Okay, here's the deal.

I've got a 'glass body on my CJ-7 that was procured from the nice but occasionally incompetent people at 4WD Hardware. At the time when I bought it I didn't wish to shell out the extra $500 for them to cut a hole in it for the tailgate.

Now I REALLY miss the damn thing.

Has ANYBODY done or heard about somebody taking a fiberglass tub and cutting a hole and re-installing a steel (or fiberrglass, for that matter) tailgate?

Anybody with a fiberglass tub that already has factory cut out want to post some pics of it and maybe some impressions of it?

Anybody who knows how these things are built want to offer some insight?

I'd like to have an idea of what I'm getting into, cause once the sawzall starts up and the fiberglass starts flying, there's no going back.

I refuse to believe that SOMEBODY hasn't done this yet, but apparently there's just lots of people thinking about it (like me) and are waiting for somebody else to do it to give them the confidence to give it a try. If I have to be the first, I will, but it seems like somebody else must have done this at some point.

TIA.

Boots

I cut out my old FG CJ5 for a taligate, and regretted it like a MOFO. It was a shitty old tub, and even though I re enforced it, it led to lots of cracks in the tub. Since your tub is a better one, you may have better luck. On the plus side, It made it way easier to hack up the tub since it was already fawked.
Good luck

I cut out my old FG CJ5 for a taligate, and regretted it like a MOFO
Damn man, that's not what I needed to hear. :( lol

Where was it cracking? how did you reinforce it? I don't suppose you'd have any pictures? Did you glass the steel in or just do a lot of thru bolting?

btt :beer:

I glassed in angle iron to mount the hinges, , it really wasnt the mounting of the gate that did the damage though, it was the driving around with the gate down. The inner tub almost totally seperated from the outer. I think it may have more to do with the low quality of the tub that I had though. If I were to do it again, i would build a angle iron frame to mount the gate in, and then glass that frame in, To keep the tub from seperating , I thin maybe some additional glass cloth where the inner joins the outer may help. The tub that I had appeard top have been made in at least 4 parts (floor+tubs, Firewall, and outers) that were later asselbled.
I would say that the tub I had was JUNK, so take that into consideration w/ regards to the cracking
HTH

Ahhh, okay. That was the crux of my questions was to whether you built a frame for it or not. Sounds like a steel frame and a lot of glass is the way to go.

Actually, I got a response (on the JU board :eek:) from one of the sales reps at 4WD hardware who informed me that they do in fact sell the steel frames that they use in their tubs. They're only $50 or so, so I think that might save me a lot of trouble.

Just measure twice, cut once, and do a shitload of glassing. :D

Might go easy on the :beer: during this project...

Boots