Paint and roll bar.

When I started thinking up this Jeep, I figured I'd go with Olive flat paint, but wanted something durable, not just thin rattle-can stuff. I opted for Hot Rod Flatz, and used a Urethane high-build primer underneith. The Hot Rod Flatz paint came in Oliver Drab, and Olive Brown...I figured the Olive brown would be more of a desert look, but the color looks absolutely nothing like the sample pictures...it looks more like baby shit green. Perfect! Ugly, yet kinda cool. You won't forget it, which is the point. If you want a cheap flat paint, HR flatz isn't bad. Goes on easy, mistakes cover easy, and it'll only set you back about 100.00. I used just over a quart to do the whole thing.

Now, onto the roll bar...



For the roll bar, I figured I'd snag a cheap Wrangler bar somewhere and make it work, which is exactly what I did. I ended up scoring a kid crusher bar, the front window extensions, padding, and seat belts front and rear all for 100.00. Deal. The bar surprisingly fit nice and snug in between the tub sides. I lopped off about 4.5 inches off the bottom of the bar, and welded on new flat mounting points for the front. The rear I left completely untouched, just fabbed up brackets to mount on the fenders using 3 Grade 8 bolts per side (see earlier pic). I really wanted to be able to use the stock mounting plates for the front extensions, but unfortunately couldn't get that lucky. I finally just said screw it, lopped off the mounting plates and welded the bars directly to the front windshield. It's not going anywhere. The front extension pads were grey instead of black, so I cleaned them good with denatured alcohol and painted them with AutoZone fabric paint (black). This is the first time using this stuff and I am completely amazed. They really, really look like they aren't painted at all.

The seat belt bottom roller was fixed to the bar via tapping the bar and using a Grade 8 bolt with loc-tite. The upper uses the stock location, with the buckle mounted to the floor. It took a lot of prepping and layout to make sure the bar was level and set-up right. I still don't know if the top is going to fit back on, but all my measurements point to yes. The top had 2 feet of snow on it behind my shed when I did this and I didn't much feel like going out there.


Here is where the front extension meets the windshield. The lower sections of the windshield on both sides had some rust issues. Rather than scouring for a new one, I just opted to cut out and repair it since I probably wasn't going to be driving this thing in the rain too much. My guess is the windshield gasket leaks, but I really don't care.