Shouldn't be too bad at all. Might just take a little time. Here's what I'd do:
1) Mount them snugly.
2) Place a straight edge against the back of the rearmost mounting bolts. They are probably the most common feature, side to side.
3) measure off that back straightedge and mark where you want your tube centers to fall for your cross bars. Then measure back from the centerlines a distance equal to half your tube diameter. You'll use that line to put the edge of the tube on when preparing to tack it it up.
4) Measure the distance between your rear centerline marks, then the next pair forward, etc etc.
5) Mark lines on your cross tubes with the spacing measurements from 4, leaving a little material on each end.
6) use a hole saw equal to the diameter of those side rails to cut "birdsmouths" in your cross tubes, with the shallowest portion landing on the lines you marked in #5.
7) Grind the sharp points off the birdsmouths. You can grind them back quite a ways. You don't really need any portion of the tube to be cut thinner than the wall of the tube. 1/4 to 3/8" of final birdsmouth depth is good.
Sand the paint off of the original rails away to leave clean metal for welding.
9) With the rails mounted on your roof, cover every inch of your roof and windows and maybe your hood with cardboard. Tape between all the seams. You can also put a welding blanket under it. I sprayed cardboard down with water prior to welding when I did mine. Also seal the gaps between the rails and the cardboard with tape, down by the mounting feet.
10) use flat material and some clamps to keep the cross tubes centered with the side rails, center them lengthwise on the marks made earlier, and put a few tacks on each joint.
If your comfortable doing more welding up there when tacked, it might help to keep everything from warping. If not you can probably weld it up off the jeep and make it work. Maybe just weld 1/2 up the sides of each tube, and then take it off and weld the rest.
That's how I'd do it anyway.
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2005 KJ Renegade
Fabrications for sale:
Aluminum Roof Rack (See Page 9)Aluminum Gas Tank Skid --
Radiator Skid --
Front Strut ShimsComing Soon: Rear Bumpers with lots of options
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