Poject - Fixing a beat XJ

[beer_goggles_009]

Just curious... why did you bring the drip rail tubes inward after the A pillars?


If you look at an Xj the outside of the A pillar along the windshield is not vertical (looking at the vehicle from the front). The A pillars up he windshield slope inward. In order to match the boy lines ,I had to put a 10 degree bend in the A pillar bar at the transition from fender to windshield. This caused the Drip rails to be pointed ~13 degrees toward the center of the vehicle. The bend is there to make the outer bars parallel to the side of the jeep as give me something slide along.

jim

 

[vetteboy]

Just remembered where the rest of my pics were.

 

[vetteboy]

I didn't find an issue with the drip rail thing...?

Either way...

 

[RCman]

I didn't find an issue with the drip rail thing...?

Either way...

I didn't either, and as you know after seeing your A-Pillar in person I knew I wanted mine to "copy it".

Jim, believe it or not there are actually 6 bends in my bars from the fender to the roof line. There are 2 bends that are no more than 3 degrees and those alone made a world of difference.
As above, either way it will work.

 

[beer_goggles_009]

My A pillar bars only have 4 bends (angles are guess off the top of my head)

1 at the transition from fender - A pillar (10 deg)
1 to lean the A pillar inward (45 deg)
1 at the transition from A pillar to roof (45 deg)
1 align the tube with the drip edge (13 deg)


My tubes also do not fit the body near as well as RCman or Vettboy's. I'm jealous of both of your cages.

Jim

 

[RCman]

My A pillar bars only have 4 bends (angles are guess off the top of my head)

1 at the transition from fender - A pillar (10 deg)
1 to lean the A pillar inward (45 deg)
1 at the transition from A pillar to roof (45 deg)
1 align the tube with the drip edge (13 deg)


My tubes also do not fit the body near as well as RCman or Vettboy's. I'm jealous of both of your cages.

Jim

Nothing to be jealous of, trust me anyone can do what I did. Just takes a little extra time.

Your notches are looking good. I like the tubes to come together at a true center than next to it, but sometime you don't have a choice.

I would however really reconsider that windshield bar. Is that one bar worth not being about to replace the it later? Only a slightly different style and it'll be a hassle, not not impossible.

 

[Lowrange2]

1 at the transition from A pillar to roof (45 deg)
1 align the tube with the drip edge (13 deg)

Seems to me that if you had addressed both of these angles in one bend then it would have lined up. It'd be a rather complex angle but apparently it's doable. I'm so ready to get my bender and start on my junk.

 

[beer_goggles_009]

After thinking about it for a while..... I moved the windshield bar,now I should be able to replace the windshield once it finally cracks in my line of vision.

close up of the corner that used to cover the corner of the windshield

I also got some advice that by reversing the order of tube assembly ( mating the B pillar with the X brace bars first then central windshield support.), I should be able to create a true node in the center of the roof. this arrangement will result in only one compound notch per bar and should allow full welds of each joint. I'll see how it goes.

jim

 

[Lowrange2]

How much material have you used on this so far?

 

[beer_goggles_009]

Thus far there is about 75 Feet of tube on the jeep. I have about 10 feet of small scrap around the garage. My CAD model showed that I needed about 90 ft total.


jim

 

[Lowrange2]

Cool, I was thinking I'd need about 120ft. So that's pretty close. I want to do almost exactly like you, RCman, and VetteBoy. I really like the narrower front end on Vetteboy's.

I saw a build thread for it a while back but have no idea where it went.

Lookin good!

 

[vetteboy]

Seems to me that if you had addressed both of these angles in one bend then it would have lined up. It'd be a rather complex angle but apparently it's doable.

Yep. Actually it wasn't complex at all, that was the first bend I did on the whole project.

I don't do much measuring of angles etc. I use two pieces of flat stock with a bolt through the ends as an impromptu angle gauge that I can lock into position. I line that up on the truck and tighten the bolt down, then hold it next to whatever I'm bending until it looks right. At times I'll still use the bending-101 method too.

For doing bends in a different plane, I end up sighting down the top of the tube and just putting a mark on the plane where I want the bend to be, then orienting that mark with the die in the bender.

Also don't be afraid to cut & splice tube if you wind up with the wrong length or something's out of plane and you need to rotate it after the fact. A piece of 1.5" x .25 DOM a few inches long, slipped inside both halves of your cage tube, then welded all together is fine.

Here's how my bender is set up, nothin' fancy.

My rig is all kinds of tweaked and asymmetrical anyway so I find it easier to go by visuals and test-fitting instead of measuring things.

If you do need to make multiple bends in the same plane, my buddy made this homebrew tube clamp thing, that you stick on the end of your tube as you're feeding it in and just make sure it stays level the whole time.

You can also use that if you have a measurment of how far you need to rotate the plane for the next bend, but I haven't gotten that complicated with it yet.

The front end on mine isn't actually narrowed at all. This is how it looks now and likely will stay this way til the end of time. Way too much work to change any of it now and it works well enough.

Sorry to hog up your build thread, just tryin to throw some ideas/tips out there that I've found useful.

 

[Lowrange2]

I guess that arial photo just made it look narrowed with the lack of fenders and all.

 

[beer_goggles_009]

Made some more progress this weekend. All of the tubes are bent, notched, and tacked or sitting in place. I did end up creating a node at the center where all of the roof bars meet. The advise that I was given was correct. If you can make each bar have only 1 compound notch will be able to weld one layer then slide in tube that covers part of the joint without any trouble. The order of assembly need to be diagonals then central windshield support bar last.

Anyway here are the pictures:

Next I needed to work on the tie ins for the B-C and D pillars.

B pillar tie in attaches to the frame rail and the supports for my rocker replacements.

C pillar tie in plate:

Now I just need to add a few more tacks to hold everything in place while I raise the entire cage for final welding.


jim

 

[RCman]

Looking good.
I'm just a little concerned and confused as to why you are not tying the B-Pillar directly into the leg from the rockers. What is going on here and here?
Also, any plans for a harness bar(s)?

 

[beer_goggles_009]

Origionally I was planning on tie-ing the B pillar into the legs on of the rockers. However, while I was building the rockers I was not thinking about positioning the legs to tie into the cage so I made them equally spaced along the rocker. This resulted in the pillar bars and legs not lining up. The pictures that you referenced show the B pillar mounts. They are a platform made from a piece of 1-3/4 box welded to half of a piece of 1-3/4 box. The platform will be positioned as shown in the pictures and welded to the support leg and the frame rail then the B pillar bars will be welded to the platform and some gussets will be added.

I am going to hold off on building a harness bar for now since I still have the stock seats. I need to do more research into seats and harness before commiting one way or another. This Jeep typically does not see any high speeds or racing so I think the stock seats will be fine for a litle longer.


jim

 

[beer_goggles_009]

Short update: I finished welding together the majority of the cage today. To access all of the joints, I used rachet straps connected to the cage and the holes in the angle iron holding up my carage door opener.

sorry the picture looks blurry, the garage filled up with smoke after I accidentally drug the plstic line from my air comprssor infront of my propane heater. Luckily there was no damage other than the air line. But my day was cut short because I had to let the garage air out.

jim

 

[beer_goggles_009]

The cage is now welded to the jeep, and I have been working on some additional bracing, gussets, ect.Here is a picture how the C pillar is tied to the rear seat-back mount.

For those of you who have some experience with this how have you connected the A pillar into the cowl? I was considering one large plate from rocker to almost the windshield, or two smaller plates that would tie into the hinges for the front doors. Thoughts?


I also added a horizontal bar at the rear, it is only tacked in, I'm not sure If I like it there or not yet. Would be happy to hear your comments on it.

jim

 

[RCman]

For those of you who have some experience with this how have you connected the A pillar into the cowl? I was considering one large plate from rocker to almost the windshield, or two smaller plates that would tie into the hinges for the front doors. Thoughts?

This picture shows how I tied mine in. I plated the area (be careful not to melt stuff on the inside) then dropped the tube down to it.

I also added a horizontal bar at the rear, it is only tacked in, I'm not sure If I like it there or not yet. Would be happy to hear your comments on it.

Meh. Something just doesn't look right to me. I'm not sure if it is the horizontal bar or the fact that the tubes coming down are not out and back far enough. Structurally it will probably be fine with a little bracing.

 

[beer_goggles_009]

Its been a while since I have updated this thread. Here are some pictures of how it currently sits. I'm pretty happy with how the front came out. The front bumper/crossmember is removable and sticks out no more than 1.5" past the front of the grill insert. I still need to figure out a support for the corners of the hood bars.

jim