Barn Door for JK factory hardtops

[Comanche Scott]

Really like where you are going with this, and looking forward to seeing it available on the retail market, when I get the Ursa Minor J30 top next year.

Three things on the Barn Door:

1). Really glad you made the large rear window instead of the inserts
2). Would be very cool if Ursa Minor would consider adding this to their options list (would make life easier for me)
3). The connections for wiper and washer are on the opposite side of the hinge for the JK (driver's side), so harness will need to be "modified".

On the rear hinge. I've looked behind the right rear tail light to see what kind of supporting structure there is for the hinge on my '14 JKU. Not sure I'd be comfortable hanging a lot of weight on that rear quarter panel end cap, as it sits. I think the metal will work harden around the spot welds over time and start breaking.
That said, I'd seriously consider a heavy duty hinge assembly to handle the weight of the barn door only, along with a bumper/frame mounted swing out carrier that opens with the door, for the spare and other stuff that gets thrown on there. More initial cost, but a huge cost savings in the long run for body repair.
So a scaled down hinge version like you already have out makes a perfect addition to this door.

 

[jscherb]

Really like where you are going with this, and looking forward to seeing it available on the retail market, when I get the Ursa Minor J30 top next year.

Three things on the Barn Door:

1). Really glad you made the large rear window instead of the inserts
2). Would be very cool if Ursa Minor would consider adding this to their options list (would make life easier for me)
3). The connections for wiper and washer are on the opposite side of the hinge for the JK (driver's side), so harness will need to be "modified".

On the rear hinge. I've looked behind the right rear tail light to see what kind of supporting structure there is for the hinge on my '14 JKU. Not sure I'd be comfortable hanging a lot of weight on that rear quarter panel end cap, as it sits. I think the metal will work harden around the spot welds over time and start breaking.
That said, I'd seriously consider a heavy duty hinge assembly to handle the weight of the barn door only, along with a bumper/frame mounted swing out carrier that opens with the door, for the spare and other stuff that gets thrown on there. More initial cost, but a huge cost savings in the long run for body repair.
So a scaled down hinge version like you already have out makes a perfect addition to this door.

Thanks.

Ursa Minor: I'd be happy to talk with them if they were interested in adding the barn door as an option.

Wiper/washer connections: I'm doing a wiring harness extension to bring the wiper and defroster connections over to the hinge side of the tailgate. I'm also thinking about several different options for the washer, more on that soon.

Rear hinge: In my TJ/LJ Exogate design, the top hinge ties in to the roll bar mount with a bracket that hides under the carpet. A photo of the bracket is below. The hinge bolts go into the right side of the bracket (as seen in this photo) and the left side of the bracket is secured to one of the roll bar bolts. It's very strong. I'd plan to do something similar in the JK if it turns out to be necessary.

 

[Comanche Scott]

Like the hinge support for your TJ.
Will be tougher on the JK due to the double wall of the rear end cap. It does have an internal strengthening web (not as strong as what you've built though). Will look forward to your progress.
The Barndoor would seem to fit Ursa Minor for what they manufacture, so hope they are smart enough not to miss out on sales. :beer:

 

[jscherb]

Like the hinge support for your TJ.
Will be tougher on the JK due to the double wall of the rear end cap. It does have an internal strengthening web (not as strong as what you've built though). Will look forward to your progress.
The Barndoor would seem to fit Ursa Minor for what they manufacture, so hope they are smart enough not to miss out on sales. :beer:

Maybe once I've got a prototype barn door or two built I'll give Ursa Minor a shout and show the barn door to them.

 

[TenaciousTJ]

I am extremely interested in what you come up with, and I think this would make a very, very good addition to the Ursa Minor J30 (& Habitat).
They both use the earlier, narrow rear glass, as their mold for the hard top was made before the wider window came out.

-Dan

Another issue with the AT fridge slide/stove combo is the National Luna fridge doesn't/can't open all the way due to the JK's lift glass strut being in the way. This barn door would absolutely solve that issue and make me, literally, a happier camper. AT, you guys should adapt this to the Habitat.

 

[Walldog01]

I'm looking at the idea of a small LED third brake light mounted either on the top of the barn door, or on the hardtop above the door. Haven't decided what might work best yet, but it's definitely a good idea to remove the factory third brake light to increase visibility. I did that with my LJ Safari Cab, see the photos in the first post.

Interesting idea about the inside latch, I'll look into it.





About the fold-down table, and a little storage, how about this?

It's a previous project of mine, I call it the StoreGate. In the above photo I'm test fitting it on a JK tailgate. I've got two different versions, on my Jeep-tub trailer I mounted a locking storage/fold-down table version, and on my LJ I've got one with a bungee net to hold the cargo in place:

man, I'd really like to be able to purchase one of those with the table??

 

[Zeep]

I've followed your other projects, they all share a high attention to detail. I'm sure this one will be just as nice.
'11 up JK's do have a wider opening on the glass portion. I suspect you'll need 2 different top portions to deal with specific model years.

 

[jscherb]

I've followed your other projects, they all share a high attention to detail. I'm sure this one will be just as nice.
'11 up JK's do have a wider opening on the glass portion. I suspect you'll need 2 different top portions to deal with specific model years.

Not necessarily, I covered that in post #15 of this thread: http://www.expeditionportal.com/for...for-JK-factory-hardtops?p=1602902#post1602902 .

The outer skin is the same for all of the options described in that post. For option #1, the window width is the same as the window for the earlier model JK, but the upper is trimmed wider:

Option 2 in that post uses a wider window, and does require a wider inner skin (an additional mold for that wider inner skin):

And option 3 uses the exact same upper as the earlier JKs:

I haven't decided which option to go with yet for the '11-present JKs.

Here's the view of the three options from that post again, the description of the options is in that post.

 

[lax71vcu]

Nice work!
I have wanted this for about 3 years now. My 2010 factory glass and gate leak BADLY!!!!
I have tried and tried to solve the problem but not I just keep a shamwow down there and wring it out after every rain. I hope this will fix that problem!
I am wanting one.

I might add that some type of loops at the top of the barn door to secure a tarp when parked or an extra trasharoo would be nice to have. Just at thought. You could use the hinge attachment points for a tarp so that would be easy but some extra brackets for the trasharoo would have to be on the door so it would open with the barn door.

 

[Septu]

On the rear hinge. I've looked behind the right rear tail light to see what kind of supporting structure there is for the hinge on my '14 JKU. Not sure I'd be comfortable hanging a lot of weight on that rear quarter panel end cap, as it sits. I think the metal will work harden around the spot welds over time and start breaking.

Teraflex is comfortable enough selling hinges where all the weight of the tire and anything mounted to it (gas, water, hilift, etc) are all carried off the body panel on the right rear corner. I doubt this weights anywhere close to what that would.

 

[jscherb]

Teraflex is comfortable enough selling hinges where all the weight of the tire and anything mounted to it (gas, water, hilift, etc) are all carried off the body panel on the right rear corner. I doubt this weights anywhere close to what that would.

My Exogate tailgate reinforcement/heavy duty hinge set isn't about supporting the barn door - the factory hinges are plenty strong enough for the barn door. The Gatezilla (what I'm calling the JK tailgate reinforcement/hinge set) is all about increasing the load carrying capacity of the tailgate. For example, the 225-lb. bouncing gorilla test:

Or the many cargo options that the Gatezilla supports:

I've prototyped all the above cargo options on the Exogate, but they're intended to be part of the JK Gatezilla design.

 

[Comanche Scott]

Teraflex is comfortable enough selling hinges where all the weight of the tire and anything mounted to it (gas, water, hilift, etc) are all carried off the body panel on the right rear corner. I doubt this weights anywhere close to what that would.

Hi Septu,

Good point, and I totally agree with you that the Teraflex hinge isn't what will break under the load of all the additional accessory stuff. I'm concerned about right rear body endcap, where the hinge bolts to, when the tailgate is open at the camp site.
When I asked Teraflex about this, I never got a reply. After looking closely inside the body I get the feeling no one really thought about that on the JK, because Jeep said it was "reinforced", and it sort of is.
Everyone thinks about being on the trail. When the tail gate is closed it also is supported on the left side by the latch assembly. That is a big triangle of support.

If you look closely at Jeff's design for the TJ, he ties the upper hinge directly into a very stout body member, which really limits the twisting and pulling on the rear quarter end cap, with the tailgate open.
That is such a smart design. Hope he can do something similar for the much more difficult JK rear end cap area.

In the mean time, my thought is to keep as much weight off the tailgate (Barndoor) as possible by using a frame/bumper mounted tire-accessory carrier, and for the small additional cost, add a great hinge too. For the overall amount of money I'm planning to spend the hinge is cheap insurance.
Hope that better explains what I was trying to say originally.

 

[jscherb]

...If you look closely at Jeff's design for the TJ, he ties the upper hinge directly into a very stout body member, which really limits the twisting and pulling on the rear quarter end cap, with the tailgate open.
That is such a smart design. Hope he can do something similar for the much more difficult JK rear end cap area.

I've got a reinforcement plan for the JK version...

 

[jscherb]

Did some fiberglass work today. In case anyone's wondering about the steps, here's how it's done.

1. The mold master is prepped with mold release wax and then shot with PVA mold release (the greenish color). The was is applied by hand; the PVA mold release is sprayed on.

2. Gelcoat is applied. It gets sprayed on with a special gun designed for gelcoat. Gelcoat is a specially formulated polyester resin that forms the smooth outer surface of the part, athough it doesn't look smooth in this photo because you're looking at the "wrong side" of it - the smooth outer surface of the part being molded is next to the shiny surface of the mold master.

3. After the gelcoat cures to the proper point (about 90 minutes - 2 hours), the layup phase can begin - layers of fiberglass mat soaked in polyester resin are built up:

The layup phase today was done almost completely by my friend Tom, who's been working with me on this project because he wants to learn fiberglass and because he wants a barn door for his JK. I don't really enjoy fiberglass work myself, so having a student here who wants to do it makes the work much more enjoyable! .

This will be left to cure overnight. Tomorrow morning I'll pop the part off the master, more photos then.

 

[VistaCruiser]

Awesome! That is all.....