I've been throwing around some ideas for a spare tire carrier since I've completed the chop top. First I was going to make one that would slide into my trailer hitch, but I think having the spare tire behind me like that would make it look like I'm trying to make my jeep look like a hummer. NOT THE CASE. I still want to make a roll cage for the bed of my jeep, so I thought about ways to incorporate the tire carrier into the cage. Here's my idea. ..

Do y'all think the liftgate struts will lift a 31" tire?

 

I like your idea

 

Hopefully 2 liftgate struts will hold up an inflated 31" tire on a steel wheel. I've held both a fiberglass and a steel liftgate and they're both pretty darn heavy so I'm thinking it'll work out fine.

 

Oh yeah, I wasn't able to post any pics of my jeep when I first got it because my laptop crashed, but I was able to recover some pics off a flash drive.

This was right after I got it.

This was after I removed the flares, cut the fenders, and painted around the fenders and lower doors/rockers. I also got some canyon wheels from a guy that took them off his TJ and put some new 31" wild tracs on them.

 

Real clean chop! Ill be doing mine eventually. Wanna practice welding first lol

 

Thanks. This was kind of my way of practicing.

 

I've been feeling lazy lately so I haven't done too much to this thing, but I had enough motivation to paint. I removed my flares, cleaned them, and resprayed them with some satin black. I cleaned, sanded, and bedlined my quarter panels. I also sanded off all the fiberglass resin off my rear bumper and painted it to match the flares. I wanted to do my front bumper, but I ran out of time. I also took off my roof rack and went back over the white bedliner with semi-gloss white rustoleum (brushed on). I did that originally, but after I chopped it and bedlined the back of it, the colors didn't quite match.... Now they do. I want to add a little more black to the tailgate area, but I'm going to wait until the tailgate is functional before I decide what exactly I'm going to do. The paint scheme kind of reminds me of a Honda Element, but cooler.

 

amazing build. i think a front clip swap to the 97-01 would look great on it, and if you painted the roof blue to match it would look cleaner. but it looks awesome as it is

 

Thanks! I thought about doing a front clip swap for a while, but I think I'm going to do something custom to the front instead. Thinking about an aluminum grill. I would have done a blue roof from the beginning, but I rattle canned the blue and the cans don't spray right horizontally. I'm thinking about some chrome trim to separate the white from the blue. Then I'd have to get chrome wheels...
Did you here that? My wallet just sighed..

 

haa thats cool as hell clever thinking!!

 

Just ordered some 1.75" spacers from Rustys. I want to pick up the front end so water doesn't sit in my bed so much. Maybe I'll see them by Christmas.

 

nice xj

 

I'm working on another sketch of the 4 point cage I want to install in the bed of my jeep. Due to the angle of my c-pillar, it's difficult to design a cage that is stuctural and matches angles/body lines. I think its going to not only be a 4 point cage with a liftable/removable spare tire mount on the diagonal support bars, but it's going to tie into the factory roof rack mounting holes. Sounds crazy I know, but it's about the only thing I can think of without doing a complete exo skeleton (which may happen in the future).

 

Oh yeah, and the whole cage itself will be removable.

 

awesome build, I love it