KK: In Dad's memory

[jzp]

Originally Posted by Gojeep

Which state are you in? Certainly would need to check with the place to see what they would pass, before going back for the second inspection if needed that is for sure, as would not want to run into that!

In Vic. Maybe my guy was just pedantic.

[Gojeep]

It came with a $3000 Freedom Pack which is the bonnet protector, wind deflectors, stainless nudge bar and side steps.
The only thing I will be leaving on is the towbar which was part of the package.


Here it is next to my XJ on the day we picked it up 5 years ago. He has only done 5000km since!

[Gojeep]

I'm making some small changes so it will be suitable for my camping trips towing the offroad trailer. Most important is some decent recovery hooks.


I had the rated recovery hooks already and want to mount them to the KK. Going to use the brackets from the Mopar 3" stainless nudge bar that was on it.


The heavy wall tubing was cut into saddles and captive nuts welded to the underside. Then welded to the nudge bar bracket plates. The saddles are needed to clear the nuts and leave some room for upwards pulls out of a bog hole etc.


It will bolt back under the front rails and crossmember in this position.


Was hoping I could leave the bumper on but the nut plates inside the rail and crossmember kept moving around while trying to thread the plates bolts back in.


I made a plate off the side of it too to hold the lead for my battery charger that I have permanently mounted inside the engine bay.


Doesn't project out at all so no hurting your shins!


Probably could have been mounted slightly higher with shorter saddles. But only had about 10mm of clearance above the captive nuts.


Neat and unobtrusive. Will give me some where to attach my hand winch via a tree projection strap attached to both hooks at once to spread the load.

[Gojeep]

Strangely, our RHD version at least, does not come with a dead pedal/footrest. I found it uncomfortable on long trips, so doing something about it.

A bit of CAD work going on here!


Scrap piece of stainless from Dads place.


Ran some beads on the front face of it.


Thought I would try the new dies that came with the bead roller to add some stiffness to the sides.


Turned out alright for some quick work.


Much more comfortable now.

[KKnut]

Wow, great work! That foot rest looks like a labour of love, if it weren’t so much work you’d possibly be getting requests.

[Gojeep]

I have listed the Freedom side steps and window shields on eBay and just wanted to confirm that there are factory holes through the door sill pinch seam? They didn't look like they had been drilled later as most are uniformly oval in shape. 5 each side through that seam.

[Gojeep]

Doesn't seem to be much interest here in moding the KK so not sure to bother with little things I doing to it?


Just like the XJ, the rear doors don't swing open very far. Can see why it was hard on our big American Akita Kuma to get in and out past the door when going up the ramp.


Not a lot of gap there so was doubtful how much further I could make the door swing open.


Stock door swings open to 847mm.


These doors rely on two fingers on each hinge that hit a pressed up bump or stop to limit how far it opens.


The bottom hinge is harder to work on and are joined as well.


Top ones are easy to see and work on so just have to start trimming away a bit at a time evenly on all four 'fingers'. These can even be cut with an angle grinder with a cutoff disc.


I found a 10mm air powered belt sander worked the best.


Getting into the upper part of the bottom stop was the hardest. Using a grinding stone on a Dremel was the only thing I could get in there.


One thing I had to watch out for was that the spring loaded arm, that helps keep the door open, didn't run off the end!


Kept making sure that the stops were hitting flat on and that they all hit at the same time. The spring loaded arm is now about as far as you can go and really didn't want to thin the upper fingers anymore either.


Still got enough room when fully open.


Now it opens to 912mm, or 65mm/2.75" further than before.


Doesn't sound like a lot but it is very noticeable.