CherokeeChick

Good job your welds look awesome way better then mine!



Attachment 100647

RichW

Very nice job.

Gary Briggs

Got the rack on, lifted the front with ford thunderbird springs, got my 4.6l ford injectors in (awesome btw) next I will be installing S10 springs in the rear, not a bastard pack but the entire spring! A wee bit of fab work required!

auburn_XJ

How high will tbird spring lift?

Gary Briggs

I got a full 3" not using the isolator from the T Bird, this requires you to fab a plate to keep it centered on the factory isolator

auburn_XJ

Thank you sir

Gary Briggs

I actually think yours looks better cherokeechick, I prefer the looks of the smaller rack, but I'm trying to achieve a "do all" utility rack, and it's hard to strap a 12' 2x6 or a sheet of plywood to a smaller rack. So I had to make it huge by comparison, 50" by 72" is quite bigger than most DIY racks.

typicalsundayxj

the rack came out great man I would like to start one these soon i know you doo metal fab and welding on the reg but what would you recommened for welding this if i dont have access to tig welder? i do have access to a mig welder a really nice lincoln..also when you did the gutter mounts did you use something to hold the rack on the roof and then tack the gutter mounts to rack? i noticed on the cherokee the roof slopes to the front from the back just wondering if i can just tack them with the rack off the jeep? thanx in advanced...

Gary Briggs

Well it's very very thin, so I used the TIG and silica bronze rod to do a process similar to brazing, it's difficult to explain if have to show you to understand.

If I was to Mig weld it I would want to make sure the fit of my copes and saddles was as close to perfect as possible, even the slightest gap will be difficult to weld because the material will burn away! No inner shield wire, hard wire with gas, core wires burn to hot for this!

I don't have my rack mounted right now, but I copied a gutter mount I saw using a google search, I tacked all four mounts on then test fit and adjusted, then welded them out, the gutter mounts are the easy part.

typicalsundayxj

Ok awesome man thank you for the words of advice...Ohh and another thing what did you use for the inner piece where conduit was going to be a but weld?

Gary Briggs

Some tubing we had in a scrap rack, couldn't tell you what it was off hand, we have a lot of random scrap laying around from out dairy science programs, weird stuff you normally wouldn't see in a typical fab shop!

CherokeeOutlaw

Ha ha. I just finished mine with the jcr gutter mounts and it's 1.25x0.95 and 0.120 and it's gotta weigh....50+ easy.

CherokeeOutlaw

what i did was use two pieces of square tubing and centered them on both sides and moved the rack around on them then tacked the tabs on then i removed the tubes and checked for alignment, pulled the rack of and fully welded it. I wanted my tabs more vertical for easy removal and had to weld on extensions.

oh and a tip: cut strips of bike tubes and use it between the mounts and your jeep to protect the gutters and eliminate any movement or noise.

typicalsundayxj

Nice man those are some handy tips I appreciate it I got.plenty of old bike tubes around considering people decide that throwing glass bottles on the road and at the park is the thing to do around here lol thanx for the tips!

CherokeeOutlaw