What is this plug / cover for? Does it need to be there?

TRUFORD

Member
Joined
Aug 14, 2019
Messages
35
Location
Rocky Mount NC
I removed the fender flares and found this tape like stuff covering some of the larger holes. There was also a hole where the tape cover came off? What is it and do i need to make sure these holes are covered?
IMG_20190912_181953295.jpg
IMG_20190912_182001524.jpg
 
I live in Indiana, the Salt Capital of the Known Universe so if it were me, I'd seal those holes back up to prevent road crap from getting in there but I see you're from NC so It might not matter as much there.
 
That is the Toledo Assembly line, I find it hard to belive that the sheet metal will support the body of a jeep in that location, but they make damn good drain hole for fording deep water
 
If they were drain holes, why would they be taped up and hidden by body work instead of removable and accessible plugs?

My guess would be that the accountants figured out that a piece of tape is cheaper both in material cost and installation cost than a plug. They may not be intended to be drain holes, that was just my guess. I know they did not use them to lift an assembled jeep body during the vehicle assembly process or the paint process.
 
I know they did not use them to lift an assembled jeep body during the vehicle assembly process or the paint process.
I guess senior Jeep engineer and "father of the Jeep Rubicon" Jim Repp was wrong about the purpose of that hole when he told me what it was used for after I asked him, that it was just used during manufacturing. :)
 
Well the pic I posed was from the Toledo Assembly line is 04" and no they are not used to lower the jeep body on the frame. Used during manufacturing, probably so but not assembly. I can see where they could be used in alignment of the panels during the Jeep BODY assembly.
 
looks like they were used in welding the body together once it was assembled, I believe they call that the FRAMMER operation, as a guide for the automated welders.
 
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LOOK AT THE PICTURE I POSTED
So your argument against those holes as mounting points is that the body is carried another way at one point during assembly?

They can’t be for drain since they’re water tight and not accessible. The only thing behind there are rivets, which are put in from the front. They don’t add anything structural. The only real possibility is for manufacturing. I don’t know TJ’s that well, but 911 bodies (which include frame) are transported during manufacturing by a single mount point about that size.
 
I know nothing about it, but I'm sure @mrblaine can confirm it as well.

Jerry did mention that Jim Repp told him what that hole was for. I can't imagine Jim would lie about it.
 
Go watch "History of the Jeep Parkway Factory", and if you watch real close in the FRAMMER part you can see at least one place the holes were used for