Hail Shield Build Help

[Drew Terril]

If you can weld, it's not terribly hard to fabricate something to serve as a hail guard. I don't have a sunroof, so I don't need that specifically. Being able to weld is a huge advantage with the kinds of mods we tend to make for chase vehicles. The PVC that Adam has is a great solution as well too.

Dan, it probably would be fairly simple to fabricate a bracket that you could attach hinges to. Probably would not require any welding either. That would be the most simple solution, relatively speaking.

 

[Dan Robinson]

Here are all of the raw materials.

This is my initial design for the front and rear guards:

The rear section hinging is to allow the trunk to be opened. As of right now, four roof holes and two trunk holes will be required. All of these materials are light enough for me to carry, but a little too heavy for magnet/strap mounting.

As it turns out, the big box beams are long enough to provide not only the base frame, but a foundation for both the rear window and front windshield guards. I'll only need two more pieces of shelving for the front. For the side windows, I discovered I have plenty of room to simply put one row of shelving straight out to the sides from the main frame. This completely protects the side windows from straight-down trajectory hail and does not extend past the car's widest horizontal dimension. If my car will fit, the guards will too. My plan is to attach a second row of the shelving to the side guards with hinges that will allow each to be deployed to provide complete (horizontal) protection from wind-blown hail (similar to the rear window guard "side wings").

This entire assembly can be broken down and stowed in the back seat/trunk of the car for transit to and from chase targets, preserving the MPG of the car. It will only be mounted prior to "chase mode" and only on days in which supercells present a hail risk.

 

[Jarod Carlisle]

Looks like a sound design. I'm going to guess that you wouldn't see a 1mpg change though, even if you had it mounted to and fro.

 

[Clarence Bennett]

Dan, how you are going to secure it to the roof? I used Adams design exactly to his specs and it worked great. To supplement the tracks on my roof that I secured it with, I also used 100lb magnets using 2 inch bolts through the pvc frame I built. The thing never budged an inch while I had that vehicle.

 

[Dan Robinson]

Clarence, my plan is to drill straight through the roof and attach four permanent 5-inch mounting bolts. (My car doesn't have a roof rack) The main frame then drops in onto those and is secured with wing nuts, and is removed just as easily.

I'm still hashing out my side guard design. Since I'm drilling the roof, I'd like to avoid also drilling the doors and use the main frame to support the side guards. That of course raises the issue of opening the doors. Right now I'm leaning toward a two-stage side guard solution:

Stage 1 provides only protection from near-vertical trajectory hail, and consists of a horizontal guard attached to the main frame and extending out 8 inches or so over the doors. This allows the doors to be opened, also protects the side mirrors, and doesn't obstruct the view. Stage 2 is for a wind-driven hail threat that protects from hail coming in sideways. These are fold-down guards attached/hinged to the stage 1 guards that will secure with a clip at the bottom of the door windows. I'm not entirely sure how I'm going to go about this, however. Stage 2 really needs to be deployable from inside, at least the driver's side one does. They will need to lie flat on top of the stage 1 guards when not deployed, then swing 270 degrees around to lock into place covering the windows.

I'm leaning on having stage 2 semi-permanently deployed on the rear side windows for when I'm chasing alone. They'd only need to be stowed if someone is riding in the back seat, which is almost never. I just need to figure out some mechanical way to deploy stage 2 for the front side windows from inside.

 

[Drew Terril]

Dan,

Is the roof rack an option on your car? If so, the frame under the roof would be a good place to tie in as that's where most roof racks tie in anyway.

 

[Dan Robinson]

I looked into installing a roof rack, but that will add at least another $300-$400 to the cost. There are cheaper options, but some also require drilling and don't appear to be built to hold something of this size.

 

[Todd Rector]

Roof racks *are* expensive, but I would think that would be offset by the versatility (?).

 

[Dan Robinson]

Roof racks *are* expensive, but I would think that would be offset by the versatility (?).

Yes, if I had any other use for one, that is. I don't carry skis, bikes or anything else. I've also read a few posts from owners saying they took a slight hit in MPG from having a permanent roof rack. I don't know if that's true or not, but it makes sense.

 

[Todd Rector]

Understandable, then (no roof rack). I have a roof rack on my car which makes for a great place to attach antennas (as long as you don't use antennas that require a ground plane, that is), but I am too chicken to drill holes in my roof (newer vehicle). I look forward to your reporting back how well it works for you this year!

 

[Dan Robinson]

OK, I've realized another issue: paint. I had originally planned to not go through the trouble and expense of painting this rig, but I now realize the thing is probably going to look quite ridiculous if it's not a flat black color. Not that I really care that much about appearances, as I'd rather be made fun of than pay thousands for multiple broken windows. I would like this to not look too garish, however. @Adam Lucio and others, what type of paint did you use? Did it hold up to the elements?

 

[Drew Terril]

Sorry for the lack of clarification. I meant to ask if that model had roof racks as a factory option. If so, the frame under the skin is already set up to tie into.

 

[Jarod Carlisle]

Dan I used a Rustoleum paint on mine, 1 yr in and paint still looks good and no rust.
One things I will add if you are thinking of using magnets at all, make sure to cover them with a thin felt to protect the paint on your vehicle.

 

[Drew Terril]

On the subject of paint, I sprayed my truck tool box with spray on bedliner. I'll know more at the end of the spring how well it holds up but I don't see any rust or chipping issues. I was having issues with the glare from the sun reflecting off the box and into my mirrors. No glare now. It made a huge difference.

 

[Dan Robinson]

Continuing on my binge posting today on hail guards - here is the more or less "final" design of my rig. After getting the materials and laying everything out, I've found some modifications I could make to simplify things. First of all, I discovered that the shelving panels are strong enough to act as secondary structural members. For this reason, I was able to remove all of the lateral box beam bracing members from the original design, saving some of the material. When the shelving panels are bolted to the main box beam rails, they provide sufficient lateral bracing to the rig. The original box beam cross braces now serve as supports for the side window guards. Here, I've shown the Stage 2 fold-down panels in partially-deployed positions. Their stowed positions will be directly on top of the Stage 1 guards' positions.

The only item left to design is how to lower the four Stage 2 guards from inside the vehicle. Again, I will have the rear two Stage 2s deployed full-time unless someone is riding in the back. Really, the Stage 2 panels just need something to pull/push upward for the first 91 degrees, then gravity does the rest. I could just attach a long bar to each panel that I can reach out and push upward. The single-window Stage 2 guard is light enough that my hand can easily just catch the falling guard before it slams into the door. Crude, yes - but it just needs to work, not be elegant. If I wanted to get fancy, I could use some sort of actuator/motor drive to push the guards up and over, then have some foam or rubber stopper that allows them to just slam into the doors without denting/scratching them. I'll only do that if I can do it cheaply.

I figure I don't need to design a system to re-stow the deployed Stage 2 guards. After a hail threat is over, I can just stop, roll down the window, push the guard up to open the door, get out, and manually re-stow it. Again, function is all I'm concerned about at this point. I can add "cool" motor drives and actuators later if I want to geek out/spend money on it to that point.