Antenna Bracket for 2007 Tahoe

 K5LAD – April 30, 2007

 

This is the top view of the bracket made for holding a mobile antenna (Little Tarheel) on my 2007Chevrolet Tahoe.  The bracket was constructed from the outside case from a Motorola mobile transceiver.  The steel used was 3/32” thick and very difficult to cut but, thanks to Grant – KD5AFS, he did a beautiful job.  The completed piece is 4 1/8” wide, 5 1/2” and has two bends to shape it like a capital Z.  The dimensions are not particularly critical and can be larger or somewhat smaller, depending on how high off the area of the fender and hood you’d like for your antenna to be.  To determine the sizes I wanted, I took a piece of cardboard and cut and bent it to look pretty good to me.

My Tahoe is dark blue so I looked around in the garage and found a can of fairly dark blue spray paint and let it go at that.  A purist would probably get a can of matching color paint but I’m no purist.  I did also find a spray can of primer and gave the metal a couple of coats of that to prepare it.  I also baked the primer-painted piece in my wife’s oven for a couple of hours.  I also discovered that, although the electronic thermostat setting shows that it goes to 100 degrees, it actually will only go as low as 170 degrees so that is the temperature I “cooked” it.

The metal piece was originally a black color with an apparently anodized coating on both sides and that coating was stuck to the bare metal mighty well.  I eventually brought the piece to bare metal by chucking a rotary wire brush up in my drill press.  Several of the pictures shown here show the black coating still on the original piece.  The coating grinding process was difficult as took me several sessions to do it completely.  When finished, the metal piece was totally bare and ready to receive the primer.

Also, I had determined where I wanted the holes in the piece and drilled them before I attempted to make the bends.

 

 

These two pictures were attempts I made on some scrap metal.  I scribed a mark where I wanted the bend and I wanted to see how large or small the radius of the bend would be since I needed the bend on the good metal piece to be correct the first time.  The scrap used was actually thinner than the good piece but I hoped it would give me a good idea and it did.

With the scribed line right above the jaw of the vice, the bend was OK for what I wanted and I thought this activity a valuable use of my time.

 

 

These two pictures show the actual piece of metal used with all holes drilled and one bend done.  You can see the anodized coating on this piece and you can see where I’ve wire-brushed the coating off of several places.  Also you’ll see a darker black area going across the piece.  That is black plastic tape and I used it to protect the finish on the Tahoe’s hood while I determined just how much to bend the metal.  I also placed another piece of plastic tape on the edge of the hood where it meets the metal piece.  When the bracket is just like I want it, I will remove the piece of hood tape but I plan to add the tape back on the bracket as a protection.  When the bracket is bent just the right amount, there is sufficient room between the fender and the hood without touching but a piece of tape permanently on the bracket will be cheap insurance in case something like a big bird hits the Little Tarheel antenna while I’m driving along a highway speeds.

 

 

 

These two pictures show a side view of the bracket after only the first bend.  This was while attempting to get the angle just right so that it did not touch with the hood closed.  You can also see the black plastic tape, which wraps completely around and protects on both sides.