Ralph77

So a PM from a fellow forum member prompted me to start this thread. Which I was going to do at some point anyway.
He saw a post where I put one in my '00 that did not come with one. I had mentioned that I had 2 and was curious about seeing if I wanted to sell it.
Now remember '97 and up is the cheesy tarp and not the retractable one like '96 and down have.
Now my '00 is the Camel interior. Which technically means that if it came with one the cover would be Camel too.
Not really thrilled with the lighter color. Seeing how it is something that can get dirty pretty easy.
The other one I had was a light gray. I am assuming that it came from a '97 or '98 which would have the Mist Gray interior as opposed to '99 and up which is Agate.
But I can't be sure on that.
So One of my dumb ideas was to see if the light gray one could be dyed black. There is also Fabric and Vinyl paint but no idea if that stuff is any good.
So Googling dyeing fabric it appears that dyeing man made fabrics is more involved. I am guessing that the cover is some sort of polyester.
Something a professional would do a better job with.
So I contacted a dry cleaner in my town to see if this is something they would do or knew somebody who did. They did not.
Said because of EPA stuff that not many people do it even though I would be willing to bet that you could find somebody somewhere.
But then they suggested having one made. So I brought them the gray one to use as a guide for a quote.
Told them it had to be close. That I would supply all the fabric, webbing, and hooks.
I was quoted $45 for this. Which did not seem overly unreasonable to me. No idea what the cost of the fabric, webbing, and hooks would run though. But figure Joanne Fabrics would be a good place to buy this stuff plus they always have 20% off coupons.
Now I know that most people don't care about this. But figure a few might hence the write up.
So a couple things you should know about this.
They come in 2 sizes. One for a space saver spare and one for a full size spare.
The tire cover that comes with this set up had 2 D-Rings for securing it on that side. You would need the tie downs for the Passenger side.
Now my Jeep for some reason has 4 tie downs on the plastic panels on both sides. See the first shot. I bought some additional webbing, hooks, D-Rings, and the little tabs which keep the webbing from moving which you can see in the second shot with the tire cover with the D-Rings on it that I did not use.
Then just a couple shots of the Camel cover, full size spare one, and the gray one that I am almost positive is a space saver spare one.
I am going post some measurements so anybody who might want to do this can shortly.





Now since I had put in the Camel one in my Jeep I have scored a retractable one from a boneyard shipped to me for $70. Not sure if I over payed but I wanted it. I did get the cover, the 4 plastic mounting points, and the screws. What I did not get are 2 metal supports that go behind the interior plastic, for support I guess, for the 2 rear mounting points behind the seat.
Now this is a light gray one. One of the reasons I wanted it was cause I have never seen one up close and personal. I was curious about how it was put together.
It almost looks like I could take it apart, replace the gray vinyl with some black vinyl, paint the plastic pieces black, and possibly install this in the Jeep.
This will work with my interior scheme cause a Camel interior is 2 tone and I have those black seat covers to hide my not in so great condition seats.
So my first thing is to mock this up. There is limited space between the back seat and the spare. Not really sure that this will fit in there. But seeing how '96 and down Jeeps came with this don't see why it shouldn't.
So this is something I will not be doing immediately but I will post as I do things.
The measurements for the tarps I will post soon.

zeke1883

So did you ever figure out the dimensions on this? I realize this thread is like 4 years old, but I have been trying to find something like this for my 98 xj.
Thanks

Ralph77

No I never had the one made and bailed on the idea of putting a retractable '96 and down one in my '00.

textblaster5

I have been looking all over the place online, and this is the only thread where I have seen this unicorn tarp cover. Do you still have these kicking around collecting dust somewhere? Maybe I could pick up where you left off and use 'em as a template/pattern for others to fabricate their own.

Azrodeo

I Scored one at Pull-a-part

Fabian Gonzalez

Our XJ came with this from the factory, it's a 99 Limited, I know this as i'm the original owner. Now that said.. I'm looking to replace one of my clips that my cover connects to on the side carpet. Anyone know where i might find one of these clips? I'm searching. It's one of the clips that's mentioned in this original post.