Black and Blue Garage

I plan on supporting the ends and two or three places between down to the unibody/stiffeners/link mounts using the same material. later I'll have a place to put some panels to slide off of. Not quite "boat sides" but I didn't want to cut too high. Thats great news about reproduction parts. the dream would be to one day have time to build another one of these but keep it on the pavement; one of each is suppose. Also. I hope to one day be good enough at shaping and body work to make anything for everything. For now, I'm digging the "made out of stuff I found" style lol. I don't hate too much as long as rims stay under 22" jk

So... I've heard mixed reviews on replacing the rocker panels with rectangular tubing, "Now it might as well be an xj", "you could have sold the cab corners if you were going to ruin them" and so on. As much as I love these trucks, I want to turn everything and your mom's minivan into an off-road machine. So, taking all the love and hate with a grain of salt, I cut the bottom corner of my perfectly good MJ cab off and welded in some 2x5 rectangular tubing. I would like to talk about the pros outweighing the cons on this particular topic. The cons For some, this ruins the classic look of the truck and fuel on the fire is It isn't one of the parts that can be replaced by XJ parts. Adds weight to the vehicle causing extra stress on important components. Can never easily return to being a purist Jeep Comanche, effectively eliminating the vehicle from being one of the rare trucks left. The Pros I believe the beefy rock boxes make the truck look better and is not only a performance upgrade, but a cosmetic enhancement. Of course, It does add weight to the truck, especially after adding bracing, cage and stiffeners to the sliders after the fact, but in combo with an LS or stroker, and some already needed bigger axles, the extra weight seems to matter less and less. I'm not sure taking rare trucks away from the fleet Is a bad thing. Although I am also sad to see them go, I have to assume that makes the Purists Jeep MJs even more rare and valuable. A bit controversial but if you ask me, if we are proud that our trucks are rare, we should thank the few people who give us more to be proud of. Just my opinion. rocker replacement boxes stiffen the frame when installed in combination with rock sliders, 4 link brackets, plating and just plain unibody. Allows a mounting point for and exo-cage to be mounted to project what is left of the rare truck cab. Safe but even more so is... Most importantly, it is a good foundation to weld an interior, hybrid cage to keep the driver and passenger safe. Of course, and as always, it matters what an individual is planning to do with the truck. If it is all the same to anyone else, a truck that is going to rock crawl or other rowdy activities will look much better with rock sliders and a cage than a smashed-up truck that left in its purist form. If a person intends to drive the truck to work, sporting a piece of history that he/she can be proud of, I would be the first to restore it down to the original decals and tire size. I Upload a new video every Monday morning to My YouTube channel. At the time of this post, this is my current project in preparation for the xofab cage I plan on modifying next year. www.youtube.com/@BlackAndBlueGarage Please let me know if you would like a Post per video starting from a year ago, I would love to get insight and criticism from the community. I am always excited to rap ideas and shade tree engineering.

We're all that old now 🙄 everyone's on Facebook and the gram. Also, nobody's aloud to banter or feelings will get hurt. Lol

Awesome! Thank you. I'll use my laptop from now I'm sure, I just had some down time at work.

BLEEPING JEEP for obvious MJ reasons. GRIND HARD PLUMBING COMPANY builds wacky and cool stuff. I've been watching more recently. MORR, FAB RATS and etc, you know the ones we all know and enjoy. I've been filming for the past year and my videos are getting better. Next year will be full of fun stuff. Mine is BLACK AND BLUE GARAGE

Not sure why two of those photos uploaded upside down lol

I can add more to this if it shows interest, LMK. Black and Blue Garage here (Thomas Yingling) first post on CC or any old style forum. 1988 MJ, bronco axles - moved around, LS swap etc. I've got the tires and outer/inner fenders sorted out so I could start on my bumper. 1 3/4 8th wall seam tube around 12 feet in length and one harbor freight winch plate. Total cost: around $90 in materials. Started with cutting out my bent up front bumper and "frame" tie in/radiator support. Then notched the ends of the frame and got to work on the winch plate. *It is important to know at this point that I am putting the radiator in the bed of the truck, If it were in the front, I would need to mount the winch plate lower, and find a winch that has a clickable free spool lever. The winch plate was cut out for the frame and pitman shaft and then welded straight to the frame. Used angle iron to support the sides to the frame stiffeners There are 3 bends in the upper tube, around 3-2°, to follow the curve of the header panel. Then bent the lower tube 30° on the ends, notched. Cut an opening and plated for the winch fairlead opening. Lower tube welded to the frame, winch plate along the bottom and to the upper tube. Please forgive my welding. The ends of the upper tube were beveled after testing flexed out tire clearance and later stuffed with 1.5" quarter wall DOM and then plated on the ends to seal them up. --------------------- Notched and beveled support tubes in hope to prevent bending in the ends of the bumper, be it that it is just 1/8 wall tube. I made sure the steering gear box bolts are still able to be removed. Because the winch plate was cut for the steering, it was braced to the bumper and welded all around to stiffen it back up. --------------------------------T to finish it off I painted it with my favorite brand of black paint. I made two videos of this whole process and they can be found on Black and Blue Garage.