It's not *really* necessary however it's the best from an installation perspective. You could go with Rivets or just paint them with krylon white after installation. Also you can spot weld or plug weld them very easily.
-----Original Message-----
From: Denis Sent: Mar 8, 2009 10:10 PM
To: tcb@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [tcb] Welding the Safari brackets.
Every Safari maker insists that you must weld on the
brackets. I wanted to powder coat the brackets, but welding will ruin that, and
if I just want to paint them I have to weld them in place and then paint them. A
pain in my tucas. Do I really really need to weld
them?