jscusmcvet
Explorer
Glad to hear your eye is going to be OK. It always seems to be the simple tasks that get us. I have enjoyed your thread, best of luck with it.
John
John
Refreshing the TJ - Build Thread
- Thread starter GP'd
- Start date
More updates coming up soon. Next is to get the upper B and C spreader bent and notched one of these nights. Once that is completed I can ratchet strap everything in and start tacking and mocking up the other pieces.
Thanks! It is the simple tasks! <Still frustrated it happened>
Thanks! Smart move.
Thanks! It is the simple tasks! <Still frustrated it happened>
Thanks! Smart move.
Made a bit more progress over the past two weekends. The A-B-C are tacked in!
Next are the visor bar, overheads, B Pilar X, seat brackets and rear triangulation. It's great to see progress. Over the next two weekends I hope to get everything but paint done.
Big thanks to Chris for helping over the weekend with the two man moving jobs!
Next are the visor bar, overheads, B Pilar X, seat brackets and rear triangulation. It's great to see progress. Over the next two weekends I hope to get everything but paint done.
Big thanks to Chris for helping over the weekend with the two man moving jobs!
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thejafe
Adventurer
Lookin' good, brother. Any lingering effects from the eye incident or are you all healed up? Also, what size Pelican case have you got there?
Thanks Andrew!
Still healing. Had 2 of the 7 stitches pulled last week and it is getting more comfortable on a daily basis. Vision is about 80-90 percent of what it was, but until the stitches come out in another month or so I won't start knowing what kind of adjustments are needed. Doctors say it can take up to a year for the eye to settle before taking corrective action. Looking forward to getting the stitches pulled out of my eye!
The box is an Underwater Kinetic 718 being used as a welding seat.
This past weekend was a busy one! Though it may not look like it, I moved from tacking all the pieces, squaring them up to fully welding most of the cage structure. Please excuse the cell phone pictures. I have been horrible at using a camera in the garage lately.
Currently I am working on all the support bars and triangulation which has moved much quicker than building the main structure. The B-C Pilar horizontals, harness bar, A-B Pilar horizontals and then the B-B/A-A Seat bracket horizontal bars were all cut and tacked in place waiting for final measurements and some tweaking with tie down straps.
The harness bar is a tricky one with a lot on the line. Granted I am still running factory seats and seat belts with hopes to upgrade to suspension seats and harnesses in the future, if I am building a cage to this level I want to be sure it can support those features. Harness bar height is the complication, and one I've seen far too many builds online do incorrectly, which could result in serious injury. I have been using this image as the bible for proper installation:
And this is where I ended up:
Measurements for the bar were taken with both myself and my better half in the driver seat. I used a level off of the top of the shoulder laid to a line on the harness bar to get the height. At 6'2" and 5'4" it gives about 0º for her and -10º for me, however I fear the level is too high when moving to a suspension style seat, so I will be using tube tabs from behind the seats in double shear to allow the ability for the belts to be dropped 2 " from the current location if needed.
RuffStuff Tube Tabs
I'm waiting on these to arrive after ordering them this weekend, so more pictures of this detail to follow.
The other issue with the vertical height of this feature is the below bar height of 26" from the cargo deck. This allows fridge / stove mounting on the right, much like Adventure trailer's Combo slide and provides plenty of room for a two drawer system on the left for tool, kitchen and hard good storage.
The horizontal bars will be the platform for an aluminum shelf to store softgoods on without having to unpack them to access tools, fridges and other features below the deck.
For the rear C-C cross member I picked up these Tube Couplers. They will allow a structural bar in the rear of the cage, but still allow me to remove it if needed for larger storage and future installations.
On another note, I added a few new tools to the garage fleet in the past few weeks:
Harbor Freight 20 Ton Press:
BillyBob (Pirate4x4) Dimple Dies: (You can also see the tube couplers in this image)
Currently I am working on all the support bars and triangulation which has moved much quicker than building the main structure. The B-C Pilar horizontals, harness bar, A-B Pilar horizontals and then the B-B/A-A Seat bracket horizontal bars were all cut and tacked in place waiting for final measurements and some tweaking with tie down straps.
The harness bar is a tricky one with a lot on the line. Granted I am still running factory seats and seat belts with hopes to upgrade to suspension seats and harnesses in the future, if I am building a cage to this level I want to be sure it can support those features. Harness bar height is the complication, and one I've seen far too many builds online do incorrectly, which could result in serious injury. I have been using this image as the bible for proper installation:
And this is where I ended up:
Measurements for the bar were taken with both myself and my better half in the driver seat. I used a level off of the top of the shoulder laid to a line on the harness bar to get the height. At 6'2" and 5'4" it gives about 0º for her and -10º for me, however I fear the level is too high when moving to a suspension style seat, so I will be using tube tabs from behind the seats in double shear to allow the ability for the belts to be dropped 2 " from the current location if needed.
RuffStuff Tube Tabs
I'm waiting on these to arrive after ordering them this weekend, so more pictures of this detail to follow.
The other issue with the vertical height of this feature is the below bar height of 26" from the cargo deck. This allows fridge / stove mounting on the right, much like Adventure trailer's Combo slide and provides plenty of room for a two drawer system on the left for tool, kitchen and hard good storage.
The horizontal bars will be the platform for an aluminum shelf to store softgoods on without having to unpack them to access tools, fridges and other features below the deck.
For the rear C-C cross member I picked up these Tube Couplers. They will allow a structural bar in the rear of the cage, but still allow me to remove it if needed for larger storage and future installations.
On another note, I added a few new tools to the garage fleet in the past few weeks:
Harbor Freight 20 Ton Press:
BillyBob (Pirate4x4) Dimple Dies: (You can also see the tube couplers in this image)
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Engine is going to remain 'stock' at the moment. Currently all that has been changed are 4 port injectors and the intake system. At 150,000 ish miles, it still has a lot of life in it, but the pipe dream of the Golen 4.6 always looms! 270 HP and 320 ft/lbs of torque sure sound nice!
Golen 4.6
WEEEEEEEEE
I just can't justify the money on something like that until this engine as seen the end of it's life. Plus 91 Octane isn't cheap these days. Maybe someone has tuned it for regular/plus by now?
The next big performance upgrade is one of these two guys. I will be rebuilding and reinforcing the extra Dana 30 I have in my garage and plan on doing the front brakes as well. There is a lot of info on the Vanco Big Brakes, and they are my top choice, but Wilwood just came out with the YJ-TJ Conversation at the beginning of the year which is tempting to say the least. I have yet to hear anyone running them...
http://shop.savvyoffroad.com/product.sc?productId=80&categoryId=15
or
http://www.wilwood.com/BrakeKits/BrakeKitsProdFront.aspx?itemno=140-12576
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Mocked up some of the rear triangulation today while there was a little light out. Due to the harness bar height I had to rethink the perfectly centered B-Pillar X. After bugging some buddies for their opinion, it is hard to decide on which will be 'stronger' in a serious incident, so Option 2 is most likely. Less notches and measurements sounds good to me too.
Option 1
Option 2
Rear window triangulation
Option 1
Option 2
Rear window triangulation
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To say I have more than a few gussets and brackets left is an understatement....
For anyone curious what they are and where they are from see list below. It always bothers me when this is excluded from builds!
From top left across rows:
Row 1:
Taco Gussets 1.75" - Poly Performance
Taco Gussets 1.5" - Poly Performance
3/4x3/4" Heim w/ 1.25" Tube Insert @ Jam Nut - Ruff Stuff
Wide Misalignment spacers - Ruff Stuff
Row 2:
1.75 Tube Flange - Ruff Stuff
1.75" Poly Bushings - Poly Performance
1/2" Bolt Tabs - Ruff Stuff
C - Pillar Frame Tie in Plates - Swag Offroad
Seat Belt/Limit Strap Brackets - Ruff Stuff
Row 3:
2" Poly Bushings w/ Bracket for Frame Tie in - Ruff Stuff
Cage Tie in Kit (Bracket/Bushing/Tube) - Poly Performance
1.75" Tube Tab - Ruff Stuff
1.75" Double Lock Tube Coupling - Ruff Stuff
Row 4:
Cage Handles - Poly Performance
Seat Belt Bracket - Swag Offroad
Frame/Tube Landing Plate - Poly Performance
For anyone curious what they are and where they are from see list below. It always bothers me when this is excluded from builds!
From top left across rows:
Row 1:
Taco Gussets 1.75" - Poly Performance
Taco Gussets 1.5" - Poly Performance
3/4x3/4" Heim w/ 1.25" Tube Insert @ Jam Nut - Ruff Stuff
Wide Misalignment spacers - Ruff Stuff
Row 2:
1.75 Tube Flange - Ruff Stuff
1.75" Poly Bushings - Poly Performance
1/2" Bolt Tabs - Ruff Stuff
C - Pillar Frame Tie in Plates - Swag Offroad
Seat Belt/Limit Strap Brackets - Ruff Stuff
Row 3:
2" Poly Bushings w/ Bracket for Frame Tie in - Ruff Stuff
Cage Tie in Kit (Bracket/Bushing/Tube) - Poly Performance
1.75" Tube Tab - Ruff Stuff
1.75" Double Lock Tube Coupling - Ruff Stuff
Row 4:
Cage Handles - Poly Performance
Seat Belt Bracket - Swag Offroad
Frame/Tube Landing Plate - Poly Performance
More progress over the weekend.
Rear B-C Windows and Cross Bars completed.
Below bar height of 26" set for drawer systems and fridge/stove slide set up. Above the fender wells will be a perfect for something like the Artec Quart Crates . I have been eyeing them for a while to organize and store all the fluids in one location. Prior it was using a pelican box that just couldn't hold everything I needed. As I move to a drawer based rear cargo system with soft storage above the horizontal bars, I think it will be the best way to organize bottles.
Has anyone else used these?
I've been chipping away a bit more over the past couple weeks, and managed to score a couple of new parts.
Really excited to get all of the parts installed so I can wrap up the cage tie in mounts and get back on the trails.
- In the front, I installed the seat cross bars and cut out the factory tub reinforcement so I can get a 3" drawer underneath.
- In the rear, I installed the upper C-Pillar crossmember.
- Ordered Dave's Customs Boat Tail Rockers
- Managed to find slightly used AEV Highlines!
- Finish the B-Pillar Cross
- Finish the Upper B-C Pillar Triangles
- Mock up and tack all the taco gussets.
Really excited to get all of the parts installed so I can wrap up the cage tie in mounts and get back on the trails.
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Spent a few hours in the garage this weekend.
Built the upper B pillar V. This took 6 hours to mock up before we could finally tack it in. Granted I'm new at this so I expect some frustration, but man are 5 tube junctions a pain. Add onto that a 15º bend and clocking the bottom notch correctly to the harness bar tube, and you have about 4 hours of just mocking up and fitting.
Now to build the lower V and finish the roof B-C V before I can pull the cage out and finish welding it all.
Built the upper B pillar V. This took 6 hours to mock up before we could finally tack it in. Granted I'm new at this so I expect some frustration, but man are 5 tube junctions a pain. Add onto that a 15º bend and clocking the bottom notch correctly to the harness bar tube, and you have about 4 hours of just mocking up and fitting.
Now to build the lower V and finish the roof B-C V before I can pull the cage out and finish welding it all.
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