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Surface bondo, sanding and prep is (99%) finished. Flange put together and with a radiused bondo edge for the fiberglass mold of the camper. Put a lot of time in these end stages, but the precise outcome will be worth it.

Wow. Working in a garage is way nicer.

Just released a quick vlog style video on the soft top for the youtube crowd. I'll likely perfect the design down the road and build it into the camper top system.

Put together the soft top real quick in case we get some rain anytime soon. Work slowed on the top, taking extensive time in the bondo stage to ensure all is even and the profile I want. Almost a gallon of putty in, so the profile will be a good bit smoothed out and a little different from the...

The Cherokee is a great platform. I have a 2000 I’ve put quite a bit into, I have a build thread on most work I do here on the forum as well. As noted $2000 could be steep depending on the rust level. Check floor pans, etc from underneath. I got mine for $3000 bone stock with the 8.25 rear...

Put out a video on the header install. Goal is to start pushing the Jeep build more regularly on that platform. Be sure to subscribe for the in depth pop-top video I’ve been working on. Of course, I’ll post here too when that series is live. In other news I picked up an oiled 30 gallon kobalt...

Getting back to the camper top plug & mold. Measured out the rain gutters within a 1/16” tolerance and built up a frame out of 2x3 to hold it in these exact dimensions. Open-ended fiberglass profiles like to flop. The makeshift sawhorses were far too wobbly at this point so reinforcement came...

Weld cracked through on the exhaust manifold. Summit is supposed to warranty it and applied the credit towards a new Gibson header. Didn’t want to buy Chinese twice and welds look much better on the Gibson. Works well with the high flow magnaflow catalytic and flow master. Picked up the...

More Sanding. Bondo. Sanding. Working all the areas even and a little different shape to a few portions.

May have changed my mind on the direction of the fiberglass build, we will see. My current thoughts would require more prep and as such I sanded down the full assembly. Side note: the rear plug profile was intentionally built to be easily removable and adjustable. Came off in a matter of 4...

Taking a couple days of finer sanding work to finesse the shape and think it over to make sure I’m happy with the profile. I’m at the point of starting other projects as a break from my current projects... wrenched on the bike a bit today and tore it down to do some pre-season work. Good to...

.031” music wire from the specialty hardware shop in town (Marshall’s) held up much better with the two-battery Hotwire. Blind chopping didn’t go so well and began to burn into the “stringer” wooden structures. Went back with a coarse file and dug down so I could see it follow the wood...

Built a couple mock up Hotwire cutters. PVC and lightweight steel tubing build warped too much to hold wire tension. Not going to use any of my good steel material in the garage... Follow (Instagram) --> @craftsmancollaborative Subscribe (Youtube) --> @craftsmancollaborative 2x3 worked well...

Foam structure is done and rough cut made. Figuring out a way to trim it (likely hotwire) tomorrow. Full Details Here! Follow (Instagram) --> @craftsmancollaborative Subscribe (Youtube) --> @craftsmancollaborative

Poured the first batch of foam over the structure last night. Underestimated the amount of foam and ran out. To be continued... Full Details: Homemade Camper - Poptop Builder Series Ep. 1

Cleaned and stripped the inner pop top shell. Spent some time on the skeleton for the foam plug that the fiberglass mold will go off of. It would be quicker to just pull the profile from the front lip and have a symmetrical top... but I want a little different shape to it which this will...

Got around to putting some fresh tires on the front. Now have the old one as a matching spare.

Interesting and clean design. I’d seen the GFC renderings around but this is the first other I’ve seen. Very similar in design style as far as the form of it goes.

Finally convinced myself to take it into ORW. Nothing more than a toe set on the alignment. I’ve done Caster myself and run 6.0* at the moment with no noticeable issues. Camber, on a straight axle of course, has no immediate adjustment necessary.