Barn Door for JK factory hardtops

[CanyonTravelers]

Good info; in my situation I will be storing the 12v fridge in the bed of my RAM 1500, under a Diamondback bed cover. The concern I have is when traveling or stored in the bed in the warm summers how efficiently will the fridge run? The bed compartment will be warm worried about airflow through the fridge.

How is every one running the fridge when parked with out AC? Are you using dual batteries or a goal zero and how long is the AUX power lasting?

 

[jscherb]

Good info; in my situation I will be storing the 12v fridge in the bed of my RAM 1500, under a Diamondback bed cover. The concern I have is when traveling or stored in the bed in the warm summers how efficiently will the fridge run? The bed compartment will be warm worried about airflow through the fridge.

How is every one running the fridge when parked with out AC? Are you using dual batteries or a goal zero and how long is the AUX power lasting?

I run a separate battery for the kitchen. It's mounted above the inner fender in the cargo area of the Jeep, although that probably doesn't apply to your truck. It's an ordinary battery and it runs the fridge about 3 days on a full charge. I've got it wired so when the Jeep is running the battery is charged by the Jeep and the Jeep powers the fridge, and when the Jeep isn't running the kitchen/fridge is powered only from the kitchen battery.

I don't usually leave the Jeep closed up in the hot sun for long periods of time so I can't speak to how well it would stay cool in that situation. In overlanding/camping, the windows are often open and/or the Jeep is parked for camping and opened up so it doesn't get very hot inside the Jeep.

I've got a power panel with 2 outlets - one for the fridge and one for the sink pump. It also has two USB outlets. It also has a volt meter and an ammeter so I can monitor the battery condition, in the photo below it's showing 13.7 volts because the Jeep is running and charging the battery; the ammeter is showing zero amps because the kitchen/fridge wasn't in the Jeep when this photo was taken and nothing was plugged into the panel and drawing power.

 

[jscherb]

After a delay due to making a trip to Utah for Easter Jeep Safari and some other commitments, I'm back to work on the JL Grille for the JK project. I had one more detail to add to the master part before making the mold, so that's done and I'm now in the process of final finishing and perfecting the surface before making the mold.

The detail I added is inserts in the headlight buckets. I had already done the inserts in the grille slots, but since every JL I've seen so far also has inserts around the headlights, I wanted to add them too. I did them this morning so here are a few photos of the current state of progress with the headlight inserts.

The next step is high-build primer to perfect the surface, followed by a 2k clear coat.

I should be making the mold early in the week and if all goes well the first grilles will be coming out of the mold by the end of the week.

 

[jscherb]

A few more photos, now shot with high build primer.

 

[en480c4]

Great work Jeff. It's amazing how much better the proportions are on this versus the stock JK grill. All I can see when I look at my Jeep is the awkward area at the top of the grill where the Jeep logo is, and how 'right' it looks with with the taller slots on your mold master.

 

[jscherb]

Great work Jeff. It's amazing how much better the proportions are on this versus the stock JK grill. All I can see when I look at my Jeep is the awkward area at the top of the grill where the Jeep logo is, and how 'right' it looks with with the taller slots on your mold master.

Thanks. I definitely like the JL grille is much better than the JK grille, I'm looking forward to updating the look of my Jeep with the new grille.

If things go according to plan I'll be making the mold on Wednesday and molding the first grille in that mold on Friday so that first grille will come out of the mold on Saturday.

 

[jscherb]

To better stow the various Trail Kitchen options in the Jeep I made a few storage bags. Left to right - the stainless sink panel overlay, the sink option and the small extension table (the other tabletops are hinged to the kitchen, only this one is separate).

To stow the Trail Kitchen, the sink gets removed, it's easy because the sink just sits in a cutout in the tabletop. The water supply hose stays attached to the faucet and gets disconnected near the pump with a quick connect fitting and the drain hose just unscrews from the bottom of the drain (it's a garden hose fitting). The sink option parts in the storage bag in the photos include of the sink with drain, the faucet with water supply hose and the drain hose, all of which fit very nicely in the bag. The sink top cutting board fits in the bag as well. Several other parts of the sink option stay installed in the kitchen, such as the pump, so those don't go in the bag.

 

[jscherb]

This morning I did the final sanding of the high build primer and then shot the JL-JK grille master with 2k clear coat for a smooth gloss finish to make the mold from. Normally you'd shoot a base color coat over the high build and before the clear but since this is a mold master and since there's no need for it to be a particular color I skipped the color step and shot the clear right over the high build primer.

I'll let the clear cure for a day and then I'll prep the master for molding with wax and PVA mold release. I'll do the fiberglass work to make the mold on Wednesday.

 

[jscherb]

A few more.

 

[oldnslow]

To better stow the various Trail Kitchen options in the Jeep I made a few storage bags. Left to right - the stainless sink panel overlay, the sink option and the small extension table (the other tabletops are hinged to the kitchen, only this one is separate).

To stow the Trail Kitchen, the sink gets removed, it's easy because the sink just sits in a cutout in the tabletop. The water supply hose stays attached to the faucet and gets disconnected near the pump with a quick connect fitting and the drain hose just unscrews from the bottom of the drain (it's a garden hose fitting). The sink option parts in the storage bag in the photos include of the sink with drain, the faucet with water supply hose and the drain hose, all of which fit very nicely in the bag. The sink top cutting board fits in the bag as well. Several other parts of the sink option stay installed in the kitchen, such as the pump, so those don't go in the bag.

Just a suggestion - make another bag to hold the faucet and drain hose that then fits inside the sink when it goes into its bag. That way everything for the sink is in one place.

 

[jscherb]

Just a suggestion - make another bag to hold the faucet and drain hose that then fits inside the sink when it goes into its bag. That way everything for the sink is in one place.

I probably didn't explain it well - it all is in one place. The faucet and drain hose go in the sink and then the sink goes in the bag. All the sink parts (including the cutting board) is in the same one bag.

 

[jgaz]

Beautiful work on the mold master!

 

[jscherb]

Beautiful work on the mold master!

Thanks! It's definitely a "pay me now or pay me later" kind of a job - every flaw in the master will be faithfully reproduced in the mold, and every flaw in the mold will be faithfully reproduced in the parts made in that mold, so it pays to perfect the master, especially if you expect to make multiple items in the mold - if 10 grilles were made then whatever flaws I left in the master would have to be fixed 10 times, once for each part out of the mold. I don't know how many I'll make, but if it's more than one the work on the master pays off.

 

[jscherb]

The original reason I designed the overhead/swing-down Molle panel was for a place to store water for the Trail Kitchen sink without taking up otherwise usable space. Since I built two pverhead panel prototypes and installed them in my Jeeps I've been using them for all kinds of gear but to get back to the sink water source idea I borrowed a second 2-gallon Rotopax to test a pair of them on the panel.

In the photo below right the panel is up in the stowed position.

One way to use the panel is to store two spare water containers above in addition to the one on the side of the kitchen as shown below, which would provide for 6 gallons of sink water (using 2-gallon Rotopax containers).

Or I could run the sink water source hose up to the panel and use the containers from there, removing the container from the side of the kitchen which would free up the space on the side of the kitchen for other gear. If the water was to be drawn from the overhead panel, a 4-gallon Rotopax up there might be more efficient than two separate containers; a 4-gallon is the same size as a pair of 2-gallon containers linked together as in the first photo in this post.

I don't have a 4-gallon Rotopax, so maybe I'll experiment drawing water from a 5-gallon Rubican stored overhead, I do have one of those.

 

[jscherb]

JL-JK Grille project update: I've prepped the master for moldmaking with wax and PVA mold release (that's why it's a bit green in the photo below). It's ready for me to do the fiberglass work to make the mold tomorrow.