Quote Originally Posted by Marlin View Post
Sweet, I have earned the "classic" adjective. Yippeee!!!! Success at last.
As for the exo, that is why I was only looking at lower, I caught my cladding on some trees in Uwharrie, if I had lower bars, that would save me from that kind of stuff, but they would have to be tight and close. I don't know, just an idea we talked about. It would not be like my bumper, which is looking better now that I know I can bend the tubing. Just you wait and see, just you wait.
I could see a lower treatment working out. One of the ideas I had was to replace the cladding with steel - tube and plate - as well as some sort of rubber or plastic. I would want to make it look like I had it bolted to the body at the cladding bolt locations by fishmouthing the main tubes that follow the original lines of the cladding to receive mounting tubes about 1.5" long with recessed bolts in them. I also figured if I were going to do it I would run the tubes along the A-pillar and then have them die into the fender so that the fender would still be exposed and beautiful (mostly unprotected tho). Attachment is an issue however. Cages are usually isolated from the body and frame with a flexible joint to prevent cracking during twist. In the end, after I put that much thought into it, I decided it would be too much work, too much weight, and would never be used on my VX anyway. So I bought another big Jeep instead!