Oh man I'm getting so excited about this. I can't wait to try them out. Thanks for the update!

 

Thanks. I was really pleased with the enthusiasm of the RV window company for this project. They really seem to want to do something very cool here, maybe because this is something different from the ordinary RV windows they do every day. They're really taking a lot of care to make the fit and details perfect.

Next they'll be making up a complete prototype set of all four windows, which they'll ship to me as soon as they're done - hopefully within 2-3 weeks. I'll check the engineering details, and if all is ok, then the company I'm doing this for will place a small initial production order. The initial production windows will go to "early adopters" who will provide test feedback.

 

Now that I'm back from my Moab trip I can get back to the fiberglass work for the JK Safari Cab. Today I made the upper jamb mold, I described this part a few weeks ago when I finished up the mold master. The mold will cure overnight and tomorrow I'll make the first part in it. I also molded two jambs that go behind the doors and are used with the soft sides. Those get made in the same molds that the hard side panels get made in, but with dams in the mold to shorten the parts. Photos of the new parts soon.

 

As part of my fiberglass work for the past few days, I molded a pair of rear door jambs for the soft side version of the Safari Cab.

You've seen the parts in this next photo already - the hard side panels bolted to the rear panel with the drip rail clamped on top for now; the drip rail will be part of the roof panel assembly when everything goes together.



Removing the hard side panel, one of the soft side jambs has been put in it's place:



The jambs provide a place for the back of the doors to seal (either the back of the rear doors for the JKU or the back of the front doors for the JK 2dr), and they also provide a place for the soft sides to attach.

A few more views of the jambs in place:





Yesterday and today I molded a few other parts as well, photos of them soon.

 

Doing a little drawing on the photo I posted earlier, the roll-up up soft side would look something like this when rolled up:

 

Really like that excursion rack, looks sweet and easy to use

 

Thanks. Yes, it's very easy - it's got a frame that slides over the top of the tire and a ratchet strap that goes around the bottom of the spare mount to secure it, so it goes on in a minute or two max. I don't need it often on my LJ or JKU, but it can be really useful on a TJ/YJ/JK2dr - with it you can carry a large cooler without having to throw one of the passengers overboard .

 

Can someone post these photos so they're not hosted 3rd party. The links don't work in the app

 

The other parts I molded over the last couple of days are the upper jambs and the drip rail extensions.

This photo shows the upper jambs mocked up in place. If the assembly looks too long you've got good eyes; I left the upper jambs trimmed about 9" too long for now, they'll be cut to exact length when I start fitting the parts on the JK.



The profile of the parts without the drip rails/roof installed matches the profile of the factory roof. I did that so that the roof panel would be compatible with the factory hardtop - that way the roof could be installed on a factory top as a tilt-up camper, for example, or one of the other factory hardtop mods I've shown over the course of this thread.





The jambs are designed so that they can go on the Jeep separate from the roof panel, which will allow a soft roof panel to be used as I've shown before in this concept drawing:

 

The drip rails will be part of the roof panel, and also serve as the bolt/weatherstrip flange for securing the roof. These photos show the drip rails mocked up but not trimmed to final length or fit yet:







Once the roof panel is molded, the drip rails will be bonded to the bottom of it.

There are only two molds/parts left to do - the main roof panel, and the windshield header. Once those are done, I can begin fitting everything to an actual Jeep instead of just doing mockups. The main roof panel is next.