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Factory rear spare tire carrier right rear quarter panel interior brace

rcane

NAXJA Forum User
Location
BC, Canada
What a mouthfull that is. I have a rear spare tire carrier off an 84 that I want to put onto my 87. I have everything that I need to do that except the right rear quarter panel interior brace that the upper arm of the carrier mounts to. Does anyone know how the piece that I am talking about? If anyone has any suggestions about how to make one, or rather have someone make one (I have no fabrication experience) please help me out. Even better, if you have one you don't need I'll buy it from ya.

Thanks
Richard
 
I have one on an '87 parts XJ. It's spoken for so I can't sell it to you, but I can remove the trim panel and photograph it for you if that'll help. Might be able to find an illustration in the shop manual, too.
 
I took an external tire rack off of a mid ‘80s XJ and put it on my ’91. The support bracket was the easiest part. I used a 1/8” piece of steel from Lowes. It only took about an hour to bend and notch it so it would fit. Most of that time was spent drinking a beer and talking to a buddy about exactly how we needed to do it. The corner brace was pretty easy too, just 4 holes in the bumper, 4 notches in the plastic corner cover and bolt it up. The lock plate was a pain. Cutting the center of the bumper for it to fit isn’t hard, but it’s a mother to reach up behind there to bolt in the brackets. I imagine it would be a lot easier if you don’t have a class III trailer hitch in the way. It’s held up well over the last 2 years. It even survived an unfortunate unlatching incident. Don’t go around a left hand corner at 20 mph with the tire carrier unlatched. :sure: It bent in the bottom corner of the bumper, but every thing else came through with flying colors (including the home make support bracket).
 
Eagle said:
I have one on an '87 parts XJ. It's spoken for so I can't sell it to you, but I can remove the trim panel and photograph it for you if that'll help. Might be able to find an illustration in the shop manual, too.


That would be great if you could do that. email is [email protected]
 
Wiley Coyote said:
I took an external tire rack off of a mid ‘80s XJ and put it on my ’91. The support bracket was the easiest part. I used a 1/8” piece of steel from Lowes. It only took about an hour to bend and notch it so it would fit. Most of that time was spent drinking a beer and talking to a buddy about exactly how we needed to do it. The corner brace was pretty easy too, just 4 holes in the bumper, 4 notches in the plastic corner cover and bolt it up. The lock plate was a pain. Cutting the center of the bumper for it to fit isn’t hard, but it’s a mother to reach up behind there to bolt in the brackets. I imagine it would be a lot easier if you don’t have a class III trailer hitch in the way. It’s held up well over the last 2 years. It even survived an unfortunate unlatching incident. Don’t go around a left hand corner at 20 mph with the tire carrier unlatched. :sure: It bent in the bottom corner of the bumper, but every thing else came through with flying colors (including the home make support bracket).

I have the carrier attached to the bumper already, I managed to get it that way which I suppose is lucky. I know the brace is riveted into place when installed by the factory. How did you attach it on the inside? Anything else you can tell me would be great.
 
Here's a link to MadXJ's site. If you go to the technical section, scroll down the page and you'll see a pretty good write-up with some pics on installing the carrier and even the bracket that you're wondering about. Eagle you gave me a heart attack there for a sec :wow: HAHAHAHA

http://www.madxj.com/
 
I bent up a crude box out of 1/8” steel and bolted it to the inner finder with 2 nuts and bolts. I had to notch the box with dremel tool in a couple of spots to get it to clear everything and it was a bit of a press fit to get it in there. Then I lined up the tire carrier on the bumper bracket/latch and marked the holes on the quarter panel. It’s a lot easier to drill the quarter panel and bracket all at the same time, no misalignment problems either. After that it was just a matter of putting two nuts and the studs and two nuts and bolts through the other holes. Sorry, I don’t have any pictures of the bracket and I don’t really want to take the panels back off to get them.
 
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