- Location
- Port Orchard, WA
no worries man.
This looks great - whenever I am adding sheet metal to my junk, I always try and tie it into more than one plane to gain structure and stiffness, and you the little touches like conforming the metal to the side and bottom under the frame horns and right on the outside of the motor mount area (In my opinion at least) make all the difference.
It looks really good.
3/16" is a bit heavy for my taste, but my rig is probably lighter than yours, and I'm not trying to get longevity out of the chassis as a daily driver anymore. Its lucky to get out 12 times a year.
Did you get a chance to take it around to rouch creek yet and see if there is a difference in stiffness?
I didn't really realize it when I was chatting with you on the lake bed yet, but one of the things that I'd always liked about riding in the XJ buggies like Ron's and Matt's was that they always felt solid -- hitting a bump, the 'feel' was transmitted through the chassis as was expected. In my rig, I'd always felt the rig react differently, and with various squeaking and popping - but on Sunday, I took the rig over to ClawHammer with Starbord M following for a quick run up claw to finish the weekend, and really got it up to speed, and noticed how tying the front end together with the tubework really made a difference in how quiet the suspension was and how the rig reacted.
I dont have frame plates too much further forward of my lower control arm mounts, until the JKS plates, but I'd imagine that tying the entire frame togeher like that would make for the same 'stiffening' effect similar to what I expierenced...
