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My son is a first responder working at many sporting events. As such, he often needs to carry a back board to events. He has been using his grandmother's Hyundai Santa Fe, but he's going to need to give that back soon. I would like install a roof rack onto his 73 Super Beetle, but I want to build something a bit more sturdy than the typical vintage style tubing and wood racks that are common on many Beetles. It's easy to find the basket piece but can someone please recommend cross bars that can lock on and support a decent amount of weight?

I'm thinking if I use 4 bars under a decent sized basket, he could carry the back board as well as his hefty gear bag on the roof and thus won't need to wrestle anything large into the interior.

H2OSB

Not quite sure I follow you. You're fabricating up the tubing to make a custom roof rack? You should be able to buy the hold down clamps for the mid-point on either side. If it's 1/2" OD thin-walled tubing that should be plenty sturdy enough. You can terminate the ends (mounting points) where the rack mounts on the car in a "T" with smaller tubing. A decent tubing bender that size shouldn't be too much.

Those back boards are 8 feet long or so ?? I'd suggest keeping the front mounting point and front cross tube in the same location as a regular roof rack (just a few inches behind the top of the windshield) but extend the rear mounting points to the rear edge of the rear window instead of the front edge of the rear window.

Basically, I've found many variations of sturdy baskets, but I need the bars that span the roof, locking preferred I can bolt the basket to. Perhaps a source for the clips?

I will get get a basket with an aerodynamic plate on the front, if for no other reason than to simply keep the bugs off the back board and gear. I'll figure out an attachment for the back board so it nestled up under the plate and extends out the back of the basket. But first I need the cross bars

The back boards are 6 feet long.

H2OSB

You should look into surfboard style racks. I used to carry surfboards, back board and the occasional basket on my racks. I was a lifeguard when my bug was my daily driver.


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Hey, good idea!

H2OSB

The clips are for sale on the ebays and thesamba. Another thought is you could tie into and extend the supports of the rear bumper (straight up), but there would need to be a quick release disconnect of some sort when you need to get in the decklid area.

Curious about what mount you will end up with.

I'll post pics when I get it done

H2OSB

Looking forward to the pics.