Rear Deck

[MR EXTREME JEEP]

Alluminium channel screwed into the under side of the lid with a rebber attatched would wprk. And Steve Mcc i reckon with your cj if you make a lid the same as Tommos the lid that you lift up split it in two and cncerrtina it so it fold in half . So in effect you have a 3 fold door two of wich fold together when lift up. I rate this thread highly. Go you fugly fab fourby fourers.

[Tommo]

Maybe you should have looked at taking the support for the rear soft top window off the you could have taken the rear part straight across the back rather than cutting in behind the support. Would have made it easier to water proof.

Not sure what you mean here... but I wanted the rear edge to be short of the door at the time so it wouldn't touch it. In retrospect it should have been a few mm higher, well supported from underneath so it couldn't drop at all, and then come out a little way past the rear door... but then it would still need sealing, in the same way as it does now.

Also, my rear panel should have been shorter relative to the length of the front panel. As it is, when open flat (ie, the rear half is exposed, the hatch sits flat against the front panel) the edge of the hatch sticks out towards my seats about a cm. I didn't think of that... it's because of the location of the hinges, and the fact that I overlapped the plates - which works great for waterproofness, but causes this problem. Next time... rear plate 3 inches shorter than front plate.

3 fold lid would be good... but you'd need to bolt it down to keep it from rattling. Then again, that's how i'm holding mine down. A future addition will be some kind of latch system to hold it shut and tight, pref lockable. Haven't found one that I cen envisage doing the job without rattling, yet.

UPDATE: I did some more grinding etc, and now I'm using the crossbeam from the base of the softtop window as the support for the rear panel. Is that what you were talking about mudhunter? It works a treat, but it needed the rear panel to be even shorter to fit it on. I put some more weatherstrip down on it to keep the rattle out of it, and it works like a dream.
This is possibly the only thing I've ever made which DOESN'T rattle and squeak!

Last job to do, find a latch system to hold it down.

[Mudhunter]

I meant the Small Bracket that either side of the rear door (held on by 2 phillip head screws) looking at the photo that shows the detail of the rear of the lid, you had to cut around this bracket. It might be easier to have gone straight across and remove the bracket. you could have used the rubber you used on the side to cover the lip where the bracket was. this would have given the rear of the lid a bit more to rest against and more support to carry any weighht you put on top of it (ie when you stand on the lid).

I hope this explains it a little better.
I still think its a good lid in design.

Mudhunter

[Tommo]

Ahhh, I get ya.




Leaving the brackets on, I used the bar that goes in them to support the lid instead. This way, I can put the entire soft-top back on whenever i like, with the deck still in place.

Also note the little corners taken off level with the outside edge of that bracket were're talking about - when the lid opened, it hit the pin sticking out of the roll bar that the rear seatbelt attaches to, so I shaved the corners off the plate just there so it would go past.



It's plenty strong enough to stand on now.

[Gildo]

Lookin good Thommo, the legs that is, not the deck......

[MR EXTREME JEEP]

Well done Tommo.

[Tommo]

And open.







REAR DECK VITALS
Cost: about $80 total
Time: 30 seconds to open the back
under 5 mins to take the whole thing off
2 leisurely days to build it making it up as i went along
Easy? So easy I could do it.
Tools: grinder, a few cutting wheels, a few grinding wheels, drill, stick welder (could have used bolts instead)
Materials: 2.1mm steel checker plate 1m x 1.5m, bolts, paint, 1.5m of angle, couple of bits of pine (underneath) total <1m, weather strip x 4m