*Note to self. Don't post things that are really difficult halfway through a project that you can easily screw up and need to scrap.
That said...... I wanted to share because I'm happy with the progress even if it means jinxing myself.
I spent 3 hours or so in the garage tonight for the first time in forever on the tj. I probably should be checking bolts and that kind of thing preping for moab but some aluminum bar has been staring at me since early summer when I ordered it after reading
@starkey480 build. The front armor and slider he made really inspired this. Goal is to make some rub rails since savvy doesn't any more.
Now I know the easy way out would be to just armor the flat panel but I bought enough to attempt a bend and worse case chop it off if I failed.
This was my starting point. A long piece of 1" by 1.25" 6160 (going off memory for the measurements)
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I marked where the bend started plus 2" or so past the front so I had some room for error. I then marked 4 spots 1" from the bend, later on I added another mark 1 inch further down.
After lots of trips to the press and some creative methods to try and get closer to the goal I arrived here.
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While there's still a gap and some waves from sanding going on I'm extremely happy with what came out bend wise.
Next, I took off the corner armor and clamped the piece in order to drill out the holes using the back of the corner as a guide. I used the top of the corner armor as a guide since I need room for the gr rear fenders.
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I drilled out all the holes and used the counter sink bit I have so the bolts will sit flush.
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Next will come trimming off the edges and rounding the sides (pretty it up). Before that I need to do the other side, which I'm a bit nervous for because I feel like I already pulled off one miracle, and don't want to spend more time on this side before knowing the other side will work and I'm not chopping off the rounded area.
My thought was this is the harder side since it's longer but who knows.
So far a fun project and feels great to be working on the jeep again even if it ends up failing.