Gauging interest on the CJ / JL grille overlay for the TJ

[Chris]

First and foremost, the credit for the design of this grille goes to @jscherb.

This thread is a result of the original thread here:

https://wranglertjforum.com/threads/updating-backdating-the-tj-grille.31660/
He and I are in discussions right now about me brining this grille (and some of his other products) to market and manufacturing them. However, before I get ahead of myself, I want to gauge the interest for something like this.

The grille would look identical to the grille in the photos and be made in high quality fiberglass. It would come trimmed and ready to install, you'd just have to have it painted.

The other issue (and perhaps this could be an option) would be how many people would want it with the provision for CJ style turn signals, and how many people would want it with no blinkers at all (like a JL grille)?

So when you respond to this post, please answer the following questions:

1. Do you have any interest in this grille being produced?
2. What would you be willing to pay for this grille?
3. Would you want one with or without CJ turn signal provisions?
4. Are you willing to put down the money upfront (after manufacturing costs are determined) to secure one?

If this does happen, it's going to be crowd sourced so to speak. In other words, I'm going to talk to various different places that specialize in fiberglass (@jscherb has the molds) and get costs. Once we determine a cost for a run of X amount of grilles, I can then come back with a real world cost for the grille.

If there is enough interest and enough people are willing to pay upfront, we can get these made.

Looking forward to the responses!

 

[jeepins]

Although i'm not interested in one (if I did, would most likely hang it on the garage wall) but these look fantastic and hard to tell by the pics that it's fiberglass.

 

[ToddDerrArtist]

My 2 cents, why not round out the slots like a CJ's?
For me, though, I would keep my TJ looking like TJ.

Not poo pooing what anyone else would do. I'm a do your own thing kinda person.

 

[Apparition]

It’s a cool grill but not for me. His other items would likely have a larger market appeal.

I could see people buying a good TJ tailgate table. If it was non obtrusive and functional.

 

[A. Paul]

It would be nice if we could get a picture of it on a jeep to see how it really looks.

 

[Chris]

@jscherb, do you have any photos of it mounted on a TJ?

 

[jscherb]

@jscherb, do you have any photos of it mounted on a TJ?

I do not, sorry. The best I can offer are these photo-edits, on the right a photo of the grille has been superimposed on the left photo.

 

[Starrs]

Keep it original

 

[jjvw]

JL overlay with recessed JK turn signals

$175 up front

I honestly don't know what a fair price is for one of these. The "nicer" JK grills are between $150-200. So that is where I came up with my number.

 

[pagrey]

JL overlay with CJ turn signals

$175 up front

I honestly don't know what a fair price is for one of these. The "nicer" JK grills are between $150-200. So that is where I came up with my number.

Is that a number you would pay for this? I know Blaine has said very clearly most people don't actually end up buying any of these thing so are you saying you will buy it $175 or you just think it should be priced at $175?

I personally would not purchase the grill, hope that isn't unkind but simply an answer to the question.

 

[jjvw]

Is that a number you would pay for this? I know Blaine has said very clearly most people don't actually end up buying any of these thing so are you saying you will buy it $175 or you just think it should be priced at $175?

I personally would not purchase the grill, hope that isn't unkind but simply an answer to the question.

I'm interested and I answered Chris's questions to get the ball rolling. Let's see where this goes.

 

[texvet]

Those are actually pretty slick. Would work great with a fender delete, or flat fender. Maybe do a photo overlay with a flat fender.

 

[LONGJP2]

I'm intrested. Would prefer to pay under 150, just in case I never install it. Definitely CJ style turn signals, but would they be CJ or JK size holes?
Also, you may need to post this on some of the other major forums to help lower the price.

 

[jscherb]

Those are actually pretty slick. Would work great with a fender delete, or flat fender. Maybe do a photo overlay with a flat fender.

For example...

 

[jscherb]

I'm intrested. Would prefer to pay under 150, just in case I never install it. Definitely CJ style turn signals, but would they be CJ or JK size holes?
Also, you may need to post this on some of the other major forums to help lower the price.

CJ turn signals are surface mount and don't need recesses molded into the grille but they do need a hole in the flat face of the grille for the back of the turn signal to fit into. A grille set up for JK turn signals would have recesses molded in.

This is a mockup with CJ turn signals sitting on the grille:

And this is a mockup with JK turn signals sitting on the grille (these happen to be LEDs with smoke lenses but they're what I had handy when I was doing the mockups):

Neither of the above turn signals are installed, they're just posed on the grille.

JK turn signals would be recessed like the ones on this JL-style grille for the JK:

 

[jscherb]

Another option I should mention - for JK turn signals the grille could be molded with recesses for the turn signals to fit into as on the JL-style grille for the JK in the post above, or JK turn signals could be surface mounted like on this JL-style grille for the JK:

 

[Rubicon John]

The downside to this concept is that the people buying it would be people replacing their front fenders also. That unfortunately makes this mod quite a bit more expensive than just the cost of the grill and limits who would be interested.

I think it looks great but I’m not planning on getting rid of my fenders

 

[jjvw]

The downside to this concept is that the people buying it would be people replacing their front fenders also. That unfortunately makes this mod quite a bit more expensive than just the cost of the grill and limits who would be interested.

I think it looks great but I’m not planning on getting rid of my fenders

Why can't the factory fenders be used?

 

[jscherb]

The downside to this concept is that the people buying it would be people replacing their front fenders also. That unfortunately makes this mod quite a bit more expensive than just the cost of the grill and limits who would be interested.

I think it looks great but I’m not planning on getting rid of my fenders

Why can't the factory fenders be used?

They can. A factory fender with a turn signal blanking plate bolted in place of the factory signal.

 

[jscherb]

Or the grille could be molded without any turn signals and the factory signals could remain in the fenders.