My car has permanently mounted roof rails, and recently miles from home i was offered a item that i couldn't refuse, but of course my roof rack was at home..

So we made one... for a couple of bucks..

What you need;

>Car with permanently mounted roof rails (picture 1)

>Two boards - wide enough to span your roof rails with 2-4 inch's extra on each side x 1 inch thick.
>padding material - we used a roll of hessian tape - carpet would work
> Four U bolts, with nuts, washers - dimensions;
-wide enough to fit around your roof bars
- tool enough to pass through the boards and around your roof bars
>pencil
>square
>ruler
>drill
>drill bit just bigger then u bolt thread
(picture 2)

Step 1: Step 1

>Place the boards over your roof rails - at the distance you require.
>Take your first bolt, remove the nuts and washers and pass it under the roof rail in front of the board.
>Use the square to draw to parallel lines across the board for both threads of the U bolt.( picture 3.1)
>Then from the end of the board, use the square to draw on line to intersect at 90 degrees (best halve the width)(picture 3.2)

Repeat for each U bolt - then drill the holes.

Step 2: Padding the Rails

picture 4)
>In our case we wrapped the rails at the location the board was to sit with hessian tape - not to thick so you don't use up to much of the U bolts height.

>Place the boards over the top of the padding
>Pass the U bolts around the rails, and up through the boards
>Pop on the washers and tighten the nuts.
(Picture 5)

> hey presto a quick and dirty roof rack.
(picture 6 & 6.1)

Its a good idea to stop and tighten the nuts every now and again - i guess spring washers or fibre locks might fix this...