Project college FUNd by cgmrdc

4 minute(s) of a 123 minute read

Updates!!!!!!
We've been working on Nick's XJ a lot lately so my jeep kinda got put on the back burner BUT we've been on spring break this week so I've been able to sneak away here and there to peck away on the things that needed to get done.
First was installing the fasteners for the corners. I had some buddys at oreileys order some popnuts since some of the bolt locations are not accessible. about 15 bucks for 45, 1/4-20s... gen right sells them for a buck each...

I got the support plate for the tailgate made. basically just some 3/16th plate bolted to the rear sheet metal with those popnuts and has 4 nuts welded to the back for the hinges.

you can kinda see it a little better here

once it was bolted to the jeep i made the cable supports. i removed the old tailgate latch bracket and used the lower two holes and all the mounting hardware as well.


here you can see the clearance when its shut... almost like i planned it lol... we'll pretend i did...


then, for the latches i wanted to find something that could be opened from the outside and was also lockable. I used some latches i found on mcmaster... for some reason i dont have any pics of those... but, to make those work i had to weld a 3/16 spacer on the tailgate to match the height of the corner. then i drilled and tapped the 4-40 bolt holes the latch calls for.

after all that was done is was time to counter sink a grand total of 40 holes, total pita... sorry no pics :wink: Then finally paint!
my paint booth

Primed

and painted

probably my favorite piece...

and a clean jeep shot

But before all that lol, i put some new shocks on. I blew out one of my re monotubes and i think my trip to moab last year destroyed the rest. they were so stiff i could barely collapse them all the way by hand. the new ones i got were on nick xj. 10 in travel, much softer off brands... the ride is much better! and i was amazed at how much more flex you get from 2 more inches of shock travel.