Boatsides
- Thread starter Starboard M
- Start date
5spd_xj
<<the good ol days
- Location
- Dracut, MA
very nice! thanks for borrowing mom's camera! :gee:
POLAR_JEEP_04
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Ohio
what kind of seats are those?
vetteboy
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- morganville, nj
Just as a sidebar for the seat mounts...
The first time I did mine, I just adapted the stock seat mount crap for the new seats. I had the location where I wanted it, but the mounting sucked.
Before I gutted everything, I picked a spot inside and mapped out a X-Y-Z coordinate system to each seat mounting point. So basically I knew in space where I wanted the seat to be, without having to hoof the thing in and out and guess a bunch of times. When it came time to weld in cage bars and such, I had all the measurements for the seats laid out already.
Cage construction always interests me...I opted to make the A-pillar/roof/c-pillar all one piece, and tie the top of the windshield together with another piece of tube.
Did you have some kinda reasoning behind the way you laid it out?
The first time I did mine, I just adapted the stock seat mount crap for the new seats. I had the location where I wanted it, but the mounting sucked.
Before I gutted everything, I picked a spot inside and mapped out a X-Y-Z coordinate system to each seat mounting point. So basically I knew in space where I wanted the seat to be, without having to hoof the thing in and out and guess a bunch of times. When it came time to weld in cage bars and such, I had all the measurements for the seats laid out already.
Cage construction always interests me...I opted to make the A-pillar/roof/c-pillar all one piece, and tie the top of the windshield together with another piece of tube.
Did you have some kinda reasoning behind the way you laid it out?
- Location
- Lafayette, CA
Yes, they will be skinned with plastic.
Those are Corbeau seats. I love them. You just have to watch your family jewels when you get in and out with those side bolsters....
Your method of seat mounts was a lot more in depth then mine. I just took the mounts off the seat, held them up where they needed to be, and cut out some mounts. Took a long time, but I got it.Cage construction always interests me...I opted to make the A-pillar/roof/c-pillar all one piece, and tie the top of the windshield together with another piece of tube.
Did you have some kinda reasoning behind the way you laid it out?
For the cage, it was just what seemed to work/what we thought of first. I also wanted to do the A pillar with DOM and the "halo" with HREW.
Is there any strength gain or loss by doing one vs the other? Not that it will help me, but others might find it useful.
- Location
- Lafayette, CA
Small update. Got the cage "finished" last night around 1230. Basiclly got all the tubes notched, bent and mostly tacked into place. It sure was fun waking up at 6am for work this morning
Finished seat mount. Passenger side is 90% done, just need a little finish work done on it.
The drivers side trannel tunnel had to be "massaged" a little bit with a 10 lbs sledge. Could have mounted it higher, but like I have said before, I wanted the headroom.
I also got the drivers side fender rough cut so the fender will fit back on. I unfortunaly have to cut a little bit more then I would have liked, but oh well. Looks are not that important at this stage of the game anyway.
This is the hole saw that we finally had to replace on my friends notcher. It did two full cages, two tube bumpers and about 75% of my cage before it called it quits. It had 11 teeth on it before it wasnt really cutting anything anymore. :greensmok
On to the cage. Here is the X and part of the shoulder belt harness bars. I think Im going to have the belts attach to a center mount midpoint of the belt holes down the X.
And the rest of the roof X's and Y's and triangulation.
Thats it for yesterday. Tomorrow I will unfortuatly be doing the small bodywork I have to do. I really despise bodywork, especially with big gaps and semi clean metal.
Finished seat mount. Passenger side is 90% done, just need a little finish work done on it.
The drivers side trannel tunnel had to be "massaged" a little bit with a 10 lbs sledge. Could have mounted it higher, but like I have said before, I wanted the headroom.
I also got the drivers side fender rough cut so the fender will fit back on. I unfortunaly have to cut a little bit more then I would have liked, but oh well. Looks are not that important at this stage of the game anyway.
This is the hole saw that we finally had to replace on my friends notcher. It did two full cages, two tube bumpers and about 75% of my cage before it called it quits. It had 11 teeth on it before it wasnt really cutting anything anymore. :greensmok
On to the cage. Here is the X and part of the shoulder belt harness bars. I think Im going to have the belts attach to a center mount midpoint of the belt holes down the X.
And the rest of the roof X's and Y's and triangulation.
Thats it for yesterday. Tomorrow I will unfortuatly be doing the small bodywork I have to do. I really despise bodywork, especially with big gaps and semi clean metal.
JeepFreak21
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Cameron Park, CA
Lookin' good man! I know what you mean about body work... what a PITA!
How necessary (structurally) is that center tube running front to back?
Billy
And the rest of the roof X's and Y's and triangulation.
How necessary (structurally) is that center tube running front to back?
Billy
vetteboy
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- morganville, nj
I put mine there to prevent rocks from crushing in the roof.
JeepFreak21
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Cameron Park, CA
- Location
- Lafayette, CA
At a later date in time I might be adding a couple bars going down from the center point down to the cowl, so I might as well add those strait bars while I can do it easily.
- Location
- Bakersfield, CA
I didn't have one on mine, and rolled it onto it's roof. Landed right on a rock that bent down the A pillar cross bar, and into the roof slightly. A center bar probably would have helped.
BTW, the cage and rockers are looking good.
Last edited:
- Location
- Lafayette, CA
Im happy that you backed what I was thinking because I have seen a lot of XJ cages without them, and I got nervous I was just getting a little crazy with the bender.
- Location
- Lafayette, CA
Alright, so the girlfriend went back home on Saturday, so I was able to get a couple things done.
Saturday afternoon/night a couple friends came over and we wired up a brake controller for my dads new truck. Found out the controller itself was bad, so I will have to get it replaced. Also swapped out a couple lights on a friends Jeep to get it back to "street legal" :spin1: Kinda sorta, not really.
Today I actually got a fair amount done, although most of it was stuff that just made it look like a lot was done, but in reality they were really small things.
Friend came over and in exchange for welding a couple things for him, he helped me wire up the ARB in my front axle. Got that all figured out, then looked at the instructions to make sure we did it right, and the instructions were wrong, we second guessed ourselves, and got severily confused until we figured out the directions were actually wrong and we did it right. Got that all sorted out, then found out the little air tank on my ARB air compressor has a crack in it:flamemad:
Since I have had this thing sitting in my room for the past 3 years and ARB only has a 2 year warranty, I am hoping they will be cool with me and send me a new one since it was litterally installed a couple weeks ago, never had air or wires on it, or even been out of the box. We shall see. I was rather pissed about that.
Got the girlfriends sisters gas pedal to not stick on her car. Brownie points for me.
Got the stock rear bumper and gas tank skid put back on. That was way more of a PITA then it needed to be.
Finished grinding the fenders and got them mounted. Looks pretty cool too.
I had to cut out more of the fender then I would have liked, but whatever. Still works for me.
I finished the passenger side seat mount. Need to bolt it onto the seat, and that is all finished (thank god).
My dad got my TJ mirror installed. This way I am "street legal" with two mirrors, although, now that I am towing, I dont know if I will ever really need it.
Got the entire front end back on. Front clip, lights, fenders and all that good stuff. I apparently misplaced about half of the nuts, bolts and screws that hold all that junk on, but for now, it will work. Junkyard, here I come.
Took the halo off for final welding. Its a lot heavier then I thought it was going to be. But, I guess being safe is a lot better then having the roof cave in on me should I ever roll. My Jeep is big boned, I just need to fully accept that.
A friend came over, and I gave him a beer. The next thing I knew, he was cutting holes in my hood!:scared:
Thanks to Jump This for the idea of not only cutting holes in the hood, but also to use magnet sheets to cover them.
Mine are a wee bit smaller (1-1/4'') then I think he used, but they will work basicly the exact same. I almost thought about doing some dimple died holes, but I figured it was a lot more effort then I really wanted to do. Maybe some day down the road I will do it, but for now, it will stay the way it is.
And finally, my dad cut the bottom half of the inner door panel off, and used some glue and clamps to get all of it back together. This will be the only interior panel that is going back on. Only reason for it is to try and keep some road noise out of the inside. Granted, the huge holes that I still need to patch might let in a little more noise, but thats another story.
And finally, its all coming together. Halo is off, but you can finally see how the boatsides look with all the body back together. Im glad I decided to keep the fenders. It looks a lot better then anything else I could have done, especially with a full bodied Jeep. Tomorrow hopefully more things will happen. Oh, and I have a schedualed wheeling trip this next weekend, so I need to be done by then:helpme:
Saturday afternoon/night a couple friends came over and we wired up a brake controller for my dads new truck. Found out the controller itself was bad, so I will have to get it replaced. Also swapped out a couple lights on a friends Jeep to get it back to "street legal" :spin1: Kinda sorta, not really.
Today I actually got a fair amount done, although most of it was stuff that just made it look like a lot was done, but in reality they were really small things.
Friend came over and in exchange for welding a couple things for him, he helped me wire up the ARB in my front axle. Got that all figured out, then looked at the instructions to make sure we did it right, and the instructions were wrong, we second guessed ourselves, and got severily confused until we figured out the directions were actually wrong and we did it right. Got that all sorted out, then found out the little air tank on my ARB air compressor has a crack in it:flamemad:
Since I have had this thing sitting in my room for the past 3 years and ARB only has a 2 year warranty, I am hoping they will be cool with me and send me a new one since it was litterally installed a couple weeks ago, never had air or wires on it, or even been out of the box. We shall see. I was rather pissed about that.
Got the girlfriends sisters gas pedal to not stick on her car. Brownie points for me.
Got the stock rear bumper and gas tank skid put back on. That was way more of a PITA then it needed to be.
Finished grinding the fenders and got them mounted. Looks pretty cool too.
I had to cut out more of the fender then I would have liked, but whatever. Still works for me.
I finished the passenger side seat mount. Need to bolt it onto the seat, and that is all finished (thank god).
My dad got my TJ mirror installed. This way I am "street legal" with two mirrors, although, now that I am towing, I dont know if I will ever really need it.
Got the entire front end back on. Front clip, lights, fenders and all that good stuff. I apparently misplaced about half of the nuts, bolts and screws that hold all that junk on, but for now, it will work. Junkyard, here I come.
Took the halo off for final welding. Its a lot heavier then I thought it was going to be. But, I guess being safe is a lot better then having the roof cave in on me should I ever roll. My Jeep is big boned, I just need to fully accept that.
A friend came over, and I gave him a beer. The next thing I knew, he was cutting holes in my hood!:scared:
Thanks to Jump This for the idea of not only cutting holes in the hood, but also to use magnet sheets to cover them.
Mine are a wee bit smaller (1-1/4'') then I think he used, but they will work basicly the exact same. I almost thought about doing some dimple died holes, but I figured it was a lot more effort then I really wanted to do. Maybe some day down the road I will do it, but for now, it will stay the way it is.
And finally, my dad cut the bottom half of the inner door panel off, and used some glue and clamps to get all of it back together. This will be the only interior panel that is going back on. Only reason for it is to try and keep some road noise out of the inside. Granted, the huge holes that I still need to patch might let in a little more noise, but thats another story.
And finally, its all coming together. Halo is off, but you can finally see how the boatsides look with all the body back together. Im glad I decided to keep the fenders. It looks a lot better then anything else I could have done, especially with a full bodied Jeep. Tomorrow hopefully more things will happen. Oh, and I have a schedualed wheeling trip this next weekend, so I need to be done by then:helpme:
Capt. Nemo
NAXJA Member #904
- Location
- Southwest, US
When you get the chance, I'd love to see some pics of the doors open and a couple of the inside to get an idea of how limber a person would have to be to get in and out 
.
.
- Location
- Lafayette, CA
When you get the chance, I'd love to see some pics of the doors open and a couple of the inside to get an idea of how limber a person would have to be to get in and out
Ill see what I can do tonight. You dont really need to be limber. I suppose you need to lift your leg a little bit higher, but If you can get in and out of a Jeep that has slidders and about 7'' of lift, you can do this.
You do need to have the ability to sort of hop in. I dont have the passenger side seat all the way in yet, so not sure what can be done on that side, but the drivers side I use the door (if its on), the steering wheel, and the seat to get in and out of it.
In mod tech there is a guy who used some sort of grab handle from a boat I think. I am thinking about adding a couple of those for the passenger side.
89xjgrey
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Columbus, Ohio
Keep up the great work!
Spanky88
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Gettysburg PA
i think they were kiack handles
- Location
- Port Orchard, WA
I grab the cage, put a foot on the front tire, swing one leg over the door bar, sit on the door bar, slide the other leg over the door bar, then slide into the seat.
takes some getting used to, but pretty straight forward after a bit. :dunno:
takes some getting used to, but pretty straight forward after a bit. :dunno:
- Location
- Lafayette, CA
Yep, they were
http://naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1002720
I doubt I will have a chance to do anything like that this summer, but we will see. Time is always an issue for me, so Im betting I will barely get the rig wheelable, let alone presentable by Saturday.
No real picture updates. I got some small stuff done, but its all taking a lot longer then I thought it would, if you can imagine that.
I got done: Hood speed holes, figured out where my seat belts are going to go, cut out some metal for the seat belt mounts, final welded the halo, painted most of the halo, cut out some plates to seal the roof where the cage sticks through, painted part of the doors, welded up all of those pesky holes that are in the roof for the stock "roof rack" stuff, lifted the halo back up and realized that some of the stuff still interfered, and got the drivers side interior door piece done.
I guess that is a lot, but I really dont feel like I did anything.
It was also hotter then hell here today. I drank ~10 glasses of water in 7 hours and I only took one piss, and even that was pitiful. I think Im a wee bit dehydrated.
Only pictures I have of today. First is a daylight picture of the boatsides and all bodywork. Second are my speed holes. Less weight=go faster!
Capt Nemo, sorry, I didnt get any pictures for you. But XJ Ranger pretty much explained how to get in and out. If you can get in and out of a lifted XJ, you can do this.
