Project Red Roof Inn

[BigDaveZJ]

[chadjans]

Glad to see you are starting your cage work.

[BigDaveZJ]

[BigDaveZJ]

Elliott trying to work off his nickname:


It's getting there:


Everything so far is lining up surprisingly well. We haven't tacked anything down yet or tried the liftgate, but I'm feeling pretty good about it all. I'm going to keep grinding away to get the fit better and then when I can get access to a bender I'll throw the tube together.

Chad, you will be happy to know too that I was contemplating doing a b-pillar hoop tonight too. We'll see how that all goes.

[ajmorell]

lol, I love the thread title change Dave

[ATL ZJ]

Loving the name.

What are you going to do to restrengthen the area behind the C pillar back to stock? Obviously it won't be possible to weld the innermost layer of the sides of the roof, and we all know how much a non-interrupted bead can weaken sheetmetal at the edge of the heat affected zone. What plans do you have for additional bracing? The one time I tried to drive mine after I hacked the back and didn't have support installed, the back end started wagging and hopping around like wild.

[AgitatedPancake]

he could take some thin(ish) sheetmetal and form it to the C-pillar from the inside, about 2" tall so he can butt weld the pillar to the new roof, then lay this over the seam and stitch weld it to the original body and new roof, dispersing the load and heat.

[BigDaveZJ]

lol, I love the thread title change Dave

The name change was all Elliott, I guess that's what I get for giving him mod powers for some strange reason.

Loving the name.

What are you going to do to restrengthen the area behind the C pillar back to stock? Obviously it won't be possible to weld the innermost layer of the sides of the roof, and we all know how much a non-interrupted bead can weaken sheetmetal at the edge of the heat affected zone. What plans do you have for additional bracing? The one time I tried to drive mine after I hacked the back and didn't have support installed, the back end started wagging and hopping around like wild.

The support that I had previously with the 1x1's ghetto rigged into the back actually worked quite well. And I know exactly what you're talking about with the wagging. I actually had mine up to 65mph with NO reinforcement in the back. The unibody was basically getting death wobble. Interesting doesn't even come close to describing it. Keep reading for how I'm gonna do it.

he could take some thin(ish) sheetmetal and form it to the C-pillar from the inside, about 2" tall so he can butt weld the pillar to the new roof, then lay this over the seam and stitch weld it to the original body and new roof, dispersing the load and heat.

This pretty much nails it. The seam along the rear quarter panels will have some 16ga sheet backing it, stitch and plug welded. The actual seam along the outside of the fender will be mostly aesthetic. The roof section will utilize a similar technique, but I will start with rivets to avoid warping. I cut a section out of the donor roof that includes one of the roof cross members to use. It's about 8" wide and will span the roof seam. Stitch and plug welding, in addition to the rivets will be used for strength, and again an aesthetic weld on the outside (to be ground smooth-ish). On the multi-layer sections of the pillars I will use similar techniques, it will just be a little trickier. Also, the c-pillar will be tied in to the hoop I have bent up. Along the roof section I will use 2-3" sections of 1/8" plate, probably 4 or 5 of these. Just a small piece between the tube and the roof that will be just big enough to get a good weld.

Here's an example of what I'm planning on from Chad's rig:




I will also run a section of tube from the c-hoop to the c-pillar itself just below where the upper mount of the seat belt would be.

I feel this should be at least as strong, if not stronger, than what was previously in place that held up relatively okay for 5+ years.

I had planned to at least have the c-hoop and down bars tacked in place Wednesday, but had to push it back cuz of a damn cold. Hopefully we'll get some work done on it Sunday and I can post up some pics to give you guys a better idea.

[BigDaveZJ]

[paulkeith]

i knew this was do-able. good job....cool to see a tailgate hanging on 'er again.

[CrawlerReady]

Looks damn good Dave! Can't wait see it all finished up GSW.

[BigDaveZJ]

The gap across the roof is much bigger than I'd like, probably averages 1/2". In between the roof rack rails it's easy, riveted and tacked in another piece of that has a x-member in it, but filling that from the rails down to the door opening will be tough. Going to try cutting about 1/2" off the donor roof to fill it in.

[MoonWorks]

Not bad...how's the hatch open/close? Is it pretty lined up?

[BigDaveZJ]

Not bad...how's the hatch open/close? Is it pretty lined up?

The first time we tacked it on it was off just a touch. You could push the hatch to the pass side about 1/4" and it would work. We looked over everything and we could tell that the red roof was about 1/4" to the driver side in relation to the existing roof. There were also a couple issues on the seams below the windows too. So we took it back off to fix those issues and fully prep everything for welding. When we put it back on the top of the roof was still off just a touch. I kinda leaned against it while Pam pushed up on the backer plate from the bottom and tacked it in a couple places. Put the hatch back on and it worked like a charm.

The only hatch issue I have right now is that the struts are so shot that if you just drop the hatch closed it will slam so hard it will engage the lock mechanism. And since I haven't wired any of that up, it's kind of a PITA to climb through the back door and open it manually.

[AgitatedPancake]

holy shitballs it's lookin good man, good work!

For welding the gaps, do you have a welding backing plate (like copper)? It would allow you to help fill a little without blowing through the sheetmetal.

[Sudz]

The only hatch issue I have right now is that the struts are so shot that if you just drop the hatch closed it will slam so hard it will engage the lock mechanism.

my younger brother, being the cheap bastard that he is and refusing to replace the worn struts on his cherokee, came up with a fix that worked great.

he soldered a penny into the screwdriver slot on a small hose clamp.

you can figured out the rest

progress looks good on the cargo area resurrection.

street legal again?

[paulkeith]

vicegrips on the shock strut work too. the ghetto bastard that tried to sell me a 5.9 in alabama showed me that one.

[BigDaveZJ]

It never really wasn't street legal in CO, pretty lax vehicle laws here.

I had thought about some of the "cheaper" solutions for the struts, but part of this whole process is to decrease the "ghetto-ness" of my ZJ so I will be getting new struts for it soon.

[ajmorell]

For $20 or whatever you might as well just get new struts....you know your a cheap bastard when you'd rather use vice grips....hell I can't talk though for a long time I had a dowel I kept in the back to hold the gate up.

[ELLLLLIOTTTTT]

Who's that handsome devil in the picture grinding?

Good to see a top back on this thing. First time it's had a roof since... 2003ish?

[CrawlerReady]

Who's that handsome devil in the picture grinding?

It's not Jesus...that's for sure.

[BigDaveZJ]

Spent some time working on the tack welds today. Going to have to touch up a few pin holes after I grind it down, but I was pretty happy with how easy it was. I tacked it every couple inches, and then built off of those tacks to fill it all in.

[faststang1]

looks really good,when u putting the cage in?

[BigDaveZJ]

You can see some of the tube in the window there. It's just a hoop at the c-pillar with down bars to the d-pillar area.

[slim616]

looks good man, just out of curiosity how much time do you have wrapped up in it? I agree with you on not using the vice grips they had a tendency to loosen up over time when you don't adjust them and when you least expect it down comes the hatch. Another reason mines hatchless, That hurt bad enough the first time and figured there would be no second time