[lclark2074]

just keep the project going at a steady pace and the jeep will look good when you get it done

[LilViper95]

Sooooo, I spent about 5 hours in the garage today. Had a heck of a time trying to get the drivers side fender to match up with what I had made for the pass side! As much as I love the JD2 model 4 bender, I kinda wish I had a computer aided unit after spending nearly 3 hours tweaking the drivers side tube to match up!

I finished up with the tube welded to the jeep and the skin cut to fit. I sprayed it all down in weld through primer and decided to take a break from it for a while to spend some time with the family!

here are the few pics I snapped

skin and tube being mocked up



rear view of mock up...nothing welded yet



tube welded in place and sprayed in zinc primer



front view before skin



front view with skin sitting in place. not welded yet. I still have to fab the support bracket for this side.



another view from the front

[BIGHEEP]

I love the fenders. They are some of the best looking I have seen. Let me know when they hit production and I will drive up to get a set.

[LilViper95]

Got the drivers side fender pretty well finished up tonight. Started working on the stretch once again. I was then interrupted by having to install new shocks, rear sway bar links, and stabilizer shock on my sister in laws TJ so it can pass an inspection.

couple of pics







fitting the body stretch

[LilViper95]

Originally Posted by BIGHEEP

I love the fenders. They are some of the best looking I have seen. Let me know when they hit production and I will drive up to get a set.

Thanks! I'm not so sure I will ever go into mass producing them though! I have built a few sets of these now and this set by far is my favorite!

[LilViper95]

Got a little bit more done on the old girl.

Got the final fitment for the stretch piece all set, if I didnt have some other work to do to this piece I would have welded it on today! I still have to get the CJ tail gate mounted and I want to be able to do this while this piece is still separate, along with a few other things!





I also picked up the steel for the frame stretch! 3"x4" .25 wall square tube



I forgot to get good before pictures but the metal on the tailgate where the hinges mount was pretty rusty and needed some work.

this was after I actually cut the section out, on this side the bracket inside the tailgate that the screws go into was rotten away as well.



the other side, this bracket is salvageable I think



Cut a piece from the metal that I cut off my hood to make the patch from, used my metal brake to put a bend for the pinch seam



This is the patch piece about to be welded into the tailgate




fitted to tailgate



welded in place

[kyle_craig]

Very nice work on the tailgate patch. Looking forward to seeing another CJ tailgate on here.

[LilViper95]

Originally Posted by kyle_craig

Very nice work on the tailgate patch. Looking forward to seeing another CJ tailgate on here.

Thanks! Have some more metal work to do to the gate but its getting there! I have always wanted to swap a cj gate onto one of my jeeps! Now I gotta figure out how I am going to latch it!

[kyle_craig]

Originally Posted by LilViper95

Thanks! Have some more metal work to do to the gate but its getting there! I have always wanted to swap a cj gate onto one of my jeeps! Now I gotta figure out how I am going to latch it!

If you're going to run a soft top, the factory CJ latches work just fine! If you plan to run a hard top, well, that's a different story.

[LilViper95]

I will be running a soft top, not too worried about it locking. when I test fit to the jeep there is quite a gap between the latch and the body of the jeep!

[kyle_craig]

Originally Posted by LilViper95

I will be running a soft top, not too worried about it locking. when I test fit to the jeep there is quite a gap between the latch and the body of the jeep!

I had the same issue...I filled the gap with a 1" long, 1/4" thick chunk of steel attached to the tub on each side. It latches nice and snug now.

[LilViper95]

Thats kind of along the lines of what I figured I would have to do! Thanks

[kyle_craig]

No problem. Best of luck!

[LilViper95]

Well I didn't take hardly any pictures cause Im a dummy but I got some more work done on the Jeep this afternoon.

I got the patch completed for the other side of the tailgate. So aside from a little work to fix some dents the tailgate is pretty much done.

I also got the tailgate mounted to the body.

The first thing I did was to fit the tailgate to the tub with the hinges attached. I marked the tub with a sharpie to drill the holes to mount the hinges. And drilled them out.
Then I used the plasma cutter to cut a flap out of the underside of the tub up in behind where I would be mounting the hinges. I then built 2 support pieces that were 7" long and 3" tall out of some left over 3/16 scrap. I held these up in behind where they would be and marked the holes from the outside with a sharpie. I drilled these out.
Then I welded a nut on the back side of each support piece. gave them a quick shot of paint to minimize rust and mounted it all together.

I had predrilled a couple of holes outside of where the hinges would sit to tack the panel into place once it was all bolted up.

This is what I ended up with.



I also folded the flap back over on the back side and welded it back together. I still have to weld a tab in place inside the tub to make the tailgate latch securely.

I have a little bit of work to do on the body mounts on the back side of the tub and then it will be ready to be welded to the front part of the tub. I am hopeful that I will get that done this weekend!

[LilViper95]

had to run back to the garage so I snapped a couple more pics