XJ Luggage Rack Conversion
ThisGuyUKnow
Full Time Jeeper
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- Harleysville, PA
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- 1986 CJ7 Laredo 4.0,Nv3550,D300 Twin Stick,AMC20 3.31, 31 BFG
Honda vtx1800c
I stole this idea from Ed (Onlyinajeepcj). Took the luggage rack off of a '99 XJ, it seemed to be the shortest of all the other years.
The Cj hardtop has a seam on the inside where the pieces come together. It is hollow on the outer edges, so I wanted the rails to fall well within the inside of the seams. Of course it was too wide to fit how I wanted so I measured and opted to change its stance to 44" between the mounting bolts. To accomplish this I had to shave the crossbars by 3" or 1.5 inches on either side.
Once the cross bars were shaved and redrilled I measured and marked the top. I have a Limited top that I got from Pete so I had to drop the headliner out.
I couldn't find T-nuts that fit the XJ bolts so I grabbed 10 hex bolts and some 1/4x20 tnuts from ACE.
To fit the t-nuts it took a 5/16 drill bit. I slathered clear silicon all over the tnuts and insterted them in the bottom then put more silicon on the top of the nuts and over the hole then bolted it on.
Thats about it, pretty simple to do and not a whole lot invested in this.
I'll probably use this to carry extra cargo or a kayak. I can't find anything to indicated what kind of weight the hardtop can handle but I would guess I would need to keep it under 75 pounds of well distributed weight. I would think that tops without the sun roof might hold weight.
The Cj hardtop has a seam on the inside where the pieces come together. It is hollow on the outer edges, so I wanted the rails to fall well within the inside of the seams. Of course it was too wide to fit how I wanted so I measured and opted to change its stance to 44" between the mounting bolts. To accomplish this I had to shave the crossbars by 3" or 1.5 inches on either side.
Once the cross bars were shaved and redrilled I measured and marked the top. I have a Limited top that I got from Pete so I had to drop the headliner out.
I couldn't find T-nuts that fit the XJ bolts so I grabbed 10 hex bolts and some 1/4x20 tnuts from ACE.
To fit the t-nuts it took a 5/16 drill bit. I slathered clear silicon all over the tnuts and insterted them in the bottom then put more silicon on the top of the nuts and over the hole then bolted it on.
Thats about it, pretty simple to do and not a whole lot invested in this.
I'll probably use this to carry extra cargo or a kayak. I can't find anything to indicated what kind of weight the hardtop can handle but I would guess I would need to keep it under 75 pounds of well distributed weight. I would think that tops without the sun roof might hold weight.
