X-Mas in March!!!!! The Heep is gonna gain weight...

[johnsxj]

Felt like x-mas morning today! Went to Lou's and swapped him my sagged out BDS rear springs for a nice new set that has some arch to them (now I gotta build that other main eye bracket )

Then early in the afternoon the friendly neighborhood Fed-Ex man stopped at the house and gave me these





My new OR-Fab upper quarter panel armor with the extra bar These bad boys are 3/16" steel and go from the lower body line to just under the rear quarter glass

Then a couple hours latter the local USPS idiot showed up with the shiny disc in the first pic
Yep, I'm gonna TJize my fuel filler and while I'm at it I'll be building some tail light boxes and goin' LED in the back kinda like this....



More pics to follow once my steel plate and a little warmer weather comes around. Time to hit E-bay and find an early TJ fuel filler neck............

[nostaw]

That looks nice John... I'm interested to see how it comes out.

JW

[dizilbdog]

Sweet new gear.

[ZAEDOCK]

Hey - gimme the old springs.......

Still have to build Michaela a bastard pack for her rear.

[nostaw]

Hey - gimme the old springs.......

Still have to build Michaela a bastard pack for her rear.

BDS lifetime warranty means you trade the packs in to the dealer and get full retail $ for them...

JW

[johnsxj]

Yep, what JW said. I've got a old set of CJ7 rear stock HD springs you can rip apart if you want!

Well, today the UPS guy pulled up and gave me a package with some 1/8" X 6" and 3.5" cold rolled steel That meant I could start doing some fab work but first I had to mount up the new corners to see where things lay.................







Can I just say these things are MEAN looking with that nerf bar sticking out The bling of the fuel filler WILL be toned down, but the thing only cost me $10.00 shipped

Tonight I managed to cut the two plates that will fill in around the gas bezel and lop off a couple chunks of the 6" for the face of the light box. After looking at how the extensions that are meant to protect the stock tail lights sit, it appears that I'm going to have a little more work to do to make things look right while making the light boxes

[Carl McFly]

jeez those bars mean BIDNESS!

looks good John

[ZAEDOCK]

The bling of the fuel filler WILL be toned down

Great news! No BLING!!!

Those quarters kick bum. I've been driving Michaela's XJ to work and around town. Might just have to get her something else....

Oh, and just checked my smaller trailer (now that I can see it) and I still have some 4" SUA spring leaves from the YJ.
I'll have a nice bastard pack going in soon.

Just remember...no bling sucka.

[smileyfish]

nice j, they look good!!! not sure i like the round peg in the square hole thing (gas filler)

[ZAEDOCK]

I too, like the square gas door.

[Northshore Jeeper]

Do the bars come with the panels or did you add that yourself? I am going to pick up a set. I showed the wife a picture and she loved them! She said "i really like those you should get them for your jeep". Not sure if anyone can understand the excitement? This is the first time my wife has ever really told me a should by something for the jeep. I usually get the "your spending more money on your jeep?" (with an irritated tone). LOL

[johnsxj]

O.R. Fab offers them with or without the bar.

[johnsxj]

So I get a day off of work and it rains Still managed to make some progress though.

A big issue I discovered where I'm building steel light boxes is that the light guard extension follows the line of the body and extends about 1/2" beyond the tail gate. It's fine with the stock tail lights, but not for what I'm doing.



I really needed to fold the extensions in to match the line hatch. Problem is it's 3/16" thick and has a slight bow, not the easiest thing to bend. A few minutes later with the grinder and a steady hand....



I ended up scoring the back side of the panel real close to the body then giving the extension a few whacks with the dead blow hammer until it lined up nicely with the hatch I'll weld the score line shut when the armor comes off for final paint. The tape in the pic is marking where I needed to trim the extensions down (turns out I gotta do some more )

The rest of my day was spent fitting the upper and lower box plates and making the filler plates for where the slots were in the extensions. I'd just managed to get everything tacked in place when the rain really started to fall


NO MORE ROUND PEG IN A SQUARE HOLE!!!



The upper and lower plates have tabs on them to bolt into the factory holes. Gotta trim the upper plate away from the hatch and rework the bottom where it's not following the lines off the hatch

Now if it would just stop raining

[norstar]

Nice fab work!
Any plan to add tube fender on that panel?

[johnsxj]

Not planning on tube fenders. I'll just be reusing the TJ flares I have now. That upper bar actually sticks out about as far as my existing flares!!!!