haha because of the wire sticking out? I couldn't think of any other place to run the cable for my ipod lol. And the metal is 1 inch square tube with a 1/8 inch side wall

 

The outside (Minus The Lift) Looks just like my 97!

 

haha yeah it does, nice lookin jeep!

 

Thanks! same for yours!

P.S. Im sixteen too. O.O

 

Nice teenage build. I remember my junk when I was 16 lol

 

Classic 3" on 31s look that's good stuff man. Great looking rig I wish my carpet was that clean haha.

 

Nice build looks good. Just good for thought make sure you hop around to different areas when welding that or you will warp the whole thing. I'm going to be doing a axle swap after I finish my cage. So ill have some 4:10 gears if your interested? There in a dana 30 and a dana 35

 

haha thanks! ya gotta start somewhere eh?

thanks man. I love the 3" on 31s look. I think it's a good first set up for me too, and my jeep smells so much better now! haha it used to smell like dogs whenever it got hot outside

thank you! and thanks for the advice too, makes a lot of sense and I definitely think it helped. I have the chrysler 8.25 so i'm not sure if it would work? I don't know that I'm ready to regear yet either, it's not too bad with the 31s so far, so I'll probably just wait until I get bigger tires some day

 

Ya the 30 gears will only work for you. Just let me know when your ready

 

Here's more updates on my roof rack build... I also made a fab thread for it here: https://www.cherokeeforum.com/f58/my...-build-174728/

After I got the top frame welded up, I decided it was time to weld on my JCR gutter mounts. I have 3 for each side of the rack. I wasn't quite sure how to go about this because we have a trailer in our back yard where my welder is, and the only way to get a car back to the second garage is to move the trailer out...so after a few minutes of considering other options, that's what we did. My dad made me put new tar on the driveway to return the favor.







After the gutter mounts were on, I put on the 4 inch supports that make up the sides. I also put on the top at this time too. I really wanted to make sure the top fit just right, so I went a little overboard with the clamps...





And that's where I'm at right now. I've ground down almost all of the welds with the angle grinder, and I also test fit it on the jeep. I'm still not sure if I want to do the portion that goes around the lights, so I also cut out the shape/size of the lights I want and put it on the rack.









I have to work the next few days so it should give me time to decide if I want to do the prerunner style front end on it. Right now I think I'm going to do it though.

 

I think it would look awesome. The rack is a little bit high for the trails around me (lots of low branches that hit everything). Impressed! How do you like stick welding lol? I've got a 40 year old Lincoln 220V stick welder

 

haha yeah it is tall, but I think it should fit my needs pretty well. It'll mostly be for camping gear and hauling my stuff up to college next year. I actually really like stick welding! To be honest it came the easiest to me when I was learning, and it's way cheaper than a good mig set up. Mines probably the same lincoln 220v welder, but it sure works like a champ!

 

I'm probably going to go play with mine in a little bit ha. It looks good no doubt though man. Stick is way cheaper the MIG which is what im looking for now, I just hate the slag and its harder to make a pretty weld.

 

I remember stick welding well at my school it's Arc Welding but I remember I had that Sophomore year and that stick would get stuck to the metal sometimes, I hated that!

 

haha yes that sucks! One time when I had just finished welding at school the stick fell out of the stinger and burned a hole right through my pants