[dzJeepChic]

George noticed some cracks in the welds where the cage add-on was done to the original cage after the roll:

A little blurry, but you can see that the welds couldn't be completed all the way around, which led him to think there might be water inside the tubes since the vehicle was not garaged.

His hunch was correct. After drilling holes at the bottom of the tubes, gunk & water dripped out:

Here is the top of the exo cage:

Silicone caulking was used that now needs to be scraped off because it won't hold any kind of paint, and George wasn't sure it was done correctly. He prefers acrylic for sealing leaks (that's the roofer in him).

Sorry for the out of focus shot, 1st chunk of silicone cut out, he used an exacto-knife & wire brushes. It took 2 hours to clean up the 4 transition points. Oh, did I mention how much George hates scraping silicone?

Here's one of them after cleaning. This roof will get a Jeep Cool Coat:

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[dzJeepChic]

The inside of the glove compartment was cracked, so George repaired it.

This webbing material is hard to get for the everyday Joe. Luckily, George can get all he wants in various widths. Here's a roll of 4":

Roof coating and webbing reinforcing the cracked surface in the bottom of the glove box:

Here's the finished product. He could've tinted the coating black to match the original material, or any color for that matter, but he chose to leave it white so it illuminates the contents when open.

More as it comes. GnD

[GRUNT]

Looking good G!

D, I would think if Clifford is going to be expedition worthy in addition to being a crawler that you would want the headliner in to reduce heat and noise. Even with G's special white top.

BTW - I like the name Clifford. How did you guys settle on that?

[dzJeepChic]

Looking good G!

D, I would think if Clifford is going to be expedition worthy in addition to being a crawler that you would want the headliner in to reduce heat and noise. Even with G's special white top.

BTW - I like the name Clifford. How did you guys settle on that?

Hey Grunt! I can't say anything about the headliner, I already mentioned noise & accoustics; it makes George get real nervous. I think he'll figure it out as he goes. If all else fails I'll have to get some bad ass speakers or some bad ass head phones.

We didn't exactly 'settle' on Clifford. Clifford was my idea; he just looks like a big red dawg. I thought of Clifford the 1st time I saw him. George wanted to go with XOXJ, which is clever, it's tricky, it's good, but not as good as Clifford to me and everybody I asked. Big Red was also in the mix, but everytime I heard it, I thought of Ricky Bobby saying, "If you don't like Big Red, then #@%* You!"

d

[ob1jeeper]

D...
Lookin' GOOD... I can see you and G are hard at work...

Not sure why there was fiberglass coming down with the headliner removal, as the originals were made of basically a good grade of cardboard, with a thin layer of foam sandwiched in between it and the colored cloth covering...

At any rate, if for whatever reason you guys decide to not re-install it for the noise attenuation and heat insulation values, I would suggest you add something to help dampen the drum-skin of the metal roofs ability to transmit noise, as well as help lower the heat transfer rate of it's metal from the direct sunlight of summer...

Perhaps a thick coating of some of G's elastomeric tinted to approximate the coloring of the interior panels on the inside of the roof would help with lowering the heat transfer from the sunlight in summer, as well as act as a sound deadener... OR perhaps consider rhino-lining or similar for the roof panel interior...

Just some thoughts...

[K7VZ]

C'mon George. Put the roof back in and quit slathering that white roofing crap all over everything. :-p

[JeepPunk]

We didn't exactly 'settle' on Clifford. Clifford was my idea; he just looks like a big red dawg. I thought of Clifford the 1st time I saw him. George wanted to go with XOXJ, which is clever, it's tricky, it's good, but not as good as Clifford to me and everybody I asked. Big Red was also in the mix, but everytime I heard it, I thought of Ricky Bobby saying, "If you don't like Big Red, then #@%* You!"

d

Looks good, great project.

My vote would be for calling it "Gossamer" like the Looney Tunes character.
The word "Gossamer" is derived from the Middle English gossomer, from "gos" meaning goose & "somer" meaning summer, which translates to something light, delicate, or insubstantial. The name is meant to be ironic, since the character is large, menacing, and destructive.

Dave

[dzJeepChic]

Everytime I go out in the garage I see Clifford sitting there like a science project with a mechanic light hanging in him like an incubator.

All the work George has done in the last week has led up to this, and he's got the light hanging there to keep things warm so they dry. He's all the stuff he got done.

Ready to start choppin'

The victim (transplant donor) ready to go under the knife:

Post-Op:

The Transplant Organ:

After several cut & fit attempts, George got the transplanted front roof header to cover up the battered (pounded out) original. Had it all nicely installed when he realized he ought to run CB Coax & power wire, so he un-installed it, ran the wire, and re-installed it again. Here he is applying an elastomeric caulking to glue it in and dampen vibrations and rattles, which he did to the center and rear roof headers as well, as shown in the 1st picture in this post.

The roof got a Jeep Cool Coat finish. Not only will it keep the Jeep cooler inside during the summer, but it will seal out the rain where the cage transitions through the roof.

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[dzJeepChic]

The glove-box is finished; the door has been re-installed with a hinge taken from the donor.

George cleaned the carpet in the Jeep (didn't remove) and got all the black spots out:

He notched the door pillar trim to accomodate the front seat mounts. They had been forced in after the cage was built, which made the trim bow out.

George notched out the center console to accomodate future beverage holders, which were not included in the '92 trim package:

The bottom of the dash was missing a lot of screws, and the under-the-dash lights were loose due to missing screws. Here's everything cleaned and put back into place:

We sold the Carbeau seats that were in it. Now we're on the hunt for new (used) seats; looking for a new(er) pair of buckets out of a compact car, mini truck or a TJ, anything that folds all the way forward, as out of a 2 door. The new seats MUST be tan in color. Suggestions/Ideas Welcome!

More as it unfolds,
GnD

[dzJeepChic]

George finished off the inside of the headlinerless ceiling; he webbed and coated everything with tan tinted Armour Coat:

Then he removed the rear diff cover to inspect the gears and detroit locker and found out the backlash on the ring & pinion is very sloppy. We don't want to spend the cash right now to change out the gears and adjust it correctly, so I'll just have to put up with hearing a loud 'Clunk' everytime I put it into gear.

He also checked the brakes

The pads were pretty much worn out so we bought new ones. It was a PITA to figure out which ones Currie uses to build their Dana 44 Axles - these turned out to be Ford Explorer break system.

Here's the backing plate and E-Brake shoes:

Then he pulled the axles and found 33 spline giants. Sweet!

Now George has axle envy, this is Number 7's 30 Spline Super D-35 trail-spare next to Clifford's 33 Spline:

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