Barn Door for JK factory hardtops

[jscherb]

Yesterday I molded another JL-Style Grille for the JK and this morning I popped it out of the mold. This one I made to send to a plastic molding company, they'll be using it to make a mold for putting the grille in production. I did this for a startup company that wants to make this grille their first product.

Normally I don't mold the bottom of the headlight buckets or the inside of the slots, but for the plastic molding company's use in making a mold they would like them filled in so I molded everything.

Five of these grilles in my garage this morning - the first one in the background on my JKU; one on my son's 2dr in the foreground, and three on the table.

I shipped the newly molded grille to the plastic molding company this morning so they can get started making the production mold.

 

[jscherb]

I picked up a JL tailgate the other day for some design ideas I want to try out.

One is to do a JL version of the HD Molle Tailgate Panel I did for the JK, here's a design sketch...

I also have some tailgate table ideas that I don't think have been tried before so I plan to implement these ideas in a table for both the JL and the JK. Here's a work--in-progress shot, first step is to make table base plates for both tailgates.

 

[Presto88]

For some reason, your pictures aren't showing up anymore.

 

[Jurfie]

For some reason, your pictures aren't showing up anymore.

They work for me.

 

[Presto88]

Hey! Now they are working for me too!

They didn't show up in the post yesterday and I just figured that Jeff must have forgotten to attach them, but when the post this morning didn't have a pictures I thought I should say something. Now they're there. Weird.

Never mind.

 

[jscherb]

Hey! Now they are working for me too!

They didn't show up in the post yesterday and I just figured that Jeff must have forgotten to attach them, but when the post this morning didn't have a pictures I thought I should say something. Now they're there. Weird.

Never mind.

I've noticed that over the past few days photos sometimes don't show up. Must be a technical problem with Photobucket (again).

 

[jscherb]

An unexpected trip overseas has kept me away from projects for the past few weeks, but I'm back now and working on a few ideas.

The JK HD door hinges I designed a year or so ago came on the market a few months back; hinge-mount steps will be released any day now and soon after that a hinge-mount HiLift carrier will be available. I'm now trying to decide if I turn any other hinge-mount designs over to the companies that are doing the hinges and related products.

Back when I was working on the original HD hinge design I designed and tested several other hinge mount prototypes and yesterday I dusted one of those prototypes off (literally) for further testing. I've been carrying multiple Rotopax containers lately (mostly white ones) to supply water for the Trail Kitchen sink so I may start carrying extra water (and perhaps fuel) on this door hinge mount:

Like the other accessories that mount to the HD door hinges, the Rotopax mount installs and removes in a minute or two so it can be installed for a trip and removed when the trip is over. I like accessories that I can quickly install to configure the Jeep for a specific outing rather than things that have to stay on the Jeep even when they're not needed .

And yesterday I sewed a prototype HD Molle Tailgate Panel for the JL...

 

[jscherb]

A couple of months ago as I was doing some designs for Overland Outfitters I did a prototype "Grab & Go" first aid bag. I sent it to them and they added it to their booth display at the Bantam Jeep Fest.

It turned out to be a big attention-getter, lots of people seemed to like it. At the show it was filled with crumpled paper to give it shape because I hadn't designed the inside of the bag yet. I did that design this morning and sewed a prototype interior. Here's what I came up with.

Zippers go down the entire sides so the bag can open and lay flat. On the left in this photo are two zipper pockets. On the right is a velcro-closure flap, under which large bandages are stored. Elastic loops on the flap hold smaller bandages.

In this view the right side velcro-closure flap has been lifted to show the large bandages stored under the flap.

The zipper pockets flip over, in this next photo I’m flipping the smaller pocket. I’ve got medication packets in the small pocket, and larger antiseptic pouches and insect string pouches in the larger pocket.

The two pockets are flipped over to the right, revealing the velcro-closure flap on the left side. Elastic is sewn on that flap, in the opposite direction as on the other flap so longer items can be accommodated.

And finally, lifting the velcro-closure flap on the left reveals a cold compress and other large items.

Did I miss anything important?

 

[jgaz]

I like to have a large roll of Kerlex and an Ace bandage in my kit.
Are the spaces where you show gauze pads and a cold pack deep enough to accommodate an Ace bandage?

If they are large enough for an Ace wrap, or even if they aren’t, I’d like to see some loops sewed in those spaces to secure even the smaller rolls of Kerlex.
The loops wouldn’t be in the way if you still wanted to pack it the way you’ve shown.

Are the two pockets mesh or clear vinyl? Something at least water resistant would be helpful.

I like the flat opening feature.

 

[jscherb]

I like to have a large roll of Kerlex and an Ace bandage in my kit.
Are the spaces where you show gauze pads and a cold pack deep enough to accommodate an Ace bandage?

If they are large enough for an Ace wrap, or even if they aren’t, I’d like to see some loops sewed in those spaces to secure even the smaller rolls of Kerlex.
The loops wouldn’t be in the way if you still wanted to pack it the way you’ve shown.

Are the two pockets mesh or clear vinyl? Something at least water resistant would be helpful.

I like the flat opening feature.

I used to have an Ace bandage around here somewhere, I'll try to find it and test it in the bag. It's a pretty large bag so there should be room. perhaps not in the space where I show the gauze pads, might go in the middle of the pack though.

What I did when I was designing the inside pockets is research the first aid kits on the market; I looked at what they contained and I bought one that seemed typical and used it to lay out the pockets and elastic in my design. I don't think I saw any that came with an Ace bandage, but that isn't a reason why this bag shouldn't carry one.

The pockets as I've sewn them are not really water resistant, but I was sewing a prototype with just materials I had on hand - my goal was to get the structure and pockets done and final materials can be selected later. I'll pass your comments along to Overland Outfitters when I turn over this design to them - if they decide to put it in production they can improve on what I've done. More loops is probably a good idea too. Thanks for taking the time to comment, it's very helpful.

jeff

PS: My prototype bag has a Grab & Go clip on the back but one other feature I'm going to suggest to them is to put both a Grab & Go clip and Molle straps on the back, that way if you've got a Grab & Go compatible place to mount it you can do that but if you just have a ordinary Molle location it can mount there too.

 

[jscherb]

A month or so ago I sewed a cover for the headrest. I didn't have a specific design in mind when I sewed it, I did it as a thought-starter. I knew I wanted to do something with the headrest but I wasn't sure what, so I sewed the cover just to start the creative process. This is the thought-starter:

I posted photos of it, got some ideas from people and thought about it on my unplanned overseas trip last week. Here's the design I came up with...

It wraps around the headrest and attaches with Velcro on the bottom. The Molle straps on the back are thick leather and designed to support Grab & Go bags. The Grab & Go first aid kit seems like a good candidate to store there, it's instantly accessible and can be grabbed off the headrest when needed. Standard Molle pouches work fine on it as well.

In the photos it's on my '13 JKU but I'm going to test it on a JL at the dealer and I also want to find a 07-10 JK to test it on (they've got different headrests than the later JKs); once I confirm it fits all of those I'll send it over to Overland Outfitters so they can consider putting it in production.

 

[jgaz]

I like the first aid kit mounted to the headrest.

If I had that style of headrest on my LJ I’d move mine from the rear roll bar down tube in a minute.

 

[jscherb]

I like the first aid kit mounted to the headrest.

If I had that style of headrest on my LJ I’d move mine from the rear roll bar down tube in a minute.

Yes, the TJ/LJ seats don't support things like this very gracefully. I have an idea that may work on those seats though, I may sew a prototype for testing when I get some time.

 

[jscherb]

I got around to reading the latest issue of JP Magazine this evening and wasn't expecting to see this:

Always fun to be surprised by seeing my things in a magazine .

(In case it's not obvious, I edited the scans of the pages to reduce the size of the image to post).

 

[jscherb]

I stopped by the Jeep dealer yesterday to check the fit of the headrest Molle panel on the JL headrest. No surprise, the JL headrest is a different size than the late model JK so it didn't fit properly. I took some dimensions and went home and sewed a JL version, which I tested this morning at the dealer...

Also no surprise, the early JK headrests ('07-'10) are yet another different size. A small local used car place has an early model 2dr on their lot so I stopped in there and asked if I could try the panel on their Jeep. At this point I don't plan to do a version for the early JK. I'll send the dimensions and details of the JL/Gladiator and JK versions to Overland Outfitters and they can decide if they want to put them in production, and if they get enough demand for the early JK version I'll do that one too.