Colorado JP #29

[heartyfield]

Hey Brian, could you post a few more pictures of the lightbar? I'm going to have to go down the fab route I believe. Was this one done with the DOM tubing?

[COBrian]

yes 1/8 thick DOM tubing. so it is very strong. I'll get some more pics tonight.

[COBrian]

Here are some more pictures. let me know if you want something specific I didn't get in the photos.

In making mine, I had a lightbar I had bought off of craigslist that was correct, Except it had brackets for a TJ. I would have just altered the brackets but it also had a fair amount of rust, and I would have had to cut off the light tabs and such, so I figured the cleaner solution was to haev one made (though more costly). I took the tj light bar and had the new bar bent exactly the same as the tj bar (with extra length on each leg). The brackets were made from the lightbar measurements AJ Quick posted in this thread : viewtopic.php?f=9&t=215&start=10 . With the bar bent correctly and the brackets attached to the jeep, we held the light bar up to the jeep and adjusted till the height looked right, its about 1.5" to 2" above the top of the windshield. Marked the tube at the end of the bracket, and then cut off the excess length. With the length cut off, we lined it back up on the jeep and tacked the brackets onto the bar. We then unscrewed the brackets and removed the whole thing. Then the welds were beefed up. I kinda wish I had him run a solid bead weld up the outside of each bracket as it would look cleaner. But its fine as is, and plenty strong.

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[COBrian]

If anyone is curious, I finished my tracking spreadsheet of $$ spent on building my JP jeep. I updated as I went, but I added in the last items today.

Jeep was $5200
I needed a soft top which I paid $450 for (frame and top)
The rest of the parts were $2215
For a total cost of $7865
If you also throw in the $3000 worth of repairs I did initially to bring her back to tip top shape, it was $10,865

Here is everything I included in those numbers:
Jeep - Sahara
Mechanicals
Spice Soft Top
Temp Red (Plasti-dip) (full paint at later date)
Door Logo & Numbers
Green Sahara Seats - Replacements
Sahara Front Bumper Lights (fogs)
License Plate
Custom State Vanity Plate
Light Bar
Parking Tag
Winch
Aux Rear Lights
Tires BF Goodrich All Terrain K/O
Antenna (102", w ball mount)

[heartyfield]

The light bar came out really good. I need to see if I can find a good fabricator around this area. Yours looks more canon than a lot of the bars I've seen on ebay, etc., as your bracket is right. Nice work.

[COBrian]

Well I scored off ebay.. and got my hands on this.... One Mini JP29 coming up...

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[COBrian]

Well I was tinkering with the jeep tonight.

1: I had to do some touch up on the plastidip. I spray washed the jeep earlier in the week and got the high pressure wash too close to the light bar and it peeled off a line of plastidip about 6 inches long and about 1/4 wide. And a month or two ago something took a fingertip sized chunk out of the plastidip on the rear flare. Touching up plastidip luckily is very easy. use a thinner(lots of people on the plastidip forums use xylene, I choose mineral spirits cuz i had it on hand) and it will start breaking down the plastidip, by using your fingertip and going slowly you can thin down the edges where the damage was. once the edges are "melted" back flat and into the "good plastidip you let it dry. Once dry again you just go back and recoat with plastidip. I did the thinning when I first got home from work, then 2 hours later recoated with about 4 coats of plastidip in both places. Can't even tell where they were now YEAH!!!!

2: I had not messed with aiming the fog lights. So using a level I set them to be just slightly pointed down. I then went out to a flat piece of street in the neighborhood and made sure I wasn't blinding anyone. All done....

Oh wait.. as I was getting back in the jeep after checking the aim I lost ALL my lights... wtf. Turned off the fogs and got everything back.... turned the fogs back on and after driving for a bit everything went back off again... after a few seconds all back on.... UGH.....

So lets see:
Bad switches?
Bad relays?
Bad wiring?

Guess I have some trouble shooting ahead of me if I plan to ever use the fogs....

The stock setup is wired into the headlight switch. I'm contemplating running all new wire/switch/relay and making them independent. FYI the stock setup has 2 relays, and is wired With the headlight switch. So only after the headlight switch is on will the first relay turn on power to the lights with the fog switch, the second relay is wired such that when the highbeams are on it cuts power to the fogs.

On other notes I haven't started on the model yet.

[ImperialTrooper]

My lighting has been weird on me a few times. A few things that helped was either not using the fogs, or replacing the main switch, or toggling the high beams on and off.

[jbc455]

Check the draw when lights are on. You may need a new battery or alternator.

[COBrian]

So some more research and confusion.... Someone on the jeep forums said the yj's lights do not have a built in relay... that could totally mean it is the switches, since as they get old they cant handle the power going through them., but the haynes manual does show one relay for 87-95 for fogs, but not two (like I had thought due to a post stating that, but turns out that was for 97+ wranglers.) I havent had a chance to pull out the voltmeter and start diagnosing...

Since I still need to wire up the rear fogs I think I will tackle both this trouble shooting and that job all at the same time....