Manivan is under construction

That's good to know about the X bar! Sounds like I made the right decision then.

Your probably right about the jig. A template wont help me if it starts to warp anyway. Ill just have to do most of the welding while its bolted in.

I was originally just going to do black powder coat but that gray looks pretty snazzy.

Thanks for all the info!
 
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I haven't settled on a new welder yet so until then I have a few little projects to keep me busy.
 

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Got the B pillars chopped last night. Next I'm going to fit the aluminum covers. They need to be bent and cut to fit. Everything went OK except for those damn seat belt bolts. They use so much thread lock they destroy them selves if you try and remove them. I can't wait to get harnesses so I don't have to F with those bolts anymore.
 
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Spazbyt said:
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Got the B pillars choped last night. Next I'm going to fit the aluminum covers. They need to be bent and cut to fit. Everything went OK except for those damn seat belt bolts. They use so much thread lock they destroy them selves if you try and remove them. I can't wait to get harnesses so I don't have to F with those bolts anymore.
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If you put some heat on the bolts they are easier. Not sure I could bring myself to chop up my JK 👍
 
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JT@623 said:
If you put some heat on the bolts they are easier. Not sure I could bring myself to chop up a new JT 👍
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I'm using the torch next time for sure.
Nah, the only thing thats stopping you is fear and common sense.
 
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I had to take a break on the Genright cage until I get a 220 outlet run to the garage for the new welder. (Lincoln Power Mig 180)

I did have some door hinge bushing sitting around and the doors are off so I figured its as good as time as any. Of coarse a simple 15min. project is one jeep away from a 6 hour job. My rock sliders made it all but impossible to drive out the old bushings without removing the lower door hinges. I hope the doors go back on without the need for alot of alignment. At least I got to take care of some rust before it got to serious.
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Got back into the roll cage. I spent the afternoon trying to figure out why my welds looked like shit. Turns out I had the mig gun only plugged in half way causing me to loss enough of my shielding gas to make it hard to diagnose the problem. It wasn't until I started getting a lot of worm holes in the weld that it became apparent to me. Im a rookie welder so this really had me scratching my head. 20220210_183820.jpg
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I made some progress on the roll bar this weekend. I got all the tubes tacked up and started running full welds. I still need to fit the hardtop so I can burn on a few more brackets.
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I had some trouble getting the last tube into place. So I referred to the directions.

Securely vice grip a farm jack to the B pillar tube allowing the insertion of a 2ba4 betwixt the roll bars. Properly support this assembly. (A second set of hands will be necessary for this step. If you no longer have any friends because you choose to spend your weekends doing this kind of shit then a few shotty ratchet straps will suffice) Now slowly max out the ratchet straps while advancing the farm jack until it converts into a log splitter. You should hear a loud bang when done correctly. It is normal for this assembly to come crashing to the ground after completion. Congratulations, you're overbuilt Faraday cage is fully installed.

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In all seriousness, the cage came together very nicely. The laser-cut tabs and notches make it hard to mess up, even for me. Other than dropping one of the tubes and punching a hole in the floorboard, it went in without a hitch.

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Its time for new wheels and tires. I was originally going with 17" KMC Grenade Crawl with 37" Baja boss tires. Now MT makes the boss in a 38" but only for a 20" wheel.
So the question is. 37" Baja Boss's on 17" Grenades? or 38" on 20"s?
 
I toyed with the idea of going to bigger wheels, but I’m not a fan of big wheels. Personally I would go with the 37s on 17s.
 
Sgt_USMC said:
I toyed with the idea of going to bigger wheels, but I’m not a fan of big wheels. Personally I would go with the 37s on 17s.
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I'm also not a fan of the truck bro wheels but I was hoping the 38"s would help the tire to wheel ratio out.
 
I’m by no means an expert on wheel/tire combos, but I would think that going up 3” in wheel and only 1” on tire would bet a loss of 2” of side wall. Like I said though, I don’t have much experience with wheel/tire combos as I’m still sitting on the stock 16” Moab wheel with 245/75s.
 
TonyT said:
Thanks! Its been great and certainly good insurance for the trails. I'm glad I waited through the years until a full cage was available.

V-bar would be more useful than the A. I would really like to have a rearview mirror up there, and will eventually chop them off so I can put one of those digital rearview mirrors up there. Buddy of mine has the X with the factory seats, I can't fit in his backseat anymore. I have PRP seats front and rear on some custom mounts and they really help maximize occupant room. My neighbor is 6'5" and he sat in the back on our last Moab trip all day long, no problem. You might be able to do a aftermarket bench seat for the three kids? (Just wide enough to sit back between the C-pillars.)

You'd have to have a serious jig to keep it straight while welding. Genright has a jig they weld up orders on, not sure what it looks like.

The gray powder coat has been great. Im not too creative in that area. I just wanted something that would hide dust and scratches.

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Looks good!
 
I'm trying to iron out all the little things after getting the cage installed.
I found a really nice dome light option. 20220729_172724.jpg20220729_174132.jpg

I need a new home for my Switch Pros. Unfortunately it's a old model and doesn't fit any of the new mounts. Looks like I'll have to get creative with this one.
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I had to drill and tap holes in the back of my first generation Switch Pros panel to fit the 3rd generation mount I have. No pressure but if I hit the circuit board I would grenade the entire system. I called the folks at Switch Pros and they helped me out with some critical measurements. I really appreciated the awsome customer service
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Got the dash end caps from Denton Racing painted and installed. Thanks for the recommendation TonyT.20220901_185751.jpg

I didn't like seeing the windshield frame behind the A pillers so I used CAD (Cardboard Added Design) to make some covers.
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