Barn Door for JK factory hardtops

[Zeep]

Thanks Jeff.
Keep up the good work.

 

[OregonJKU]

We'll see how lucky he feels in a few days... he also wants flat fenders like the ones I have on my JKU so I'll be teaching him how to make fiberglass parts this weekend. I hope to have him do most of the work himself, I'm tired of fiberglass work. If he does do most of the work, at least I'll feel lucky .

LOL

 

[jscherb]

I sewed a spare tire trash/gear bag using factory premium soft top fabric.

The first prototype was sewn from Spice soft top fabric.

I'll probably use the Spice on on the JKU because it matches the hardtop and I'll use the black one on the black LJ.

 

[jscherb]

Robert and I installed the tailgate table in his JK.

Had to do it first thing because Robert wanted to test it by cooking his breakfast.

He made fried aggs and toast.

 

[jscherb]

Robert doing fiberglass layup today:

He made a set of 4 flat fenders for his JK. He did a nice job.

He molded them in black and plans to keep them that color. They're the same as the ones on my JKU:

Tomorrow we'll pop them out of the molds, trim them and fit them to the Jeep. Photos to come.

 

[ITTOG]

Looks like fun.

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[jscherb]

Looks like fun.

The father-son time is fun, fiberglass work not so much. It will be fun to watch him take the fenders out of the molds tomorrow morning, he hasn't had the enjoyment of seeing something he created in fiberglass turn into reality yet.

 

[jscherb]

Robert popping the fenders out of the mold this morning.

The complete set of 4 just out of the molds. Next we trimmed them, washed the mold release off and began fitting them to the Jeep.

We finished up the installation today and tomorrow we'll paint them. We molded them in black so that if they ever get chipped from stones the chips will show black, but rather than leaving the gloss black gelcoat finish we're doing matte black to match his grille so we'll do that with paint and matte clear.

 

[jscherb]

A couple of garage shots showing where the project ended today.

Tomorrow the fenders will get a matte black finish to match the grille.

 

[jscherb]

Fenders completed. Painted matte black and ready to install tomorrow morning.

 

[ITTOG]

Could you have used a gel coat instead of paint? I don't know why you would but curious. I assume paint would be the better option for a vehicle.

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[jscherb]

Could you have used a gel coat instead of paint? I don't know why you would but curious. I assume paint would be the better option for a vehicle.

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We molded the fenders in black, with black gelcoat. Because the mold has smooth, glossy surfaces, the fenders come out of the mold with a glossy finish. Gelcoat would be a fine finish for a vehicle, nothing wrong with that, but we wanted a matte finish to match the grille that's already on the Jeep and that's why we painted them.

This is a photo of the first set of fenders I made in these molds, you can see the gloss gelcoat finish:

I painted those too, but for that Jeep I did them in body color...

 

[jscherb]

Finished Robert's fenders today.

 

[jscherb]

 

[jscherb]

A walkaround. Both Jeeps have a JL-Style Grille and Willys MB-Style fenders.