How would you outfit this custom LJ?

[jscherb]

The LJ hit a milestone today:

I bought it in 2009 with 22,500 miles on the clock.

In the almost 180,000 miles I've owned it it's been to 45 of the lower 48, including all 4 corners of the country; it's been to the Arctic Ocean at the north end of the Dalton Highway in Alaska and it's done thousands of trail miles in Colorado, Utah, California and other places. It's never let me down, and it's pretty much only needed basic maintenance and replacement of wear items - seals, brakes, clutch, cats, etc.

In 2010 I designed and built the Safari Cab hardtop for it and in 2014 I completed the CJ Grille Kit so it's looked as it does today for many years.

Of the three Jeeps I have it's always been and still is the one I enjoy driving the most.

I fear the day when parts become unavailable and some unavailable stupid sensor or something makes it undriveable.

If all goes according to plan, it'll be doing another Colorado trail trip this July.

 

[jscherb]

I can't believe it's been ten years, but ten years ago when I was doing the CJ Grille Kit for the TJ/LJ I also did molds for a TJ Commando as an "art project" (meaning I made the molds and some fiberglass parts but didn't have a plan to use them). I did a mold for a Commando-style hood tailored to the TJ's body lines and a replica Hurst Commando hood scoop. I'm cleaning out my storage room and I've got molds for many things that are taking up too much room so I'm probably going to toss the molds for these parts. I took these photos at the time:

Today I got the molds out of my storage room:

I also still have one set of parts:

There wouldn't be enough commercial demand for someone to put these in production, so I'll probably toss the molds. I may keep the hood and scoop around a little longer; they are usable parts and could also be used to make new molds if the need came up.

The Commando hood uses the same fenders and cowl panel that the CJ Grille Kit does; maybe someday there will be a call to put the CJ Grille Kit in production but I doubt it. In any case, since the CJ Grille Kit parts are on my LJ, I'll keep those molds in case I ever have to replace a damaged part.

Decided to reclaim the storage space so the TJ Commando hood mold and Hurst Commando scoop molds have been cut into pieces small enough to go out with the trash tomorrow.

For now I'm keeping one Commando hood and one Hurst Scoop from the molds but eventually they'll go too.

It's not a permanent loss, if there's ever a reason to make new molds for those parts they can be made from the parts I'm keeping for now.

I'm still keeping the complete mold set for the CJ Grille Kit for the TJ/LJ and all of my hardtop and JK molds but over time I really need to downsize how much stuff I'm keeping around.

 

[jscherb]

I'm working on a fiberglass camper top for my Jeep-tub trailer; the parts came out of the same molds that are used to make the Safari Cab hardtop that's on my LJ. The rear entry to the camper will be a barn door just like on the LJ and to reinforce the tailgate to support the barn door and whatever I decide to hang on the tailgate (a spare maybe?), I asked MORryde to send me a current production tailgate reinforcement kit, which arrived the other day.

I designed the original tailgate reinforcement that Gr8Tops sold for many years as the Exogate (and was manufactured for them by MORryde), and I co-designed this new version a few years ago with a very talented MORryde engineer, but I've never had this version myself. The reinforcement that's been on my LJ tailgate for years is a hybrid - it's got original Gr8Tops production parts, a few parts I made as part of the first prototype for the Gr8Tops version, and a few parts from the current MORryde production and that combo works great for me so I never bothered to upgrade to the current production version.

My trailer has Saavy low-profile LED tail lights, which aren't quite compatible with the new tailgate reinforcement, so I've got a small tweak or two planned so the tail lights and the reinforcement fit nicely together. I'll post about that when I install it, in case anyone is interested in the MORryde reinforcement + Savvy taillight combination.

 

[jscherb]

Came across a Safari Cab in an online ad this morning...

Gr8Tops has had the Safari Cab in production for about 10 years now and there are quite a few of them out there but this is only the second time I found one in an ad (the first time was an unauthorized use that Gr8Tops wasn't happy about).

This Safari Cab Jeep also showed up in the April issue of Four Wheeler: https://expeditionportal.com/forum/...factory-hardtops.127687/page-334#post-3004273. In that magazine appearance the Jeep was photographed at last year's Overland West event. In a few days I'm headed for Overland West, I'll keep an eye out for that Jeep while I'm there, maybe it will be there again.

Anyone else planning to attend Overland West?

 

[jscherb]

Exogate/MORryde Tailgate Reinforcement + Savvy Tail Lights

I'm installing a MORryde tailgate reinforcement (a.k.a. Gr8Tops Exogate v2) on my Jeep-tub trailer to implement a one-piece barn door for the trailer's camper top. Since this installation is on a trailer made from two Jeep tubs, what I'll describe here applies to installation on a TJ/LJ as well so I'll post the details in case anyone with a TJ or LJ wants to implement the same combination.

The trailer currently has Savvy low-profile tail lights (https://savvyoffroad.com/product/sav-tl/) which are not compatible with the tailgate reinforcement for two reasons - first, the body-side reinforcement has a cutout for the base of the stock tail lights and the Savvy tail lights don't have the tail light housing that the factory lights do so they don't fit in the cutout. Second, because the Savvy housing is larger it will interfere with the upper hinge pin bolt on the new HD hinges. Both of these problems are fairly simple to solve. As it was before the change:

The reinforcement installed, showing the incompatibility between the cutout and the Savvy tail light:

Also in the photo above, the bolt head of the top hinge pin is going to interfere with the light housing

An easy way to solve the problem of the too-small cutout in the body-side reinforcement is to make a filler for the cutout. The reinforcement is made from 1/4" thick steel plate, so a cutout filler can be made from any convenient 1/4" material. I used black plexiglass because it won't rust, is easy to cut and I had it on hand. The template in place:

The next problem is that the head of the hinge pin bolt on the top hinge won't clear the larger Savvy tail light housing.
The solution to this is to replace that bolt with a flathead and drill a countersink in the hinge. In the next photo I'm drilling the countersink. I'm using a drill press but a hand electric drill will work fine too.

Be sure to touch up the countersunk area with paint to prevent rust.

With the tail light installed:

A full-size template for the filler plate:

There's a 6" scale in the drawing above so you can check that your printout is the correct size. I made the prototype for this filler plate on a YJ tub that had its tailgate hinge holes adjusted to fit TJ hinge spacing. It is possible that the three taillight mounting holes could be slightly misplaced due to the use of the YJ tub but if they are drilled as shown in the drawing and don't exactly line up with the actual holes in the TJ tub the holes in the filler plate can be slotted or enlarged to fit.

One caveat about replacing the hinge pin bolt with a flathead bolt - the hinge pin bolt MORryde supplies has a smooth body above the threads that serves as the bearing surface but flathead screws will generally be fully threaded, which means that the threads of the flathead screw will be the bearing surface. As long as the hinge is lubricated and since tailgates don't open thousands of times in a week this shouldn't be a problem but over time if slop develops in the hinge the bushings can be replaced and can be found a many hardware stores.

Completed installation:

The top on the trailer in the photos above is a proof-of-concept top made with TrailTop fiberglass framing (which matches the curves at the corners of the tub) and 1/4" plywood. TrailTop framing components:

The current proof-of-concept top:

I'm retiring that top in favor of a fiberglass one made in the same molds as the Safari Cab hardtop for the LJ. More on that project when I get to it.

 

[jscherb]

Back when I designed the Safari Cab hardtop I planned for a number of variants including a pickup half cab, a camper top for a Jeep-tub trailer and a pop-top for both the trailer camper top and the Jeep hardtop.

When Gr8Tops was in the process of licensing the Jeep hardtop design from me I shared the trailer camper top idea with them. They provided some preproduction parts from their molds and I molded a few others to build a proof-of-concept. The parts assembled very easily into a trailer camper and Gr8Tops displayed it at a Jeep show as a possible future product. I never fully finished it, I just assembled the basic shell at the time. Didn't put windows in or do anything about the interior for the proof-of-concept build. These photos were taken in 2011:

Rear barn door:

It was also a proof-of-concept for a swing-up hatch, which also could be used on the Jeep hardtop:

After Gr8Tops showed the trailer at that show I disassembled the shell and the parts have been sitting here ever since. I'm now working on completing it - adding windows, painting it, etc. And in the process I'll be adding the necessary components to enable the roof to pop up.

I've done design drawings over the years for a front-hinged pop-up like the Ursa Minor, but after studying the Dormobile campers based on Series and Defender Land Rovers, I believe they offer more interior space than the front-hinged type.

The way the components are designed there's only one significant difference between a pop-up for the trailer and one for the Jeep hardtop - the Jeep hardtop version will need a windshield header at the front. With that one change, the pop-top can replace the fixed roof on the Jeep hardtop to turn the Jeep into a pop-top camper. Some concept images...

 

[jgaz]

Jeff,
With this one drawing I’m convinced that you could teach many degreed engineers a thing or two.
That included 6” scale on the above drawing is money!

I spent 30 years as an engineering mechanic for a major auto company. I can’t count the number of times I’ve been tasked with fabricating something from a poor drawing. Many times the vehicle that would receive the part is not even in the same state but the part needs to be ready when it arrives. Usually the drawing was faxed, emailed, or download with no where near enough dimensions to build the part.

The drawing transmission method may have distorted what the creator thought would be enough to create a full, correct size, template. With that simple included scale my job is much more likely to be correct on the first try.


I'm in awe of your practical design skills and imagination but I'm sure you could have been a damn good teacher.

 

[nwoods]

I fear the day when parts become unavailable and some unavailable stupid sensor or something makes it undriveable.

I think that day is a LONG way away, just based on the amount of Jeep catalog items out there. If you have a frame, you can build a brand new Jeep of just about any vintage you might desire.

 

[jscherb]

View attachment 725825
Jeff,
With this one drawing I’m convinced that you could teach many degreed engineers a thing or two.
That included 6” scale on the above drawing is money!

I spent 30 years as an engineering mechanic for a major auto company. I can’t count the number of times I’ve been tasked with fabricating something from a poor drawing. Many times the vehicle that would receive the part is not even in the same state but the part needs to be ready when it arrives. Usually the drawing was faxed, emailed, or download with no where near enough dimensions to build the part.

The drawing transmission method may have distorted what the creator thought would be enough to create a full, correct size, template. With that simple included scale my job is much more likely to be correct on the first try.


I'm in awe of your practical design skills and imagination but I'm sure you could have been a damn good teacher.

Thank you for the kind words.

Adding scales to drawings is something I've been doing for years. I usually design parts on my computer and print templates for cutting out the parts and I needed a way to ensure that the prints were accurately sized. Adding a scale seemed like the obvious thing to do.

Your post made me realize that I maybe I should have given a little more info about how the drawing can be used. Since it's full size, what I do is cut out the paper part from the drawing, attach it to the material to be cut with rubber cement (I use that because it rubs off easily with no residue left), and cut around the drawing for a perfectly sized and shaped part. I center punch the holes through the paper and then drill. This is the template on a piece of 1/4" black plexiglass, which is what I made the spacer from:

Simple tricks like this make it easy to make accurate parts at home. In this case, no special tools are required; I cut the piece out with my bandsaw, but a handheld jigsaw, which most DIYers would have, would work fine. Or, since this is plexiglass, even a hand coping saw would do the job.

As for being a teacher, I was a teaching assistant for a while at Rutgers while getting my second degree but I've never aspired to actually being a teacher. Informally though, part of the reason I post a lot of detail about my projects is to show people how to do things and hopefully inspire them to do so.

And don't get me started on engineers; while I have worked with some truly excellent ones over the years I've also worked with too many "trained" engineers who didn't have a clue. Maybe they have formal training that I don't have (my only formal engineering training is in software and a little bit of electronics), but so many have no intuition about what they're working on.

 

[jgaz]

Your last paragraph sums up my 30 years perfectly.
The good engineers (and there were many) were also “hands on“ people.

I‘ll take car guys (and girls) anytime over the smartest kid in his class

 

[ITTOG]

so many have no intuition about what they're working on.

That should be in bold. I am a Chemical Engineer and this disgusted me about my profession. Still drives me crazy and I don't even practice in the engineering field anymore.

 

[jscherb]

I'm making good progress assembling the Safari Camper. I've applied a textured tan (Spice) finish to the walls and doors, and now trying to decide if I change the color of the roof. The roof is currently black; I could make do the same tan finish that I applied to the sides, or I could do it in brown, like this TrailTop shell (the lighting makes the top look a little less brown in this photo than it actually is):

Options:

 

[jscherb]

Current state of things in the workshop... the Safari Cab sides are finished in textured tan; the window/side hatch holes are cut and the parts are mocked up/clamped in place. The two photos on the right show the side-swing barn door with window; the bottom left photo shows the swing-up hatch in the front. The tub is a spare fiberglass Dinoot tub I have here which I use for mockups like this, the parts will be going on the yellow trailer.

 

[Jim K in PA]

Jeff - sorry if I missed this detail earlier, but what is the length of the Jeep trailer tub?

 

[jscherb]

Jeff - sorry if I missed this detail earlier, but what is the length of the Jeep trailer tub?

This tub (and my yellow trailer tub) are both 7' 5" long, which is the length necessary for the Safari Cab parts (specifically the Safari Cab roof).

The fiberglass tub in the workshop is a Dinoot Extended fiberglass tub kit, which is 6' 6" long (https://compactcampingstore.com/products/dinoot-j-series-tub-kit), plus an 11" extension on each side that I molded to make the tub 7' 5". Extensions:

The extensions are visible at the left side of the tub in this next photo. The full 7'5" fiberglass tub: