strong and stable. We can rock back and forth the 10,000lb truck just by grabbing and pulling one of the support pillars that's mounted to the firewall. We've also had 400lbs of person sitting up on the very front of the hail guard as well without a worry of structural failure. And the best part about it, I designed and we built the roof rack and hail guard for under 600$. Any heavy duty rack you buy pre-made will cost double that, and won't be customized to your liking either.

I've done a whole lot of research and testing on the subject so if you have any questions feel free to ask away!