crux

With storage space at a premium in the Jeep that spare looks really out of place. A rear bumper with tire swing out would really be nice, but with having to drop health insurance buying groceries it is really not a consideration. With a background in aerospace and composites figured there could be a happy medium.

Found some carbon/kevlar weave and some plywood in the garage. Made a custom attachment for the dremel cutting plywood in any diameter along with setting the depth removing material only where needed. Once each was trimmed and shaped on with test fitting. Both fit right in the rim with zero play. Drilled a mounting hole as per OEM rim specs and mounting in the back of the jeep for a test fit. Now the fun part laying in the Carbon / Kevlar. Lined the rim with foil so the composite would not bond to the rim. Laid in 3 layers which is plenty strong for me to stand on and not flex once set. Smoothed out the edges right quick , sprayed in some truck bed liner and applied a quick stain to the wood. Results hopefully are attached via photos. Carrying a warm blanket from last camping trip and the .22 there keeping it up and away from the kids.

Hope that working with composites counts as fabrication on this forum or we are going to have a whole bunch of aerospace engineers confused what they have been doing all these years.

DirtRoadXJ

Cool man. any storage mods are a win in my book.

ProudXjOwner

So true!!