Updating (backdating?) the TJ grille

[jscherb]

I'm in love with that JL style TJ grill. Can you share the info as to who bought the mold?

I haven't asked him if he wants to be known so without doing that it's not my place to post his name. I can say that the mold went to a forum member; if he wants people to know he has the mold and/or is interested in making grille overlays from the mold available, he can reveal himself. I haven't heard that he's done anything with the mold yet.

As for the one completed example hanging on my wall, if I ever decide to part with it I will post it here first.

 

[LONGJP2]

I'm in love with that JL style TJ grill.

IMO, it's a CJ style TJ grill.

 

[jscherb]

IMO, it's a CJ style TJ grill.

Actually I drew inspiration from both the CJ and the JL/JT. I wanted the design to be inspired by the CJ's turn signals in the grille and the slots intersecting the headlights, and I wanted to echo the more aggressive styling of the first gen JL and JT grilles. I did a lot of design sketches, starting with the factory grille:

And ended up here:

Once I had a final design with dimensions, I proceeded to make the components of the mold and the end result was exactly what I was attempting to achieve.

I designed the mold so various turn signal options could be implemented; the drawing above shows JK turn signals and the first example I molded had recesses for slightly smaller LED turn signals:

 

[NashvilleTJ]

Actually I drew inspiration from both the CJ and the JL/JT. I wanted the design to be inspired by the CJ's turn signals in the grille and the slots intersecting the headlights, and I wanted to echo the more aggressive styling of the first gen JL and JT grilles. I did a lot of design sketches, starting with the factory grille:

View attachment 519966

And ended up here:

View attachment 519967

Once I had a final design with dimensions, I proceeded to make the components of the mold and the end result was exactly what I was attempting to achieve.

I designed the mold so various turn signal options could be implemented; the drawing above shows JK turn signals and the first example I molded had recesses for slightly smaller LED turn signals:

View attachment 519968

Jeff - What software do you use for your drawings?

 

[Mike_H]

Jeff - What software do you use for your drawings?

I was going to ask the same thing...

 

[jscherb]

Jeff - What software do you use for your drawings?

I've been using Microsoft Visio for my drawings for many years. Most people think of it as a business graphics program, but it's far more capable than that. I do all of my design work with it, here are a few examples:

When I was building my LJ-based "Retro Wrangler" pickup, I did all the dimensioning and frame modification design with Visio:

And here's something much simpler, this is part of an ammo can/battery tray design that goes inside over the rear inner fenders of an LJ, I carry and ammo can on in one on the passenger side and my auxiliary/kitchen battery in one on the driver's side:

I do lots of concept images using a combination of Visio and Paint Shop Pro, this image was one of the first ones I did when designing the Safari Cab hardtop:

Funny thing about the image above, back when I did it I was involved in some things with Microsoft and I shared the image with them. They couldn't believe it was done in Visio and asked me to serve on their Visio Customer Advisory Council, which I did for a couple of years.

A few other concepts - this TJ photo was sent to me by someone who was considering buying a TJ Safari Cab from Gr8Tops, in the original image the TJ had a soft top. I replaced the soft top with a Visio-drawn Safari Cab...

And I added a Safari Cab to this Scrambler image:

In Visio you can draw shapes using lines and other basic elements like all other drawing programs, but a nice feature of the program is the ability to create palettes of shapes that you can drag and drop onto your drawing. In this screen shot, a palette of Jeep and Safari Cab parts is at left, those shapes can be dragged/dropped onto the drawing to quickly create a drawing of any TJ/YJ/CJ with any Safari Cab configuration. In this image I'm in the process of dragging a half door from the palette to the drawing (the mouse pointer didn't show up in the screen shot but it's over the half door):

And finally, I've done dozens of illustrations for magazines and since I generally get paid for those illustrations I guess that makes me a semi-professional illustrator. Here's an example, this drawing of locomotives was for a railroad magazine; they're narrow gauge locomotives on the Welsh Highland Railway in Wales:

I suppose one of these days I'll give up Visio for a 3d CAD program, but Visio is so capable I hesitate to give it up.

 

[Mike_H]

I've been using Microsoft Visio for my drawings for many years. Most people think of it as a business graphics program, but it's far more capable than that. I do all of my design work with it, here are a few examples:

When I was building my LJ-based "Retro Wrangler" pickup, I did all the dimensioning and frame modification design with Visio:

View attachment 520088

And here's something much simpler, this is part of an ammo can/battery tray design that goes inside over the rear inner fenders of an LJ, I carry and ammo can on in one on the passenger side and my auxiliary/kitchen battery in one on the driver's side:

View attachment 520089

I do lots of concept images using a combination of Visio and Paint Shop Pro, this image was one of the first ones I did when designing the Safari Cab hardtop:

View attachment 520090

Funny thing about the image above, back when I did it I was involved in some things with Microsoft and I shared the image with them. They couldn't believe it was done in Visio and asked me to serve on their Visio Customer Advisory Council, which I did for a couple of years.

A few other concepts - this TJ photo was sent to me by someone who was considering buying a TJ Safari Cab from Gr8Tops, in the original image the TJ had a soft top. I replaced the soft top with a Visio-drawn Safari Cab...

View attachment 520091

And I added a Safari Cab to this Scrambler image:

View attachment 520092

In Visio you can draw shapes using lines and other basic elements like all other drawing programs, but a nice feature of the program is the ability to create palettes of shapes that you can drag and drop onto your drawing. In this screen shot, a palette of Jeep and Safari Cab parts is at left, those shapes can be dragged/dropped onto the drawing to quickly create a drawing of any TJ/YJ/CJ with any Safari Cab configuration. In this image I'm in the process of dragging a half door from the palette to the drawing (the mouse pointer didn't show up in the screen shot but it's over the half door):

View attachment 520093

And finally, I've done dozens of illustrations for magazines and since I generally get paid for those illustrations I guess that makes me a semi-professional illustrator. Here's an example, this drawing of locomotives was for a railroad magazine; they're narrow gauge locomotives on the Welsh Highland Railway in Wales:

View attachment 520094

I suppose one of these days I'll give up Visio for a 3d CAD program, but Visio is so capable I hesitate to give it up.

Never in a million years would I have guessed Visio! I’ve only ever used it for flow charting. Nice work!