Wildman's TJ is getting a face lift

jjvw said:
The valance is a piece of 6061-t6 aluminum below the tail gate that overlaps the corner armor right up to the radius. It is bolted to the torque box with nutserts where it can't be through bolted. This unifies the entire rear of the body with bolts instead of just a bunch of small spot welds. It ties the left and rear corners together. Your new cage extensions get bolted through the corner armor that is now firmly connected to the entire rear of the body.

View attachment 318300

If you have an existing valance under the gate, use 1/4" thick material to cover everything. If you don't have an existing valance under the gate, use 1/2" thick material and rabbet out the thickness of your corner armor at the ends. A router or a table saw can cut the aluminum.

Suddenly now you don't want to overthink things? You added cage supports. At least try to make them do something.
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I get SHIT from people all the time for trying to OVERTHINK things. And I already do think the added cage support is doing something. Might not be as much as how you are describing it but it does spread the weight out from just the tub upper mount point.

These are the only valances I've ever seen. I've never seen one that does what you're describing.

https://genright.com/products/aluminum-filler-plate-for-rear-body-panel.html
And yes there are MANY times I can't visualize things until I see a picture of it or have it broken down and explained to me but I get told to just figure it out for myself. So I stopped asking. Not all of us can just look at things and immediately figure out a solution to it.
 
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jjvw said:
The valance is a piece of 6061-t6 aluminum below the tail gate that overlaps the corner armor right up to the radius. It is bolted to the torque box with nutserts where it can't be through bolted. This unifies the entire rear of the body with bolts instead of just a bunch of small spot welds. It ties the left and rear corners together. Your new cage extensions get bolted through the corner armor that is now firmly connected to the entire rear of the body.

View attachment 318300

If you have an existing valance under the gate, use 1/4" thick material to cover everything. If you don't have an existing valance under the gate, use 1/2" thick material and rabbet out the thickness of your corner armor at the ends. A router or a table saw can cut the aluminum.

Suddenly now you don't want to overthink things? You added cage supports. At least try to make them do something.
Click to expand...
I was thinking about doing the 1/2” tie in valence for a while. I don’t know why I didn’t think about just doing another 1/4” piece of the top of everything. Duh! So easy
 
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starkey480 said:
I was thinking about doing the 1/2” tie in valence for a while. I don’t know why I didn’t think about just doing another 1/4” piece of the top of everything. Duh! So easy
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Yeah, I've seen this before in some pictures but didn't put it together. That'll be up next after the pile of work on my garage.
 
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rasband said:
Yeah, I've seen this before in some pictures but didn't put it together. That'll be up next after the pile of work on my garage.
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It's the ultimate solution (or prevention) to what happened to my corner panels when they effectively fell off last year. Most corner armor gets a bolt or two into the torque box, which goes a long way towards strengthening the rear. But putting the full width valance is significantly stronger. And it starts to give these cage extensions something to hold on to.
 
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jjvw said:
It's the ultimate solution to what happened to my corner panels when they effectively fell off last year. Most corner armor gets a bolt or two into the torque box, which goes a long way towards strengthening the rear. But putting the full width valance is significantly stronger. And it starts to give these cage extensions something to hold on to.
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Makes sense, I was wondering what purpose it served when I installed mine beyond a more unified look with the tailgate and corners.
 
rasband said:
Makes sense, I was wondering what purpose it served when I installed mine beyond a more unified look with the tailgate and corners.
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Yours, where is sits in between the corner armor, is only adding to the spot welds. It's when all the pieces get joined together that a significant amount is rigidity is created.
 
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jjvw said:
It's the ultimate solution (or prevention) to what happened to my corner panels when they effectively fell off last year. Most corner armor gets a bolt or two into the torque box, which goes a long way towards strengthening the rear. But putting the full width valance is significantly stronger. And it starts to give these cage extensions something to hold on to.
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Are you trying to tell me rivets aren’t the ultimate solution??
 
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So why couldn't you just use two short pieces that overlapped the two inside bolts on the corners and then two bolts with nutzerts in the area under the tailgate?
 
Wildman said:
So why couldn't you just use two short pieces that overlapped the two inside bolts on the corners and then two bolts with nutzerts in the area under the tailgate?
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I'm sure you could, but with a piece across the whole length you're unifying the entire body vs each side with the rear torque box.
 
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Wildman said:
So why couldn't you just use two short pieces that overlapped the two inside bolts on the corners and then two bolts with nutzerts in the area under the tailgate?
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It's easier to line up long one piece and it looks better than a patchwork. Personally if doing two pieces, I would want four bolts on the corner side of the seam and at least four on the other side under the gate. More personally, a single piece is much easier, better and nicer
 
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I was a bit surprised with the savvy valence as it's just a trim piece. I'm sorry this picture sucks, my kids are sleeping in the rooms above the garage...

PXL_20220326_051102074.jpg
 
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jjvw said:
It's easier to line up long one piece and it looks better than a patchwork. Personally if doing two pieces, I would want four bolts on the corner side of the seam and at least four on the other side under the gate. More personally, a single piece is much easier, better and nicer
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Again I guess it's to each their own but I sort of like the look of the patch work.

rasband said:
I was a bit surprised with the savvy valence as it's just a trim piece. I'm sorry this picture sucks, my kids are sleeping in the rooms above the garage...

View attachment 318314
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Yep doesn't do anything other than look good. But I'd also never seen the point to the tailgate skin.
 
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rasband said:
I think it's the same, unifies the look/depth. I've bent my tailgate with the tire on so maybe it adds rigidity too? I'll paint it all eventually.
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That part never bothered me and I had a swing out tire carrier so you really didn't see my tailgate before.
 
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Wildman said:
Again I guess it's to each their own but I sort of like the look of the patch work.



Yep doesn't do anything other than look good. But I'd also never seen the point to the tailgate skin.
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If by patchwork, you mean to leave off anything that fully covers the sill, I would argue that your are sacrificing strength. And this whole exercise started because I don't believe those cage extensions are doing much of anything meaningful the way they currently are.
 
jjvw said:
If by patchwork, you mean to leave off anything that fully covers the sill, I would argue that your are sacrificing strength. And this whole exercise started because I don't believe those cage extensions are doing much of anything meaningful the way they currently are.
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No I was talking about if you already had a filler plate there and were tying the corners to it together. And then having a say 1' plate on each side bolted to the armor.
 
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