Land Rover ideas for Jeeps

[jscherb]

Have you done any work with a "Safari Roof? on the JK? My hard top is black, and I have a Gobi rack coming soon and wonder about possibly adding a lighter colored plate of sorts to the rack (under or over, likely under) to create that kind of Safari Roof effect.

I think you mean "Tropical Roof"? It's referred to correctly at the start of the image I posted and incorrectly as a Safari Roof later in that image.

Living in upstate NY where it has been know to snow in at least 7 months of the year (but usually doesn't) I haven't had a need to think about implementing a Tropical Roof on a Jeep.

For more info, this is the item I originally posted about the Tropical Roof, I'm sure more info could be found in a google search.

 

[jscherb]

Windshield Visor

I've seen more than a few Land Rovers in the magazines over the years that have a visor over the windshield.

I've never seen a visor on a Jeep in the wild, unless you count this eBay listing that was current as I was posting this:

Lund made them for quite a few vehicles and I've seen them on things other than Jeeps, but the only Jeeps I've ever seen one on in person are mine... a few years ago I came across one on Craigslist that was very cheap so I couldn't resist picking it up. I never installed it but I did do a few posed photos.

Also tried it on my (dirty at the time) Wrangler pickup.

And tried it on the JKU when I was developing the JKU Safari Cab hardtop.

I kind of like the look, but I didn't install it on any of the Jeeps because a) I doubt it would have much actual function and b) it probably generates wind noise at speed.

 

[PaulJensen]

Here are some of the benefits I've noticed having a windshield overhang / visor:

• On hot days it keeps the solar gain down significantly when parked... Enough to notice...
• Scorching hot seats: Never
• On freezing cold days you don't have to stand in the cold scraping frost or snow.
• When parked in the rain, never having to turn on the wipers to see clearly.
• No bird poop.
• A place to mount a light bar, antenna, tree limb cables, etc...

On an expedition vehicle, those are pretty significant benefits weighted against the cost and labor to install.

I was really surprised how little wind noise comes from any and all of the exterior modifications on my Jeep.
The primary sound one hears is the tires... It really surprised me...!!!...
Of course decades of surfing, power tools and standing next to the stage at concerts in the '70's might have affected my hearing a bit...!!!...

 

[Paddler Ed]

Poppy Visor or Nana Fringe are how those are sometimes called over here.

Mate's 16 yo lad had one on his HJ75, and there's quite a few others knocking around with them on.

 

[jscherb]

Since a question came up the other day about making a Tropical Roof for a JK, here's more on the subject...

Background: the Tropical Roof was a panel that installed about an inch above the main roof and provided an air gap so the hot sun didn't beat down on the main roof. Reports are that it was effective in reducing the heat inside the vehicle in sunny situations. The Topical Roof panel was closely shaped to follow the roof:

If I were to make a Tropical Roof panel for a JK (or any vehicle), to get it to match the shape of the roof I would make a mold directly on the roof and mold the panels from that mold. Done correctly, making a mold on a vehicle is quite easy and very safe - no body damage will result.

When I was making the molds for the rear flat fenders for the JK, I needed to exactly match the shaped mounting flange on the Jeep body, so I made a mold of the flange right on the body. Here's the procedure.

1. Mask off all of the areas not to be molded. Be over-cautious and use lots of plastic sheet to avoid overspray.

2. Liberally apply mold release wax and when that's dry, spray PVA mold release film on the area to be molded (no photo). Wax protects the body surface and PVA protects the wax with a water-soluable plastic film over the area.

3. Spray gelcoat (a special resin that forms the surface of the part) on the area and follow that up with fiberglass layup - fiberglass mat soaked in resin. Gelcoat:

Layup:

4. When the fiberglass has cured, pop the part off the Jeep:


5. Once the part has been removed, remove all of the masking and clean the remaining mold release off the body.

Using that procedure you can safely make a mold from the top of the roof which will exactly match the shape and details of the roof. It'll be a female mold (like a cake pan) that you can use to mold the final part in. Use that mold (prepping it with wax and PVA followed by gelcoat and fiberglass layup) to make the final Tropical Roof panel.

Once the Tropical panel is removed from the mold, trim the edges and either mount it to the top of the hardtop with spacer blocks, or mount it to the bottom of a roof rack so it sits above the hardtop.

 

[krick3tt]

Interesting. I was wondering if I could use that procedure to form a new top for my LR3 from fiberglass, as a stock LR has a glass panel for a roof, so the interior sliding panels allow light to enter the vehicle. Really annoys me to have a glass roof.

 

[jscherb]

Interesting. I was wondering if I could use that procedure to form a new top for my LR3 from fiberglass, as a stock LR has a glass panel for a roof, so the interior sliding panels allow light to enter the vehicle. Really annoys me to have a glass roof.

That would be a pretty straightforward fiberglass project. I see two ways to go:

1. Make a mold of the glass panel in place on the vehicle, pop the mold off and make a fiberglass "overlay panel" in that mold. The overlay panel would be molded fairly thin and would be installed over the glass.

2. Replace the glass completely with a fiberglass panel. In this case, I would remove the glass, then make a mold of the glass off the vehicle. Then I'd mold a panel that would replace the glass - I'd mold it to the same thickness as the glass so it could be installed as an exact replacement for the glass.

 

[krick3tt]

My trepidation for the project is that I have not done anything in fiberglass. Seeing the pics of the fender project has me thinking.

 

[jscherb]

My trepidation for the project is that I have not done anything in fiberglass. Seeing the pics of the fender project has me thinking.

For someone with no fiberglass experience, the idea of making molds and fiberglass parts can be intimidating, but the process is really pretty straightforward. I believe that if someone has some DIY experience and can follow a recipe in the kitchen to bake something, then they can certainly succeed at fiberglass.

The very first thing I'd recommend is reading a book on fiberglass. This is a good one: https://www.amazon.com/Fiberglass-O...=1&keywords=forbes+aird&qid=1604081326&sr=8-3

Your local library may have some books on fiberglass in the boat section. Depending on the library, these books could be from the 60's or 70's but everything in them will still apply to what you'd be doing in your home garage, and the older books won't cover newer techniques or materials that you probably wouldn't be using anyway, so older books are fine. I've got several older books here and the information in them is perfect for a first-timer - they don't cover newer materials and techniques that might confuse someone, they're just the basics, which is all that's needed.

I learned fiberglass by reading books and trying a small project or two before I attempted a "real project", but after those first test projects I designed and built the TJ/LJ Safari Cab hardtop that's on my black Jeep and that ended up being a production product (https://gr8tops.com/shop/jeepmodels/wrangler-lj-2/lj-safari-cab-full-hardtop). Then I designed the fiberglass trailer tub kits that came to market under the Dinoot name from Compact Camping (www.dinoot.com). Plus dozens of other projects for my Jeeps. Both of those products started with homemade molds and fiberglass done in my home garage and once completed I turned the molds over the those companies and they put them in production.

I'm here to help and advise if anyone wants to try fiberglass themselves.

 

[PaulJensen]

One great resource for supplies is www.fiberglasssupply.com...

 

[jscherb]

Jump Seats

Some Land Rovers are equipped with inward-facing jump seats:

They're fairly common on military Land Rovers but not common on Jeeps, mostly because there really isn't enough space inside most Jeeps for them - the inner fenders in a Jeep are so big and high and the roof is fairly low. To really fit them in you'd probably need to mod the inner fenders and/or have a hardtop with a higher roof.

Troop seats (a longer bench version of a jump seat) were offered as an option on Jeeps with the World Cab hardtop for export markets - in this ad the guys in the back are sitting on troop seats:

What they look like inside:

Back when I had a CJ-8 with a World Cab I put Toyota FJ-40 jump seats in the back:

 

[jscherb]

Been there, done that part 4.

These photos are from an article about a trip up the Dalton Highway from Fairbanks, Alaska to Deadhorse on the Arctic Ocean via the Dalton Highway.

I did the same trip, it was July and there was snow at Atigun Pass:

Everyone takes this photo when they cross into the Arctic, this photo is from another article in the magazine about another trip up the Dalton:

I did too:

My expedition was a little over 9,000 miles:

A few months after that trip, I ran into Alex Debogorski of Ice Road Truckers fame at the SEMA Show:

We struck up a conversation about the Dalton Highway in Alaska and I told him I had done something I bet he had never done... swim in the Arctic Ocean:

The water was pretty cold, these icebergs were visible a bit further out to sea. And this was in July.

With a laugh Alex shot right back saying he had done something I had never done - drive on the Arctic Ocean. Touche!

 

[jscherb]

Here's a photo that started me thinking about propane tanks.

There are similar mounts on the market for Jeeps, here's one a friend's JKU/Ursa Minor:

Both the propane carriers above require drilling into the hardtop but I think a mount that doesn't require drilling would be a good idea so I designed and built one a few months ago. Mine bolts to the tailgate hinges instead of the hardtop and doesn't require drilling or any mods to the Jeep, but it's still high enough to be out of most harm's way. And the same mount works on both the LJ and the JKU, it just bolts in place.

Then there's the question of securing the tank. I found this one in one of the Land Rover magazines:

Seems like it would be inconvenient to undo a turnbuckle whenever you wanted to remove the tank, so I came up with a solution that uses some webbing, two hooks and a ratchet strap mechanism. It workes very well.

 

[jscherb]

Thursday I posted about windshield visors and there were some comments on them. Here's one for the Defender, seems pretty reasonable.

 

[jscherb]

A couple of small products from the Land Rover magazines today. First:

Does anyone really care how much noise airing down makes? For ninety bucks U.S.? Really?

I think they should also offer a patch you could sew on your jacket to go with it...(I made this up, it's a photo-edit )