Another write-up coming later tonight .. but a couple teaser pics first to whet the appetite.
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I posted these two photos earlier ... but I don't think folks really understood the level of work that was needed to get the skid plate profile match THAT perfectly with the crossmember.
Just for story telling, I am repeating the 1st pic to show what Blaine made happen on the orange jeep. Notice now the shape of the crossmember and the skid plate are sooooooo nicely matched. It did not come that way from the shop that makes these items!
From the shop, the bends on these different pieces are never exactly the same. They are close, but not perfectly matched due to the nature of how they are made. In addition, when they are bolted together, the frame side fasteners suck the end flanges in the crossmember flat and that changes the shape of the bends and therefore you see gaps. The only way to make them fit without gaps is to mark the shape of the skid (when it is in place) onto the crossmember, then carefully cut that line in the bottom of the crossmember .. and while that is easy to visualize, it is very hard to do get it super perfect that it leaves no gaps whatsoever.
I am going to quote Blaine here on how he accomplished what you see in the pic above - so as to not butcher the technical details.
I pondered it overnight and came up with a great solution. I cut a piece of ¾” birch hardwood to length, and then using our poorly cut stiffener, traced that onto it. Routed that off to a perfect profile of the stiffener after some jigsaw work and then I set it in place, marked the fore and aft location, removed it, and then waxed the skid in that area as a release agent. Once the wax was dry, I squirted autobody 2-part urethane structural adhesive onto the lower edge of my template and plopped it in place taking pains to locate it, smoosh it down until I could see the adhesive ooze out, and then squared it up. 2 hours later after it cured out, we flexed up the middle of the skid with the floor jack to pop it loose with the now exact shape of the skid on it. Trimmed the flash off of one side and it is a perfect template for a flush trim router bit.
What it looked like after we popped it loose with the flash trimmed on one side.
In place with the stiffener and my crappy cut.
After routing.
Final fitment.
No gaps between bottom of crossmember and skid plate!!
Essentially what you are seeing is Blaine demonstrating very skilled and clever mold making and casting to get to the level of perfection he desired for the fitment. The crazy part? This mold will only work for this jeep. If one were to do it again, another mold is needed since a different skid and crossmember will fit differently slightly differently to each other since the bends are going to be just that slightly different.

Was any of this needed or does this add anything for performance? No and No. Then why spend time doing all this extra work? Because he wanted to and because he could solve that specific conundrum. And in the pursuit he (and all of us) learned something that can be reused in a different context at a later time if the need arises. For me, watching stuff like this happen in this build is just absolutely joyful and being able to write about this here and document it brings another whole layer of enjoyment.
Not a direct analogy, but in my world it's akin to a physicist doing some exploratory math for a problem and discovering a beautiful symmetry in the equations and taking a moment to pause and appreciate that symmetry just for the pure joy of it. That puts a smile on my face thinking about it and I hope this post gives folks reading all this something to think about in their own pursuits.
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