Wheelwell notch

Well,

Out of frustration due to being unable to get my new seats to fit I decided to notch the wheelwell and use my old seats. So I broke out the circle saw and sawzall and went to town. You might be wondering what??? but I have a glass tub so it worked well with the circle saw. I then used the pieces I cut out and re glassed them into the body. Tough as nails and hard to sand, but I'm making it work. I did the passenger side first to keep the Jeep driveable until I'm ready to do the drivers side. I am doing both sides to keep the seats level to eachother and back away from the dash the same amount. I jacked up the Jeep on the drivers side as far as it took to get the rear passenger side tire stuffed as far as it would go before the passenger side front tire came off the ground and I should have room. I hate to say it, but the most four wheeling I have done in a long time was using the Jeep to drag our softball field last week. Needless to say, I need more comfort and don't care as much about flex......at this point.

I need to snap some pictures, but I am off to the inlaws for lunch. Wish me luck

Lastly, this is my first time ever dealing with fiberglass and it has definitely been an experience.

High5

 

Here's a couple of pictures from the project I have been working on. I set one of the seats in the drivers side and it is a huge difference. Much more comfortable. Now I need to herculine the interior again and then possibly fiberglass the under side.

 

More pics

 

keep us posted how it works out for ya..
i have a 71 cj-5 with glass body and have been a little hesitant on notching the wheel wells .. but i need more room .. im still running the old steering

how big of a cut did you do ? hight and width ...looks like you went from the floor up..

 

I started 2 inches in from the side wall and cut flush with the floor. I took a 3 inch chunk out. I then scraped the herculiner off and sanded through the gelcoat and down to the bare fiberglass. At this point I drilled a bunch of little holes around the bare fiberglass. I then took the pieces I cut out and glassed them into the body. I took the three inch piece I took out of the top and put it on the bottom. Took the inside strip and flipped it over and glassed it to the outside. Then I just took the big piece from the middle, flipped it over and glassed it into place. I am debating glassing mesh to the back side of the whole works to seal it in. I'm sure I will do it, but it's not going to be fun. It's a messing job as well as a fumey one.

It makes a world of difference in how the seats fit. Much lower so now I feel like I'm sitting in the Jeep, not on top of it. It also gives three inches more leg room so that is really nice. The brackets I got from 4wd hardware are too low so I am going to put a 1 1/2 to 2 inch spacer underneath the front and basically have the rear sitting on the floor of the rear area. I think I will really enjoy it once it's done. Hardest part was that first cut.
Fiberglassing isn't as difficult as I thought. I've seen it done many times on TV, but always thought it was way above my head. It's just really smelly, sticky, dirty work.


High5