OP
Daily Driver, Go Where I Want To Build
- Thread starter jjvw
- Start date
OP
That entirely explains to me one of your earlier comments - where you had said that running without a tailgate is a bad idea. Thanks the the visual that really makes it clear.
We here refer to it as "bedazzling"
OP
i used 4" flat bars that extend from the chopped ends out to support the corners. then used the drilled out plug weld holes to re-weld the corners back to the new backing plates.
i'm interested in what y'all do with the body mounts, compared to what i ended up with. the section under the tub is not very hefty material.
That should be qualified with "bad idea without doing something else to stabilize the tub opening for the tail gate". If you welded a crossbar between the roll bar down legs right in front of the opening, that would replicate the function of the tail gate.
That is what the wings are in the pic below. A single piece that extends through from the edge of the radius that is the round tub corner through to the other side.
We drilled through from the outside to miss the existing armor holes, countersunk and through bolted using undercut head fasteners. Also why I didn't remove that part of the torque box, I wanted the extra thickness.
I knew I was going to set the new torque box back onto mounts. As such, I wanted to shorten the unsupported span some with a vertical stiffener. If you look carefully, you can see the weld line from the pieces we cut and welded inside that go full height and width front to back. The circles are approximately where we drilled and set the big frame nutserts used for the belly skid.
We cut the front face and ends off of the existing torque box so that piece above could slide in. The two pieces that extend away in the above picture, go straight up and lap onto the inside of the cargo area side wall. The lower lip with the arrow was stitch welded full length to the bottom of our new torque box.
What isn't obvious is what the other pics with the straight edges show. You can almost see it but it was obvious when we were test fitting the first full length 4" piece from side to side. The top of this torque box got jumped on before welding so the rear section dipped down in the middle by over 1/4".
We had to grind a curve into the top of the piece that went against the back wall.
But, we did not want that same curve showing up against the tub at the forward face of the torque box, so we tacked in the cap to follow the curve and the warped it back to straight to weld it to that whole front edge.
All the way across with the body mounts on top of the rear crossmember under the ends of it.
I had the same separation at Josh. Although mine was on the drivers side. I had welded along the inside corner of the tub/cargo area. It has been holding great. Although seeing how the torque box is mounted now I attribute most of that to the mounting of the ORFAB tire carrier to be helping as well since it bolts through the wing area.
Knowing what I know now, I would add some more holes in corner armor so 4 of them landed in that rear face to really tie that in better. There'd be lots of bitching about the odd bolt pattern but it would be worth it.
You fucked up the quote by not hitting enter to get out of the text box but the material is 1/8" x 4 across the back. The rest is 1/8" by various widths to fit.
nathanotis
TJ Enthusiast
This is the first picture in 2 pages that I've understood!
Sitting down and trying to learn. Thanks all!
There is a lot of these just hacked up running around out there. Glad for this page. It’s the little unknown details that separate a quality rig.