pittman71

zrace

Hey, looks good to me...

Kerrdog

Hi All,
Been busy as Crap! I barely have time to do anything I want, much less enjoy! But here is where I am at...

After viewing weld-on brackets from so many different companies, and for so much ridiculous money, I made my own! There are 3/16 steel, welded to the front frame horns. I suppose they might add SOME strength?? I'm hopin...

The bumper will get brackets as well, and they will bolt up to the holes that are yet to be drilled. I hate drilling holes...

I will have my son inspect the welding job Thanksgiving weekend. He is the welder in the family!

Kerrdog

I hope everyone has had a good Thanksgiving. My family is awesome, and I am truly blessed. The Big Boys got home from UF, and Clay helped me with some important Jeep work. I had him start on preparations for welding in the rock sliders, but I just don't like how that was going to work out. Welding 3/16 steel to sheet metal is difficult and not really structural. So I'm rethinking the sliders.

We did proceed with the front bumper, and we have that tacked up. Here are some pics.

Clay has already welded a second 3/16 plate onto the frame horns. Here he is drilling mounting holes. He started with a small bit and worked up to 3/8s.



This is what it looks like, and the first set of holes is drilled.



From the front of the Jeep... the brackets will be welded to the bumper and bolt to the horns. 8 bolts to hold the bumper.



This is it tacked up, ready for final welding. This sure has taken awhile!

Kerrdog

This is a pic of the modified crossmember, which I did months ago and, I don't think, ever posted up a pic of the change from the original design.

And the prep we did getting ready to weld up sliders. The sliders are a head-scratcher! Gotta go back to some of ya'lls threads and see how you did it. At any rate, I'm going to have to close up the open rocker.

Kerrdog

Hi Everybody! Happy New Year! Doh...

Here is where I am with rockers.

After racking my brain (doesn't take much to create real problems!) this is what I came up with. Please check out the pics and give me your input. I've added text boxes to the pics with red arrows (because it makes me look waaaay more intelugint).

I WAS first going to use 16 GA steel, bent in the same fashion as the coming pics, welded up inside the rocker space so the angle was UP, then weld 3/16 to that also with the angle UP, thinking all of that combined would be structural enough to weld 2 X 4 X 3/16 rockers to. But I was worried a little about the weight of all that metal. And, of course, it all changed when I started to mess around with it. The metal was bent at the local shop, 2 pcs of 6' 16 GA, and 2 pcs of 6' 3/16, cost $40.00.

To recap... Fallon removing rusty rockers.



Hollow space after removing rockers.



Fallon hammering over the metal edge that was left after cutting off the rockers. I left this lip intentionally because I didn't know what I was doing. Now that I have a doubled lip I have more metal to weld to. So it worked out!




Here is the metal I had bent at the local metal shop. I had 2 pcs each of 16 GA and 3/16, both 6' long. I WAS going to weld in the 16 GA first, thinking it would be easy to weld to the thin body metal, then I was going to weld the 3/16 on top of that, thinking it would give me a really stout, thick edge to weld the 2X4X3/16 rockers to, but that's a lot of welding and a lot of weight.



Oh yeah... I picked this up for a trade! Lots to do here, too!



The rockers were SUPPOSED to go in with the angle UP, inside the open body cavity, giving a nice, squared-off space that would exactly fit the 2x4x3/16 rockers I had originally made. But once I got down there I found that the new rockers dang near fit exactly right the way you see it in the picture. And with the hammered-over edges I have a double thickness of factory 16 GA to weld to. So my plan now is to simply weld this 3/16 rocker right to the body.



Here is the problem...
Toward the front of the XJ the new metal is pretty much flush with the exterior of the Jeep.



Toward the back of the XJ there is an overhang, or lip, or reveal, whatever you want to call it.



You can see it better from underneath... Front.



Back



And if I make the new metal flush to the exterior of the body I end up with this gap underneath. I was thinking aesthetics are important, and I am wondering if you guys feel the same?? Could I weld a piece of 1" angle inside the whole length of the body cavity first, acting as a spacer to fill the gap, but also providing more meat to weld my new rocker to?? What do ya'll think?



Thanks for your input.

Kerrdog

Hmmm... Jeep Forum got hacked, and we have all lost our accounts. Hope they get everything settled. Can't log in.


Here are some pics of the headliner mock-up. I have lots to post up but no time right now. Just wanted to say "HI ALL"! Also, a Hossfeld tubing bender my son bought that I am trying to learn how to use. So far, I am manipulating tubing into shapes I can't use!

pittman71

Good job on the headliner. Show us more when you have time.