Liberty with Sky Slider Roof Material

mawlkrawler · **Posted:** Mon Oct 15, 2012 5:07 pm

So I've heard that in order to maintain dexterity in the roof of Liberties with SS's Jeep reinforced the roof with a certain metal. I'm not sure if its true or not but I need to drill through it for a fab project I'm gonna start in the spring and I need to know the material its made of in order to get a bit that will handle the strength of the roof. Anyone know what it is or have any experience drilling through it?

Ted15 · **Posted:** Tue Oct 16, 2012 6:00 am

mawlkrawler wrote:

So I've heard that in order to maintain dexterity in the roof of Liberties with SS's Jeep reinforced the roof with a certain metal. I'm not sure if its true or not but I need to drill through it for a fab project I'm gonna start in the spring and I need to know the material its made of in order to get a bit that will handle the strength of the roof. Anyone know what it is or have any experience drilling through it?

Unless it's made of something very hard, you shouldn't have any problem with 118* split point high speed steel drill bits. If you putting in holes bigger than 1/4" then you might want to use a step bit. (unibit). :2cents:

mawlkrawler · **Posted:** Thu Oct 18, 2012 12:05 pm

Ok cool, thanks for the advice with the stepbit!

Bmxer524 · **Posted:** Thu Oct 18, 2012 1:33 pm

I'm curious as to what you have planned.... :POPCORN:

Ted15 · **Posted:** Thu Oct 18, 2012 9:14 pm

mawlkrawler wrote:

Ok cool, thanks for the advice with the stepbit!

Glad to help. Whatchya pokin holes in? :seuss:

mawlkrawler · **Posted:** Wed Feb 13, 2013 11:16 pm

Sry it's been a while since I started with any project stuff. Since its gonna be spring in a bit I figured I'd crack back open my project binder and get cracking. I was going to drill some holes to fabricate a custom roof rack for a kk sky slider. Here is a basic mockup

I was originally thinking of creating a hinge in the front to allow you to open the roof but that would mean you wouldn't be able to move the rack when it was full. I then redesigned it so it would lift up using gas springs (the same kind of deal that the rear glass uses only much tougher) I figured out that the basket should be able to hold about 80 lbs and therefore each gas spring will be able to lift 80 lbs + the weight of the basket which will be most likely about 40 lbs. ( a total of 120 lbs or 30 lbs a piece.) I first things first though. I need to get a set of rails from RL.

Here is the math for the gas springs
(They had to be calculated in newtons. I understand newtons don't exactly translate well to kilograms or lbs)

This is what the gas spring hinge will look like

Any input is appreciated. I've been tossing ideas around in my head all winter.

Sent from my iPhone 5

Ted15 · **Posted:** Thu Feb 14, 2013 6:23 am

Why not just get taller rails, or maybe have a section of the inside of the basket swing open where the top goes? Of coarse, that won't work if you want to use the slider while it's loaded. :2cents:

mawlkrawler · **Posted:** Thu Feb 14, 2013 11:42 am

They currently make a roof rack like u described. It's like a 6" tall rail system. I think it looks ridiculous. I wanted to make a more low profile rack so it's more tucked into the roof.

Sent from my iPhone 5

PepeTheMuleMN · **Posted:** Mon Feb 25, 2013 6:37 pm

This is a sweet idea, keep us updated as I too have a SS

Liberty with Sky Slider Roof Material

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