rhino conversion

[WHAT?]

Does anyone have any advice for filling the gaps left between the hood and the valance on both sides of the grill insert? :confused: I am not changing valances so I need to compensate. thanks :D

[WHAT?]

:D bump :D

[JeepBountyHunter]

Rande had a post about this when he did his, I think they moved it to the tech library..look there..or do a search on 'Rande' or email him..lol..
If this is what I think it is..Rande used a 2X4 and a bottle jack...to push up the valence towards the hood...I could be wrong about this though..lol..

[RoofPrints]

His in-depth thread posed this problem, but he never got around to answering it. Here is the original info: Rhino Conversion (http://www.ifsja.org/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=2;t=022585#000000)
I hope this helps. I'm sure Rande could provide more answers.

“Lisdexics untie!”

[WHAT?]

thanks guys, yeah his post sorta leaves off on that problem and its kinda ugly(so I guess it matches :D )

[RoofPrints]

I'm just getting ready to do the conversion too. If you get any answers or brilliant ideas for this problem, please let me know. If I think of anything better than ignoring the gaps, I will post it.

“Mardon me Paddam, this pie is occupued. May I sew you to a sheet?”
Spooner

[Rande]

Ok, I haven't yet gotten back to the job. Here's what I planned to do.

I took an old fascia off a '75 Cherokee and cut out a section of the grille opening. It also had those gaps and thats the part I cut. I plan to take the peice I cut from the righthand side and turn it over and weld it into the gap on the left side and vice-versa. The reason for turning them over and using them on the opposite side is that the ridge around the grille opening is tapered. If you just cut out a piece from an extra valance and try to fit them in, they don't quite match up. The difference is not great and you could reshape it a bit to fit, but I figured its easier to just flip them over so the edges to be welded together match well. I don't think the slight difference in shape will be noticeable that close to the hood.

All I have done so far on my truck is to cut the pieces from the other grille opening, I haven't yet even tried to fit the pieces in. It looked like that was going to be the easiest way to fill those two gaps.

I'm going over to the shop today to put in some more lights, I'll try to get some pics of the pieces I cut from the other fascia.

Now, about my pushing the front section of the fascia up to mount the grille to. The fascia on the early trucks was different from later trucks. That front edge of the fascia is taller and slightly different from the one on trucks made from about 1967 or so on. Some have suggested that I need a bracket that was missing from my Rhino grille. That bracket wasn't used on the earlier trucks. I am guessing that when the Wagoneer got its different grille, the fascia was changed and the bracket was then used to bridge the gap between the redesigned fascia and the top of the Rhino grille. I have seen this earlier fascia up close. There was also a rubber strip on the underside of the hood bulge.

I would suggest that if you find a good Rhino in a junkyard, buy the front fascia to go with it. It will save you a lot of work making the later fascia look right with the Rhino. If you don't mind the little differences then it won't matter.