I had a hankering to be little more festive this year, and I happened to have an Old Lada Niva that was just about the right color of rusty red that I think fits the Ol' Cva Nikolai, so I decided that adding some christmas decorations would be a fun way to spend a weekend.

In order to tie the tree to the roof, I needed either some sort of roof rack, or some sort of tie off points. I didn't want to go through the windows as I needed to be able to exit and enter the vehicle without untying everything. So I designed some clamps to grab onto the gutter rail.

I initially designed a more complex clamp, but I simplified it into a simple C-style clamp. Do up the bolt, and it pinches the rail. The clamp is fairly simple: 3 bends and 2 holes, But it does what it's supposed to, and it doesn't fall off.

Would it be good for heavy loads? I doubt it, but it's good enough to a tree :)

YT build video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hn66nxQA9Ug