Betsy's Build

[ScottR]

Looks good Scott. How much clearance did you end up with between your head and the X? Did you put an X in below the seatbelt bar too?

My head is directly infront of the seat headrest. So the bar is a non-issue in regards to my head. The bar has a little more than 1/2" clearance from the seat head rest. I have not put in the X below the seatbelt bar. Blair still wants to be able to put people in the back seat. So, for now I have to keep the lower X out. Otherwise there would be zero leg/knee room. I know it isn't as strong as it could be since the the lower X isn't there, but it is better than no upper X.

 

[ScottR]

Ever since I made my windshield removable I wanted a bikini top that would work with the windshield on or off. A typical bought bikini top requires the windshield. So, I made a top. Ordered some waterproof canvas, had it sewn, added some grommets and zip tied it on. The plan is for it to stay on the jeep- soft top and hard top should fit over it with no issues. You can also see the light bar I installed a while back. I usually wheel with the windshield off so I wanted a lightbar that would work with the windshield removed. It is bolted to the roll cage. It fits with the soft top or hard top on.

 

[/dev/ram]

Sweet! Who'd you find to do the sewing?

 

[ScottR]

Neighbor. She has a sewing business- http://www.jshdesigns.com/

 

[ScottR]

I am always in pursuit of great offroad capability with daily driver characteristics for my rig. I decided to install a rear sway bar to increase the stability. Yes- you can increase the pressure in ORIs to make the rig more stable and drive like it is on rails. However, it is a balance- increasing the pressure in ORIs increases stability but also makes the harshness of the ride increase as well. I decided to give a rear Antirock a try. (Universal 45" kit)

Installed. The actual swaybar slides just over the frame rails and beneath/behind the body.

I had to put a slight bend in the arms to clear the frame. Thanks @BRUISER !

Here is the mount on the axle.

The ride is greatly improved. The lean around turns is very minimal. In the past, I had a slight rear steer when going around a turn at high speed and hitting a bump- that is totally gone. My wife drove the jeep without me telling her what the swaybar really does- her words, "It drives so much better. I feel more in control." Happy wife, happy life.

 

[adamk]

I like your parking brake set up. How well does it work?

 

[ScottR]

It works great. However, if I had it to do over again- I would have tried the Eldorado calipers with integrated parking brake. Here are some reasons I would not do it again:
It took work to fab up the bracket.
It introduces more connections (potential leaks/fail points) for my rear brakes.
Introduces places that could trap air bubbles in the rear brake lines.
Always worried that the state inspection will hassle me about it (knock on wood- no one has said anything about it).

Let me know if you have any additional questions about it.

 

[adamk]

I have looked into Eldorado calipers but, from my readings, they are very finicky, leaky, and don't actually work all that well. I have been playing around with the idea of a hydraulic hand brake for some time but could not come up with a good way of doing it. I had been looking at full handbrake assemblies and didn't like the way they looked. Never did it cross my mind to use the factory handle/cable to operate the slave cylinder. I like your idea and will probably be doing something very very similar.

 

[ghost]

It works great. However, if I had it to do over again- I would have tried the Eldorado calipers with integrated parking brake. Here are some reasons I would not do it again:
It took work to fab up the bracket.
It introduces more connections (potential leaks/fail points) for my rear brakes.
Introduces places that could trap air bubbles in the rear brake lines.
Always worried that the state inspection will hassle me about it (knock on wood- no one has said anything about it).

Let me know if you have any additional questions about it.

How does that slave tie into your existing brake system? Does it not push the fluid up to the master? Path of least resistance?

 

[ScottR]

I assume you are talking about the parking brake- It is in-line with the rear brake line (before it T's to the two wheels). It only puts pressure one way- towards the rear brakes. Never had an issue of it pushing (or at least not a lot of volume) the fluid back up to the master. Works great. Never had an issue....knock on wood.

 

[ghost]

I assume you are talking about the parking brake- It is in-line with the rear brake line (before it T's to the two wheels). It only puts pressure one way- towards the rear brakes. Never had an issue of it pushing (or at least not a lot of volume) the fluid back up to the master. Works great. Never had an issue....knock on wood.

So your master feeds this slave and then goes to your rear brakes?

 

[ScottR]

That is correct.

 

[ScottR]

Betsy keeps truckin. My children are going to wheel with me more in the future. So, now is a good time to improve the safety in the backseat. I removed the old rear crossbar and installed the Poison Spyder Rear Spreader Bar Kit (Rear crossbar and two overhead bars). My in-laws are always looking for things to get me for Christmas- this seemed like a good gift. It is for the grand kids after all.
The kit is great- everything lined up perfectly. There are even laser etchings on the rear bar to show you where the overhead bars should line up. I have the ability (friends have the tools) to bend and cope tube, so this kit is a little on the pricey side. But, I don't get as much time in the shop as I use to, so this saved a lot of time to get a project finished that I have been meaning to do for some time. I ordered some saddle gussets (from A&A Manufacturing- Great prices!). Should get those installed in a few days. I am also going to add some small weld-on zip tie tabs to make it easier to attach my custom bikini top. Then, wipe it all down and throw on a coat of primer and paint.

 

[ScottR]

I got the remaining gussets welded in. Painted the cage. My speaker sound bar would no longer work with the new cross bars so I installed speaker pods that came in the 2003+ TJs. Painted the canvas top as well. It was faded really bad.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

 

[ScottR]

It has been a while since I have updated my build thread. I am going to share some of my mods over the past few years- in no particular order.

I got tired of having a canvas bikini top. I wanted something that didn't flap and was safer for myself and my family. I decided to go with a sheet of aluminum. Of course the sheet I needed had to be more than 50" in one direction and roughly that long in the other direction. So, I had to buy a 5' wide sheet- that was expensive!

I used several small pieces as templates to get the angles and length's correct. I did not want to screwup such an expensive piece of metal.

Getting the bends in the big piece of aluminum was...interesting. It took a very heavy tool bench and everything that @BRUISER, @Black Bear and myself had to get it bent. I really wish we had a picture of that night!!

I picked up a TIG welder a few years ago. However, I did not trust myself to weld the two front seams. Time to call in the Pro- Nick Koupiaris of NTK Fabworks in Rougemont. He was able to make quick work of it.

Here is a close up of one of the seams- better than I could have done. Nice work Nick!

Getting close- still need to install the tabs to bolt it down-

I put some openings in the rear corners so it is easy to grab on the roll bar to climb up on the rear bumper.

To get rid of some of the 'tin' sound- I coated the under side in bed liner. This helped. I also ended up putting a small amount of foam at each mounting point.

Here it is out on the trails- works great. It fits under the soft-top.

A few months later, I decided that the roof looked naked- it needed something....

 

[ScottR]

On a recent trip- I flopped the jeep on its side. It didn't get much damage at all. However, a few things fell out of the back. So, that prompted me to find a better solution to keep my stuff more secure, while still being easy to get in-and-out. I also wanted it to be waterproof. Lastly, it needed to fit under the soft-top when it is folded down. So, I turned to Milwaukee Packouts. I found an aluminum mount to attach them to the floor of the rear storage area. Here they are installed. I plan to get the Milwaukee soft tool bag so my tools can be locked in as well.
In the packouts-
1. Electrical supplies, tire patch kit, zip ties, duct tape, miscellaneous small items.
2. Spare tie-rod ends (I know those are possible weak point for me), D60 slug (ask @BRUISER how nice it is to have it with you on the trail.)
3. Air hose and spare winch controller.

 

[BRUISER]

On a recent trip- I flopped the jeep on its side. It didn't get much damage at all. However, a few things fell out of the back. So, that prompted me to find a better solution to keep my stuff more secure, while still being easy to get in-and-out. I also wanted it to be waterproof. Lastly, it needed to fit under the soft-top when it is folded down. So, I turned to Milwaukee Packouts. I found an aluminum mount to attach them to the floor of the rear storage area. Here they are installed. I plan to get the Milwaukee soft tool bag so my tools can be locked in as well.
In the packouts-
1. Electrical supplies, tire patch kit, zip ties, duct tape, miscellaneous small items.
2. Spare tie-rod ends (I know those are possible weak point for me), D60 slug (ask @BRUISER how nice it is to have it with you on the trail.)
3. Air hose and spare winch controller.

View attachment 446047

yup my slugs were in trailer..

I know have slugs in my jeep also