Dave's "S200KYS" Jimny 'laner Build...

Sunday, my day off, and started by getting up early and walking the dogs so that I'd have more time in the garage... It was wet and icy out in the morning, so after a cuppa and a bacon butty I went out to brave the cold...



I started by ratchet strapping the rear, to get the bars closer together and following the line of the rear hard-top section, and also to lower it onto the bumper where it will mount... I then measured, re-measured, and then measured again, and wrote down all the reference measurents I needed, before lifting the bars off the Jimny and driving it out of the garage...



And then reassembled it all using my reference measurements to get it all in line...

Then there was a tap on the window in the garage door... Alan (my mate and co-driver) had popped round for a nosey, and voluntered his services...



We cut the rear cross bar to length (and lower) as the roof bars get narrower as they get to the back of the Jimny... Here it is tacked in place and again lifted onto the Jimny to test fit... thank heavens Alan popped round, as it would be nigh on impossible to position it on my own



From the side... that was the fairly subtle look I was hoping for...

We then took it off again, back into the garage and fashioned the middle cross bar...



Then again out for a test-fit and position the middle cross bar so that it looks right...



I then placed one of the waffle boards on top to show Alan what I was aiming for... these are handy for getting up rock steps and bridging, and also serve to protect the hard-top...



The rear bar fits neatly around the rear lights and lands nicely on top of the ORA rear (winch) bumper...



Back into the garage, and the middle cross bar can be positioned, checked and welded in place...



I'd mis-measured slightly, and as the cross bar looked too high, I had to cut the ends down, this then left the bar too short, so I cut it in half and put a filler piece in, with some of the smaller tube inside to brace it...



We then played around with how the front cross bar should look... it's purpose is to protect the leading edge of the soft-top material, so we positioned it sloping back, to sweep branches out of the way...



There... roof protection bars...!



From the back...



And theres's a side view of the soft-top protecting bar...



I then drilled the bars and plug welded the tube insert in for the join... (it's been made in two pieces to aid shipment from the ORA, and so that it will fit in my powder-coater's oven!)



After a cuppa and a natter with Alan, I positioned the waffle boards on the roof bars and started planning the mounts for them... you can see a couple of 12mm bolts loosely positioned poking up through the waffle boards, and I'm waiting for some stainless steel wing-nuts to arrive via eBay. The front mounts will be L-shaped brackets that the waffle board locates on through one of the holes, and then the wingnut holds them in place with a big washer...



That's enough for today though... more soon!

Jimny-Dave wrote:

Hi Dave , could I have the item number on eBay please for the stainless wing nuts as I could do with some to hold on my high lift jack. Many thanks nick

Hi Nick

Item number - 271544142877

HTH
Dave

It looks like the roof bars that Suzuki use to sell for the soft top SJ.

Dave,

I assume the cage is connected to the bumper which is connected to the chassis. In which case you need to watch out for body movement hitting the cage. The Jimny body moves a lot on its rubbers, I speak from the experience of mysterious banging noises from the car over rough ground (body hitting cage).

Rubber domestic door stop put to better use!

Rhinoman wrote: It looks like the roof bars that Suzuki use to sell for the soft top SJ.

Yes! Good call... that was probably what was in my memory!...

Just need them to protect the front soft-top and rear hard-top sections... from trees in the mad places we go 'laning...!

:woohoo: