x2 with that. Man, that looks really good.Not to derail your thread though - I think the CJ grill looks awesome on those custom fenders.
I like that idea too. Maybe use the Crown or Omix-ADA CJ housing for it?Any way to make the turn signals a little bit larger like the original CJ?
Almost. Here's the story on them... around the time I decided to build them, I met Tom Troll at SEMA - Tom was a founder and the CEO of Kentrol. Tom and I became friendly and I visited Kentrol several times to see Tom. On one of those visits I showed him concept drawings of what I had in mind, and he instantly said he wanted them (at the time Kentrol was a manufacturer of fiberglass parts). I asked him for a set of their MB fenders to use as starting patterns for the mold masters and he readily agreed. I took the MB fenders home, made the TJ mold masters and delivered them back to Tom. Shortly after I delivered the mold masters, Tom decided he wanted to sell Kentrol and retire. Since their fiberglass business wasn't as profitable as it used to be, he decided to shut that part of the business down in preparation for selling the business. I visited him after he made that decision and I took my mold masters back - they had already started making the production molds but hadn't quite finished yet. So they almost became Kentrol products and would have had Tom not decided to retire and sell the business. Since then I haven't done anything with them.@jscherb
Were you ever able to get the MB fenders to production?
I've designed this new grille as an overlay just like the factory chrome grille overlay, which means it installs over the factory grille/core support. No sense recreating the entire core support when an overlay will do the job just as well. But being an overlay, the headlights need to be in the factory location so I couldn't do what you suggest.I think I'd move the headlights a little closer to the center and maybe widen the slats in the grill (1/8" each?) to make the openings narrower.
X2 on all of that. For the turn signal enclosures you added to the lower-right grill (my favorite) the OE JK turn signal enclosures are ideal. They have the right proportions and accept the factory turn signal bulb enclosures without any modification.
Any way to make the turn signals a little bit larger like the original CJ? I'd be all over it if it were. I like the CJ look on the TJ, been wanting to do something like this for a long time and then fill in the signals on the fenders.
The way I've designed the mold, grilles with any size or type of turn signal (or no turn signals at all) can be molded. The recesses for the turn signals are done with mold inserts, so to make a grille with no turn signals, no inserts are put in the mold. To make a grille with recessed for JK turn signals, the appropriate size inserts are put in the mold.I like that idea too. Maybe use the Crown or Omix-ADA CJ housing for it?
The CJ grille is perfectly flat, there's no raised area. This is a photo of a CJ-7 grille, you can see it's flat with a simple hole that the back of the turn signal housing goes into. The hole is 3 5/8" in diameter. The rim of the turn signal is larger than the hole so the turn signal basically surface mounts over that hole and is held in place with two screws, the holes for which are visible in this photo.I think the larger CJ housing looks great. I'm guessing this next idea would require a second mold, but I think it would look good to add in a slightly raised area for the turn signals, like the CJ grill. Have it looking like it's supposed to be there, instead of just being surface mounted. That's nitpicking, but it would give it a little extra touch for the CJ look.
Ah! Okay nevermind. I was thinking it was raised a little.The CJ grille is perfectly flat, there's no raised area. This is a photo of a CJ-7 grille, you can see it's flat with a simple hole that the back of the turn signal housing goes into. The hole is 3 5/8" in diameter. The rim of the turn signal is larger than the hole so the turn signal basically surface mounts over that hole and is held in place with two screws, the holes for which are visible in this photo.
A CJ turn signal can mount on any flat surface that's large enough for the outside diameter of the bezel and has a 3 5/8 hole.
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I would love to see the steps you took to get the mold.I'll be happy to show all the steps it took to make the mold for the grille if people are interested, but for now I'll just jump ahead in the project a bit in this post. This is the "mold master", the part used to make the final mold from.
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And this is the mold made from that master. It's been prepped with mold release and it's ready for a grille to be molded in it.
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You'll notice that there is no provision in the master for mounting turn signals. I did this so that the same mold can be used to make grilles without turn signals or with recesses for turn signals. In the photo of the mold above you can see gray disks in the mold, these are removable forms for making turn signal recesses. To make a grille without turn signals these disks are not inserted in the mold; if they're in the mold the result will be recesses for mounting turn signals in. Different size inserts can be used - they could be sized for JK turn signals but in this case they're sized for sightly smaller lights.
Me tooI would love to see the steps you took to get the mold.
Me too