Here's the wooden roof mold master just after I shot it with three coats of automotive epoxy primer this morning. The next step is to fix all the minor imperfections in the surface that having it all in one color highlights, and then it'll get shot with high-build primer followed by block sanding.

 

Update from the company: the first production runs of the JK Side Mount Jerry/Rotopax carriers, the JK tailgate hinge mount HiLift carrier and the JK tailgate hinge mount Rotopax carrier are in process now and expected to be completed by Friday or Monday at the latest. They said they're in a position to take orders now for shipment next week, although they won't promote that fact until maybe next week. Hopefully their retailers will be placing orders in the next week or so, so it may take a few more weeks for them to be available at the catalog-type places and other retail web sites.

 

GRT 8, thank you! Wait ! Not GR. Ok, give an initial or two. Called the former, said I was 2nd person to call on Sidemounts; I urged them to become Sponsoring Vendor, for Obvious Reasons.

 

From what you wrote, it sounds like you might have called Gr8Tops?

As far as I know, Gr8Tops doesn't have any plans to sell the JK side mount jerry can carriers. They often get calls about things I'm working on because they manufacture and sell the TJ/LJ Safari Cab I designed about five years ago, so I guess people assume they would be selling other things I've designed, but that's not the case.

But of course it's always nice for more companies to become Sponsoring Vendors of the forum .

 

The morning was spent fixing the imperfections that showed up once the entire surface was one color, followed by wet-sanding the entire surface (wet sanding is really the only way to sand epoxy). Once the surface was nice enough, I shot it with 4 coats of automotive high-build primer.





Next the high-build will be block sanded and any last imperfections that show up as a result of that process will be fixed. When that's done, a final gloss finish will be applied and then it will be ready to have a mold made from it.

 

I block sanded the high-build primer yesterday and no additional imperfections were revealed, so this morning I shot two coats of epoxy primer to seal the high-build followed by several coats of clear. I'll let the clear harden up a few days and then the master will be ready to have the mold made from it.

So here's how the wooden master turned out - looking at the reflections in the gloss will give you an idea how the block sanding and finishing worked out...











Once the mold is made, the parts I make in that mold will look exactly like the photos above, except the parts will be fiberglass instead of wood .

 

I was playing with the Alpine windows this morning...

 

The next step in the JK Safari Cab project is to make the roof mold, but I'm waiting for a few fiberglass supplies to arrive, which are due Tuesday.

While I've been waiting for the supplies, I built a jerry can carrier that mounts to the tailgate hinges. It consists of two brackets plus a can tray; the can tray is a production item and the brackets I fabricated from sheet steel. Haven't painted the brackets yet:



The brackets are reversible, so the parts can be installed to mount the can low or high:



For the low mounting position there really isn't enough room between the spare and the tail light when the tailgate is open, so stops are necessary in the hinges to prevent the tailgate opening more than 90 degrees. In the high mounting position, the tailgate swings open the full 110 degrees:

 

I had to move the spare hardtop out of the garage to make room for the roof mold fiberglassing work, and with it out and the dust washed off it I decided to see what the prototype fiberglass half-door upper looks like with it. The window glass area turns out to be a pretty good match for the glass area in the hardtop. There's no glass in the slider yet but the window company has a tint that's a pretty decent match for the tint of the hardtop windows. The upper has just a quickie rattle can paint job and it's not too bad a match for test purposes, just a little dark. But it's not the final finish anyway - might be better to paint the uppers to match the body instead of the hardtop?

 

I'd definitely paint the uppers to match the body. That being said, my paint job is really simple and doesn't require a clear coat