Jurassic Park Jeep Forum

I wasn't in the market for a new vehicle. Sure, I might have looked around and even taken a test drive or two, but I was happy with the F150 I'd been driving for the past few years and if I felt like a change, well, I could take the wife's Fusion or there was always my motorcycle: a Triumph Scrambler. A freak Texas storm changed all that, dumping quarter-sized hail for nearly an hour straight. Tree limbs were broken, roofs were damaged, and windows were broken. My truck, along with most other vehicles nearby, was declared a total loss.

I could've bought a new truck, but I was in the mood for a fun vehicle. I had always liked Wranglers and almost bought one several years ago, were it not for the shady practices of the dealership. Living in a small west-Texas town on the Mexican border, there wasn't much choice in car buying, and what choices I had were all hail-damaged. Looking online however, I found a nice looking 2004 TJ for sale at a decent price, 4 hours away in Austin. When the weekend came, I went to go take a look. Late that evening, I came home with my new toy.



Shortly afterwards, I stumbled onto this site and the seed was planted. The idea of converting my new vehicle into a Jurassic Park Jeep tossed back and forth in my head for a couple of weeks. Jurassic Park has always been my favorite movie. Even when I was a kid, I made a miniature version of the park out of Legos and K'Nex toys. I could, and should convert my Jeep, but it wouldn't be screen accurate since mine's not a YJ. I doubt most people probably would notice, instead seeing the red stripes and the door crests and immediately recognize it. But what about me? I'm a perfectionist, and a little OCD on some things. Could I deal with not having square headlights, or the correct interior? Ultimately, I decided I could.

The first steps would be small, subtle things. Namely, a mirror tag. It'd be something I'd see whenever I drive the Jeep, motivating me to keep going. But I needed a number, a crucial element of the tag.

Since this is a TJ, I'm open to more than just the handful of movie numbers. At first I chose 16, since it's the year I bought the Jeep, began the project, changed careers, and would be the year of my son's birth. So, I used a template from on here, downloaded the right font from Adobe TypeKit, and printed the tag on a couple of sheets of 4x6 photo paper, trimming them to the correct size before sticking them back-to-back in some self-laminating pouches.



Roughly a week later however, I had reason to change numbers. At 5pm on March 19th, my wife went into labor. Nearly 24 hours later, on the 20th, I became a father. Funny thing is, our anniversary also falls on the 20th, though in a different month. So, if there was ever a number that should be on the side of my Jeep, it would be 20. I remade my mirror tag.

Now with a permanent number, I ordered 2 custom plates from Celebrity Machines, a permanent one for the front, and one for the rear that I'd put on if I were to take it to a convention or a movie theater premiere. Conveniently, since Texas requires a front plate, I was able to put my custom plate on the side, just like on the YJs. Honestly, Jeeps look better with offset plates.



Picked up the stone guards from Amazon. They aren't perfect, but they are factory Mopar parts. If Hammond had built the park a few years later, during the TJ's time, these are what would've been on the park's Jeeps.

The paint job is obvious, but when I think of a Jurassic Park Jeep, certain other things come to mind. The winch Nedry uses, for instance, and the overhead roof lights. The orange aux lights on the rear end, as Muldoon's Jeep drives back to the Visitor Center, having just escaped the T-Rex. And the whip antenna, bouncing back and forth as the group drives from the helipad.

Luckily, the antenna is cheap. Since RadioShack is useless for nearly everything, I ordered a 102" whip from online, along with a Hustler SSM-1 stainless steel ball mount and spring. The antenna on the movie jeeps look like its mounted as high as possible on the tub, directly alongside the roll bar. Unfortunately, that's an extremely hard location to drill into. The ball mount's backing plate fits without any room to spare, so the smart thing to do would be to drill from the inside out, ensuring I could fit the backing plate. But, since I only drill one hole from that side, I had to guess some on the others. And I missed.



Also, hole saws don't work well in a position like this, and I only managed to make it look worse.



Eventually, I decided to file away the metal, slowly enlarging the hole until it was roughly the size I needed, allowing me to bolt the mount in place. Since I can't tie the whip to the light bar, I cut some 550 cord and tied it to the roll bar, leaving a portion outside the top of the door. Tying that to the antenna, the whip is held down, and doesn't hit against the windshield or the FM antenna.




If I'm going to have an antenna on a vehicle of mine, it will be functional, and not just for looks. I was an Air Force radio operator for 10 years, giving me an interest and knowledge of communications. I want more than just a CB. This Jeep will be a full mobile communications rig. A command and control jeep with HF, VHF, and UHF capabilities, letting me listen to weather reports, police and fire dispatches, military and civilian air traffic, and all the amateur radio bands.

If I didn't want the military air traffic, I could get by with just a single radio, the ICOM 7100. But, I spend a lot of time on Air Force bases, have several friends still in the airborne comm community, hold a civilian pilot's license, and spent a little time as an Air Force pilot. (Decided that's not the life I wanted, but that's another story.) Needless to say, MilAir is a requirement for me, and the Kenwood TM-V71A receives those frequencies.

Not wanting the cab littered with radios, I needed a clean way of installing them. The radio needed to be in a place that was out of site, but I didn't want it under the driver's seat, in case I drive through deep water and flood the floor of the jeep. Or if it rains with the top down. Luckily, there's a large empty spot in the dash, under the steering column. A single bolt holds the radio mount to the steering column, and once that trim panel is re-installed, you'd never know the radio was there.



The head unit needed to be accessible, but out of the way at the same time. And I wanted something that looked like it could've been stock. Luckily, the TJ has a large trim piece between the sun visors. Taking a drill and an exacto knife to the plastic, I cut an opening for the remote head unit. It cuts through one of the clips holding the piece in place, along with a stop to prevent it from being pushed into the windshield frame, but the face plate is thick enough to act as a stop and there are 4 other clips to hold the piece in place. With a cable running inside the trim along the side of the frame, it couldn't look much cleaner.




Since the Kenwood doesn't operate on the HF bands that the whip is designed for, I still need another antenna mounted somewhere, and I still need the ICOM radio for the HF operations, leaving me a radio without an antenna, and an antenna without a radio. Good thing this is still a work in progress.

Another week's faded into history, and while nothing significant was done, a lot still happened. More packages than I can remember were dropped off by my UPS driver. I cut more holes into my dash, and I handed over one of my Jabsco lights to someone who thought it was a GoLight.

Yes, I'm putting the Jabsco's on my Jeep. Purchased them from Amazon for about $170 each, after shipping. Might not be as good as the rare find on eBay, but it's cheaper than buying direct from a boat shop. Plus, they give me that cool look from the 80's and 90's, before the new LED bars.



But I needed a lightbar before I can mount them to the Jeep. I know I can get one custom made, but I'm already losing authenticity points for having a TJ, so the least I can do is get one that looks like Mopar's more recent style. Enter the Rugged Ridge bar. Bought for $120 on Amazon, it's cheap, and functional. Some of the reviews talk about how it comes with the wrong hardware or doesn't line up right, but I had no issues and installed it in about 10 minutes.


Some of the tabs aren't exactly level, but they can be bent into place with a wrench. Doesn't need to be 100% perfect either, since I'll be having that shelf built for it, to hold the wider searchlights.



And yes, I won't be able to fold down the top once the Jabsco's are mounted...except this is a Jeep. The windshield folds down, giving me enough room to raise and lower the top. No problems there.

Found a place in town that fabricates grill guards and bumpers for trucks, and dropped off one of the lights along with lightbar's cross piece. Charging me a little more than I want, especially since I'll still be drilling holes myself, and I'm not having them powdercoat it, but in a small border town, there's not a lot of options. Hopefully I should have that on Monday.

In Nedry's Jeep, each light had its own toggle switch and joystick, all laid out on the passenger side dash. In my newer TJ, I don't have the room for the four panels. Airbags and glove boxes take up that space. Luckily, there's a small 2.5" square beneath the a/c controls that's empty and looking for some sort of switchery.


Not my Jeep, but you can see that spot.

I took one of the lights to the Jeep, wired it up, and tried it out, learning how it worked. After a little while I discovered that one pair of wires controls each motor, and the motors can be wired independently from the lamp. This means it should be possible to use a rotary switch to connect one joystick to all four lights.

I purchased a 4 position 2 pole rotary switch from online, took apart the control panel and started cutting. Eventually, I ended up with this.



New "Spotters" switch powers the 4 toggle switches. Only 3 for now, because one switch is still at the fab shop. Each switch powers each light. Small shaft on the right is the rotary switch, which connects the joystick to one of the four lamps. Still waiting on the knob for the switch. And a lot of this is still theory, since I don't have the finished bar yet for me to mount the lights onto, but it should work and be a lot easier to reach than something on the passenger side. Plus, I still retain control of each individual lamp and can turn them all on or off at once too.

Up next, finishing the lights and installing the winch!

Should've checked the mail earlier today. Prototype light guard came in. Designed it in 3ds Max and uploaded it to makexyz.com for them to print out. Looks decent, and would do better once plasti-dipped.



Only thing is that some of the sizing might be a little off. I can't tell if the ring is smaller than it should be or if the tabs are spreading a little wide because the lamp starts to curve narrow.



Either way, I'm glad I just paid for one instead of all four.

http://www.quadratec.com/products/11033_002.htm

Buy a set of these and you will be able to pull the front half of the roof back horizontally rather than flipping it over. much less effort than undoing the windscreen just to put the top down.

ausjeep wrote:http://www.quadratec.com/products/11033_002.htm

Buy a set of these and you will be able to pull the front half of the roof back horizontally rather than flipping it over. much less effort than undoing the windscreen just to put the top down.

Huh, interesting idea. Hadn't thought of something like that. Thanks!

Another delivery from UPS showed up today!


I know the actual wench is the Ramsey Rep-6000, but since it's discontinued and the Rep 9.5e is only slightly bigger with nearly double the pull rating, I figure the newer winch is good enough for my newer Jeep.

Install was pretty easy. Bolted the smittybilt winch mount to the bottom of the winch, and then the mount to the Jeep where the tow hooks go. The bolts for the tow hooks are long enough that the extra thickness of the plate shouldn't impact them, so rather than using the supplied bolts, I just reinstalled the hooks on top of the winch plate.


Wiring was slightly more complicated. To remote mount the solenoid, I needed to find a place big enough. There's an empty tray underneath the brake booster that would be perfect, except I bought 60" wires, and I probably needed 72" to make the cables reach all the way to the winch.


Instead, there's a snug spot behind the windshield fluid reservoir that just manages to work.



One thing to note, is that depending on your cables, the connectors may be long enough to touch the bottom metal plating of the solenoid box. Lots of smoke can come pouring out of that box if you let them touch. Just an FYI. Don't ask how I know...

Still want to wire up some in-cab controls for the winch. I'll probably fill in one of the cigarette lighters/power outlets, and cut a space for a power window switch. One with an up arrow and down arrow. Until then, winch is wired and working.

Also in the mail came these lovely vinyl decals, courtesy of Eagle5740.

Pulled off the old stickers and installed all but the winch rating one. It's a minor thing, but I think they look great and gives it that extra little bit of authenticity.

A bit late now, but definitely invest in a step bit for drilling holes in the jeeps. They make super clean holes that only need minor sanding to smooth the edges and its very easy to control the hole size. I got these from harbor freight and with a coupon, they are a steal: http://www.harborfreight.com/2-piece-ti ... 96275.html


Your build is looking great!

once you get to paint there is now a stripe layout guide that is sized for tj's (i did 2) viewtopic.php?f=10&t=5861 if it would help at all.

There are some challenges that turn out easy and others that well, they stay challenges. I had expected the lights to be an easy addition. After all, there are several good guides on here that show how its done, even going as far as listing specific part numbers. Figures that out in the middle of the nowhere, even the simplest of those parts would have to be ordered online. So, I ordered the Cowles trim molding, along with a sheet of black ABS plastic. While waiting for them to arrive, I took to redoing the plastic rings.

After a little while, I realized that the dimensions for the mounting tabs were off. The ones I had been using said the overall height were 13/16", but if the rings were 1/4" and I had a 1/4" space between the rings and the lamp, the overall height would've been 3/4". Mine were 1/16" too tall. I loaded up 3D Studio once more and took to redesigning them. While I was at it, I decided to thicken the angled part in the middle. I had felt it was too thin before.

[Note: Insert Pic here]

While the rings were off being printed and I was still waiting on UPS to arrive with my auto trim, I managed to find a custom truck bumper fabricator to make me a mounting bracket for the lights. It’s off center and the corners weren’t rounded to match the lights like I wanted. I feel I paid too much for it, but it would’ve been more if I had them powder coat it. I printed out the mounting template for the lights and drilled the holes into it before taking a rattle can of Rustoleum to the thing.



Eventually, my packages were delivered and I set to work. I marked out 1” and 2” points on the black plastic, and first used a small hacksaw to trim them to size. Unfortunately, they seemed a little crooked and each one was slightly a different size so I came up with a better solution: I used my table saw.

The auto trim wasn’t so easy. I’m certain that somewhere I had read of someone using hot glue for those plastic rectangles and relying on the trim’s 3M adhesive for those pieces. Didn’t work for me. After several tries, I thought I finally had them secured in place, but after taking a little PlastiDip to the bases, they started coming undone.



I went to the store and picked up Loctite’s two-part plastic epoxy, came home, and tried again. Aside from the 5-10 minutes I had to hold each piece in place while the glue set, this glue worked without fail. Considering how well it worked, I chose to use it to pre-attach all of the mounting tabs to the rings. And a good thing I did!



Taking some scrap wood and my nail gun, I assembled a small paint stand for the rings and covered them in another few coats of PlastiDip. Since it’s going to be a while before I send the Jeep to paint, I figure the lights will look best solid black.



I had expected the 3D printed stuff to be less fragile, but drilling the holes for the #8 screws cracked several of mounting tabs, even after drilling smaller pilot holes. Hearing the crunch and crack as the drill bit pushes through them is a little disconcerting. Glue and PlastiDip are the only things keeping some of them together now. Surprisingly though, the threads of the screws bit into the plastic allowing them to be held into place. All said and done, I think they turned out all right.





Mounting them onto the Jeep turned out surprisingly easy. Each of the lines fed into the light bar without issue. I measured the group of cables at a little less than 3/4”, so I headed back into town and picked up a rubber grommet. Using the stepper bits recommended by walke2jd, I drilled into the side of the jeep and shoved the cabling through. There’s a lot of empty space beside the antenna cable so there’s no danger of hitting anything, but if anyone else does this, know that there’s 2 layers of metal there: the outer sheet metal, and another layer about an inch into the interior. Wrapping the cables in electrical tape, its a very finished looking product, and couldn’t be happier with its appearance.




Wiring them was a little time consuming, but fairly easy. There’s not much room for all of the wires, but there’s only *just* enough. Still, with a finished switch panel, the lights all light up, and have independent controls. Very pleased.



https://vimeo.com/165815617



Only problem I have with them is the wind noise. It's a slight whistle between 20 and 30mph, depending on wind speed, and on the highway it sounds like a tornado siren's going off inside the Jeep. I expected some noise with these, but more of the dull noise the Jeep itself makes. The whistle is loud and pierces through music and conversation. Thinking about making a small wind deflector to put in front of the light bar to disrupt the wind flow some. I know it's not canon, but neither is my Jeep, and practicality needs to play a role somewhere. I'll probably make it out of clear plastic to keep it as visually hidden as possible.