ZJ Cage and fender flairs

shotmobile · May 28, 2009

ZJ Cage and fender flares

Well the time has come. It's time to build a cage and fender flairs for the Grand. I've been slowly collecting parts and pieces. I bought the bender and notcher about 2 years ago. Me and my step son, Sonny built a roll around stand for it a month ago. I've also bought a bunch of brackets from Ballistic Fab. And roll bar padding from Summit racing. So the next big purchase is the actual tubing. Over the next month or so I'll be updating this with progress and more pics.
http://www.pnwjeep.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=15413&p=173119&hilit=bender+cart#p173119

Black of course. :thumbsup:

http://store.summitracing.com/partdetail.asp?autofilter=1&part=REB-330-9030&N=700+115&autoview=sku

Any one last thing. We went the the Red Hook Brewery last night and my wife bought me two new beer glasses. She's a keeper for sure :mrgreen:

shotmobile · May 28, 2009

Got Tube? :brows:

It was brought home using the PNWjeep express....

It also appears that the dies are different from the JD2 to the Model 32. The pins are a different size. I need to look into it further to see if I can even use the Model 32 dies on my JD2 bender.

shotmobile · May 28, 2009

Here's are some interesting facts....
Did you know ?

1.75" x .120 wall DOM tubing weighs 2.089lbs per foot.
And 1.5" x .120 wall DOM weighs 1.769lbs per foot.

Yesterday I hauled home 342 feet of mixed 1.5" and 1.75" DOM tubing weighing in at 679.87 lbs of raw steel for Jeremy and my projects.

Also if I use up all the tubing I bought for me, I will be adding 396.33 more pounds to my tank of a jeep :roflmao:

shotmobile · May 28, 2009

Well it's time to make some progress. I took a few "Before" pics and then we removed the doors and took it for a spin around the block just for fun. Man the ZJ doors are heavy. The fronts probably weight close to a 100 lbs a piece and the rears are 70-80 lbs each. :eek1: Soon we'll be taking off the front fenders, removing the seats and all the rest of the interior. But here are some pics for now.
With the addition of cage I'll be more inclided to take the doors off while wheeling in the summer months. :rock:

shotmobile · May 28, 2009

Well the little James has kept us pretty busy over the last week. But my son and I were able to "DO WORK" yesterday for a little while and made some good progress. We spent most of the day removing everything thing from tools, speaker box, seats, front fenders, tires and the factory roof rails. And after 2 years in the making I bent my very frist tube with my bender. :mrgreen: Now we can make some real progress.

shotmobile · May 28, 2009

I spent a little time making a tool so I can attach my angle finder to a piece tube while bending. That way I can make sure I stay on plane. I just took a $3.00 clamp I got at Harbor Freight and modifed one end. So after I finished that I was able to bend up the first piece of the halo. This was a very challenging peice. Many different angles in one peice. It took me a while to figure out all of the bends I wanted. But I think it came out pretty good. This was a tricky peice because the more I measure the grand, the more non square I find it is. The roof not only has a cruve to it but it also narrows over the length of the vehicle. It's wider near the windshield than the rear hatch.

shotmobile · May 28, 2009

Thanks everyone. I wish my build thread still had pics. Maybe someday I'll repopulate it. Anyway I made it a little further last night. I got the sides of the halo completed. Sorry Mike, I'm not chopping it. It's a family rig. I finally getting the hang of bending in 3 dementions. Tell me what ya think.

shotmobile · May 28, 2009

Last night I spent some more time tearing the ZJ down to bear metal. I pulled the head liner loose so I could start picking the locations for the pillars to come through. As you can see in the pics I drilled some pilot holes where I drill with the hole saw later.

shotmobile · May 28, 2009

Well got a little more done the last few days. We bent up both "A" pillars that follow the windshield. We cut 6 holes in the roof and head liner. Made floor plates for the the B,C, & D pillars out of 1/4" plate. We rounded the top plates so that it limits the "Can opener" effect on the plates through the floor. Installed the plates with 3/8, grade 8 hardware and some welding. The I bent up the rear "D" pillars and cross bar on the halo. Making a cage is a lot of work. Tell me what ya think. I not sure if I like the way the "D" halo cross bar came out. But it's growing on me.

"B" pillar floor plates

"C" & "D" pillars will both be mounting to this plate

shotmobile · May 28, 2009

I went out to work on the cage some more and the rear halo cross bar was still bothering me so I bent up a new piece and reworked the "D" pillars to match. I'm much happier with the new piece. It's closer to the body and fits the Grand's contours better. Before it stood almost 4" from the roof to the top of the tube and now it's just over 2"

Before :thumbsdown:

After :thumbsup:

Here are just some more pics of the new rear piece.....

NotMatt · May 28, 2009

Turning out great so far Corey!

crash2 · May 28, 2009

ahhhh yes--the evolution of the wheeling rig. Lookin good corey. BTW where did you get that digital angle finder?

Jokenring · May 28, 2009

crash said:
ahhhh yes--the evolution of the wheeling rig. Lookin good corey. BTW where did you get that digital angle finder?

I found one at Lowe's, or Home Depot, Crash. It's a Husky, so whoever sells that.

Cage looks good, keep at it. :awesomework:

1 grumpy · May 28, 2009

the zj is looking great keep up the good work:awesomework:

and keep the pictures coming :corn:

shotmobile · May 28, 2009

crash said:
ahhhh yes--the evolution of the wheeling rig. Lookin good corey. BTW where did you get that digital angle finder?

Thanks Guys. I got the angle finder at Sears. Normally it's $34 bucks but if you a craftsman club member it's on sale right now for $19.95.

Spanaway Mudder · May 28, 2009

Jokenring said:
I found one at Lowe's, or Home Depot, Crash. It's a Husky, so whoever sells that.

Cage looks good, keep at it. :awesomework:

Homedepot sells Husky tools!!:awesomework:

Good looking ZJ!!:awesomework:

heep70 · May 29, 2009

Sweet job so far Corey :cheer::awesomework::beer:

Nuzzy · May 29, 2009

Nice work. :beer:

bigiron · May 29, 2009

nice tube work:beer:

shotmobile · Jun 1, 2009

This weekend I was able to get the "B" and "C" cross bars on the Halo done. And the "C" pillars. It's slowly but surely coming along. I'm trying to keep it really close to the roof so that it will still fit in the garage. The yellow tape measures are were I'll eventually put in cross bars.