jscherb

Due to travel and other commitments, it's been a couple of months since I've been able to do any serious work on the JK Safari Cab. All that's really left of the construction phase is final fitting of the roof/windshield header/drip rail components and bonding them together, followed by the bonding the inner structure of the roof in place. I plan to get most of that done this week.

First the soft top comes off and the main components of the Safari Cab go on. This anim shows the sequence... upper door jambs, then side panels, then the rear panel:



Now the drip rails and windshield header can be put in place and the roof fitted and bonded to them. In this photo the drop rails and windshield header are installed:



The next step is bonding the roof and the windshield header together. When that's done, I'll install the latches on the roof so I can latch the front of the roof in place while doing the final fitting of the roof to the drip rails. More to come.

jscherb

JK Safari Cab progress report: Yesterday I bonded the windshield header to the inside of the roof panel, and today I got the latches installed.



Tomorrow's plan is to cut the holes for the Alpine windows and get the drip rails bonded to the bottom of the roof panel.

jscherb

Cutting the rough openings for the Alpine windows. They'll be trimmed to final size after the roof is bonded to the drop rails, which is my next step.



More photos to come later today.

jscherb

A few photos of the roof bonded to the drip rails. When the adhesive cures, I'll unbolt the drip rails from the top of the side/end panels and upper jambs, and the roof assembly will lift off in one piece - roof panel/drip rails/windshield header. I'm bonding it in place on the Jeep to ensure an exact fit.

jscherb

The drip rails and roof panel are now one piece...

Four Low

Beautiful ! What Bonding agent, adhesive are you using ? Thanks.

jscherb

Thank you.

For the initial bond of the roof panel to the drip rails, I used West System Six10 epoxy. It comes in a two-part cartridge that fits in a standard caulk gun - it's very easy to use and not messy (important since I was working on top of the Jeep). Once the epoxy cured (when the photo was taken), I took the roof off the Jeep and reinforced the joint on the inside with fiberglass - polyester resin and several layers of mat and a top layer of cloth tape.

Four Low

West System epoxies are great, thanks for replying.

jscherb

Got the roof rack and third brake light installed this morning. As soon as I get the Alpine windows installed, the roof will go back on the Jeep.

jscherb

Got the Alpine windows installed on the driver's side. Didn't get the passenger side in yet, ran out of time today. Should get to those tomorrow.