[MountainMan864]

Friggin sweet. The final product will be steel right and not fiberglass? Cant see fiberglass holding up in an accident. I wont be buying it if its fiberglass.

[jscherb]

Originally Posted by MountainMan864

Friggin sweet.

Thanks!

Originally Posted by MountainMan864

The final product will be steel right and not fiberglass? Cant see fiberglass holding up in an accident. I wont be buying it if its fiberglass.

If these were to be produced in steel you probably wouldn't be buying it either - the cost of the custom panel stamping dies for steel amortized over the life of a limited-production item like this would make the per-unit kit cost prohibitively expensive.

I have designed this kit so it can be economically produced in fiberglass, and there's no technical reason the parts couldn't be manufactured to sell for the same prices as the fiberglass replacement hoods and fenders that have been on the market for years.

I said yesterday, if a company or person wants to bring it to market I'd be happy to discuss it with them. I personally have no plans to market this kit myself, I only build this stuff as a hobby, not as a business.

[Bobs85Reny]

And an LJ Safari Cab version:

[/QUOTE]

Looks Great! But I really want your half cab!

[jscherb]

Originally Posted by Bobs85Reny

Looks Great! But I really want your half cab!

Several prototypes have been built to date... hopefully Gr8Tops will get them on the market soon...

[jscherb]

In between doing the bodywork and priming of the custom cowl panel, I'm going to address the hood hinges.

The factory TJ hinges have a step on the body side to raise the hood side high enough to match the raised area in the center of the hood, this is because the tub side of the hinge is hidden beneath the cowl panel:



Since I'll be eliminating the raised section in the center of the hood and I plan to use CJ hood hinges, I need to make some spacers so the CJ hinges can sit at the right height. These spacers aren't necessarily the final thickness, I'll adjust that when I start fitting the custom hood and cowl panels to the tub.



And here's a CJ hinge installed (I've temporarily put an extra small spacer made of the same thickness fiberglass as the new cowl panel to simulate the height of that panel):



The TJ and CJ hinge spacing isn't the same but I have a design for a hinge relocation block that will enable the CJ hinges to be installed at the same spacing on the TJ tub as they are on the CJ tub, but I need to wait until I fit up the custom cowl and hood to determine the exact thickness necessary for the relocation block, so initially I'll just bolt the hinges in place at the TJ hinge spacing.

[Fingers302]

Originally Posted by MountainMan864

Cant see fiberglass holding up in an accident. I wont be buying it if its fiberglass.

Metal body parts wont hold up in an accident either.

[mrblaine]

Originally Posted by jscherb

In between doing the bodywork and priming of the custom cowl panel, I'm going to address the hood hinges.

The factory TJ hinges have a step on the body side to raise the hood side high enough to match the raised area in the center of the hood, this is because the tub side of the hinge is hidden beneath the cowl panel:



Since I'll be eliminating the raised section in the center of the hood and I plan to use CJ hood hinges, I need to make some spacers so the CJ hinges can sit at the right height. These spacers aren't necessarily the final thickness, I'll adjust that when I start fitting the custom hood and cowl panels to the tub.



And here's a CJ hinge installed (I've temporarily put an extra small spacer made of the same thickness fiberglass as the new cowl panel to simulate the height of that panel):



The TJ and CJ hinge spacing isn't the same but I have a design for a hinge relocation block that will enable the CJ hinges to be installed at the same spacing on the TJ tub as they are on the CJ tub, but I need to wait until I fit up the custom cowl and hood to determine the exact thickness necessary for the relocation block, so initially I'll just bolt the hinges in place at the TJ hinge spacing.

I suspect you know already, but the TJ hinges have shims under them of various thickness and number to line the back edge of the hood with the cowl.

[Mallanaga]

Scherb! Your work is amazing! I'm thoroughly enjoying this technical build

Quick comment for you. You mentioned that you were going to put a highline on the new hood. Im thinking you do a bit of both... What if you started the highline near the body, to match up with that, but by half way of so, the line smoothed out? I have that image in my mind, and it's pure hotness

Keep up the good work!

[jscherb]

Originally Posted by mrblaine

I suspect you know already, but the TJ hinges have shims under them of various thickness and number to line the back edge of the hood with the cowl.

Yes I do know that, thanks. I'll size the hinge relocation block slightly under, so the factory shims could be used to adjust it up if necessary.

Here's how the hinge mounting will work without drilling any new holes in the TJ tub. I'll make a steel block that gets bolted to the tub using flathead Allen screws, this will bolt into the TJ's factory hinge bolt holes. This block will have threaded holes for the new hinges that will be offset the proper amount to put the hinges at the proper CJ spacing.

This drawing shows the basic idea; I won't do the dimensions until I have both the custom hood and cowl fitted so I can measure the exact thickness necessary, but according to my pre-build design measurements it's about 1/2", which is enough for the necessary threaded holes.

[jscherb]

Originally Posted by Mallanaga

Scherb! Your work is amazing! I'm thoroughly enjoying this technical build

I thought I'd better overemphasize that in the first post because the first time I tried to start this thread the moderators moved it out of the Wrangler Technical area into the Wrangler General Discussion area. I think someone complained that in the first day of the thread it didn't seem technical. Hey, if this thread isn't getting technical enough tell me what else you want to know and I'll try to post it .

Originally Posted by Mallanaga

Quick comment for you. You mentioned that you were going to put a highline on the new hood. Im thinking you do a bit of both... What if you started the highline near the body, to match up with that, but by half way of so, the line smoothed out? I have that image in my mind, and it's pure hotness

I'm not sure I understand what you're saying - normally the bottom of the hood/top of the fender line is parallel to the ground, even with highlines, are you saying the line would start at the normal height by the tub and then rise as it went towards the front of the Jeep?

[Cuder]

Originally Posted by Fingers302

Metal body parts wont hold up in an accident either.

Metal parts also rust. Great job jscherb!!!!!

[Mallanaga]

Originally Posted by jscherb

I thought I'd better overemphasize that in the first post because the first time I tried to start this thread the moderators moved it out of the Wrangler Technical area into the Wrangler General Discussion area. I think someone complained that in the first day of the thread it didn't seem technical. Hey, if this thread isn't getting technical enough tell me what else you want to know and I'll try to post it .


I'm not sure I understand what you're saying - normally the bottom of the hood/top of the fender line is parallel to the ground, even with highlines, are you saying the line would start at the normal height by the tub and then rise as it went towards the front of the Jeep?

It's plenty technical! The emphasis was on the fact that it ever got moved in the first place You're good

As for the line... it wouldn't move up or down. It would fade away. So the highline is sort of like a ridge, that runs the length of the hood. I'm saying you start with the highline, then as it gets closer towards the middle of the hood, you start to 'pound' it flat, so it finishes smooth.

Essentially, it would look like a TJ hood on the side at first, towards the TJ body, and a CJ hood towards the CJ grill.

[jscherb]

Originally Posted by Mallanaga

As for the line... it wouldn't move up or down. It would fade away. So the highline is sort of like a ridge, that runs the length of the hood. I'm saying you start with the highline, then as it gets closer towards the middle of the hood, you start to 'pound' it flat, so it finishes smooth.

Essentially, it would look like a TJ hood on the side at first, towards the TJ body, and a CJ hood towards the CJ grill.

When I post photos of the custom hood I'm building, take a look at those, and then tell me how what I build would change to be what you're suggesting. It must be my day to be dense because I'm still not seeing it. Sometime next week I expect to post photos of the completed hood, so check it out and let me know.

[Mallanaga]

No worries, I'll stay tuned!

[jscherb]

One last thing needs to be done before I can install the new cowl panel...

Early in the thread I said I was designing this kit to be a bolt-on, meaning no non-reversible modifications would be necessary to the TJ to install the kit. That's still true - there are a few tiny mods that need to be made to the TJ, but they are easily reversible. Here's one.

The center of the factory TJ cowl panel is secured with a sheet metal screw through the cowl vent, and it screws into a small bracket in the center of the cowl cavity, seen in the center of this photo. I've also got a short section of a CJ hood bolted on place, this piece will be used as part of the custom hood I'll build, but for now it's showing me that the bracket is too high:



Since the new cowl panel doesn't have a raised center section, this bracket will be too high. The bracket is welded to the tub with two spot welds, so the fix is to drill out the spot welds so the bracket can be repositioned.



And no, I didn't drill the holes out of line, that's where the factory put the spot welds - complain to the factory about the welds being uneven .

The bracket bolts right back on in the stock location using bolts in the holes made by drilling out the spot welds, so that's is how this mod is reversible to put the TJ back to stock:



If the kit is ever going to be removed to turn the TJ back to stock, the bracket can be moved back to its stock location.

Now the tub is ready for the custom cowl panel to be installed.