[offrdjeepfreak8]

Hey everyone! My name is Tyler. I'm 17. I saw a couple of build threads on here and thought i would start one of my own. I'm not a great mechanic or anything but i've got a few basic skills and i'm learning as i go. So here's what i've done so far. Let me know what u think!

With the help of my parents I bought a 1987 YJ Wrangler in October 2007 when i was 15. I didn't know much about wranglers at the time. i just thought they looked cool with the big tires. So i bought a rust free 4.2L l6 manual yj with a 3.5" black diamond lift and 33" BFG A-Ts for $5000. It had 96,000 miles and was supposedly in good mechanical condition (found out differently later on) It came with 4 stock tires and rims, hard top, bikini top, full doors, and half doors. The plan at the time was to fix it up a bit and do some body work and paint



it had a bit of damage on the passenger side fender



A few weeks after I bought it, we(my dad and i) found out that it had a bad transmission. It wouldn’t shift into reverse and some of the other gears were grinding. It turns out that when the previous owner installed the lift, he never notched the floor pan for reverse. So whenever it was put into reverse it was never fully engaged so this destroyed the tranny. in the end we ended up having the tranny rebuilt by a professional shop. Now that ive had my wrangler for awhile and have done some research, i found out that I probably should have swapped it out for an AX-15 because the Peugeot BA-10/5 is not very stout for offroad. Oh well. Live and learn. If the Peugeot ever breaks again ill do the swap.

Heres a pic of the floorpan after the rebuild. Notice the slight notch


you can also see in this picture that I was prepping for herculiner. It was originally lined with carpet but I wanted the interior to be waterproof so out it came and on went the herculiner. It was April 08’ by this time

Sorry no pictures of the finished product.

Besides the transmission, there were no other major mechanical problems. The weber carb was tuned, fluids changed, power steering pump and motor mounts replaced, turn signal shutoff fixed, etc.

The stock fender flares and side step came off in july 08’. Then body work began. The only major area was the fender.

[offrdjeepfreak8]

in august 08’ I ordered and installed Rugged Ridge 7” extended flares. The fronts went on relatively easy but some trimming was needed for the rears.





I went to the Great American Jeep Rally in Somers, CT in September. It was awesome. There were somewhere around 500 jeeps there. The day after that I finally got my license!!! I couldn’t wait to drive my baby.

In October I did my first bit of wheelin at my buddy’s house. He only has a few acres but he has some good ditches and dirtpiles. I had a blast!!





I had a blast driving in the winter. I love being able to go out when everyone else is snowed in.


I bought a 48” hi-lift in march 09’. I was debating about where to put it but after reading some threads on here I finally decided on the hood. it was a pretty simple install. I just took the front bolt out of the hinge and ran a longer stainless from underneath the hood, added some lock washers and spacers, and was done. Since these pictures I have drilled a hole through one of the bolts and added a lock.



in the first week in april we did some final prep and then went into paint. A good friend of ours let us use a large garage at his machine shop to spray the jeep. The color I went with is called Vesuvius orange. It turned out pretty nice.

[iananderson17]

Originally Posted by offrdjeepfreak8

Hey everyone! My name is Tyler. I'm 17. I saw a couple of build threads on here and thought i would start one of my own. I'm not a great mechanic or anything but i've got a few basic skills and i'm learning as i go. So here's what i've done so far. Let me know what u think!

With the help of my parents I bought a 1987 YJ Wrangler in October 2007 when i was 15. I didn't know much about wranglers at the time. i just thought they looked cool with the big tires. So i bought a rust free 4.2L l6 manual yj with a 3.5" black diamond lift and 33" BFG A-Ts for $5000. It had 96,000 miles and was supposedly in good mechanical condition (found out differently later on) It came with 4 stock tires and rims, hard top, bikini top, full doors, and half doors. The plan at the time was to fix it up a bit and do some body work and paint

Here are some pictures when i first got it. (If someone could make them click free it would be appreciated)


it had a bit of damage on the passenger side fender



A few weeks after I bought it, we(my dad and i) found out that it had a bad transmission. It wouldn’t shift into reverse and some of the other gears were grinding. It turns out that when the previous owner installed the lift, he never notched the floor pan for reverse. So whenever it was put into reverse it was never fully engaged so this destroyed the tranny. in the end we ended up having the tranny rebuilt by a professional shop. Now that ive had my wrangler for awhile and have done some research, i found out that I probably should have swapped it out for an AX-15 because the Peugeot BA-10/5 is not very stout for offroad. Oh well. Live and learn. If the Peugeot ever breaks again ill do the swap.

Heres a pic of the floorpan after the rebuild. Notice the slight notch


you can also see in this picture that I was prepping for herculiner. It was originally lined with carpet but I wanted the interior to be waterproof so out it came and on went the herculiner. It was April 08’ by this time

Sorry no pictures of the finished product.

Besides the transmission, there were no other major mechanical problems. The weber carb was tuned, fluids changed, power steering pump and motor mounts replaced, turn signal shutoff fixed, etc.

The stock fender flares and side step came off in july 08’. Then body work began. The only major area was the fender.

no clickster

[iananderson17]

Originally Posted by offrdjeepfreak8

in august 08’ I ordered and installed Rugged Ridge 7” extended flares. The fronts went on relatively easy but some trimming was needed for the rears.





I went to the Great American Jeep Rally in Somers, CT in September. It was awesome. There were somewhere around 500 jeeps there. The day after that I finally got my license!!! I couldn’t wait to drive my baby.

In October I did my first bit of wheelin at my buddy’s house. He only has a few acres but he has some good ditches and dirtpiles. I had a blast!!





I had a blast driving in the winter. I love being able to go out when everyone else is snowed in.


I bought a 48” hi-lift in march 09’. I was debating about where to put it but after reading some threads on here I finally decided on the hood. it was a pretty simple install. I just took the front bolt out of the hinge and ran a longer stainless from underneath the hood, added some lock washers and spacers, and was done. Since these pictures I have drilled a hole through one of the bolts and added a lock.



in the first week in april we did some final prep and then went into paint. A good friend of ours let us use a large garage at his machine shop to spray the jeep. The color I went with is called Vesuvius orange. It turned out pretty nice.

and no clickies!

[offrdjeepfreak8]

thanks iananderson.

so thats about where i'm at right now. heres are some future mods that i want to make:
lockers
recovery points
armor
on board air
winch (eventually)
ax-15 & np231 swap (when stock breaks)

i dont have much time (or money) right now between school and volleyball and college visits, but i like to work on it a little bit after school each day

right now my steering box is leaking fluid, leaving a dime size puddle everyday under the jeep. i cant decide whether to replace it or just replace the seals. any suggestions?

[Nates93yj]

DAM that is one nice jeep i wish i had your funds. nice job tyler, im doing the same thing you are

[bryris]

Either the suspension and axles on that thing were replaced recently before you bought or it'd been garaged its whole life. My suspension and axles have nice rust glaze over them and mine is 8 years newer.

Looks freakin awesome!!!

[Leans93]

Jeep looks great! I love the color.

Welcome to the forum!

[rulppa]

I love color also, wondered how dodge nitro sunburst orange color would look and this color is pretty close i think, i like it

[wendell]

"Awesome", Thats the color I want to paint mine. I've been looking for just the right color of orange. I wanted a metalic and that that looks like it. Thanks for posting, great job!!!!

[mikebigh]

Looks fantastic. Very good work. You make me wanna paint mine, but then I would not want to bring it through the woods.

[Lendo]

That's a sick job bro. Love it. Makes me wanna paint and clean mine too. Like the other guy said though, probably wouldn't wanna get it dirty again lol. Love those tires.

[offrdjeepfreak8]

thanks everyone

Originally Posted by bryris

Either the suspension and axles on that thing were replaced recently before you bought or it'd been garaged its whole life. My suspension and axles have nice rust glaze over them and mine is 8 years newer.

yeah. i think both. it only had 96,000 miles on it when i got it. and its over 20 years old. but now its my daily driver

i'm a little worried about taking it offroad now but i'm sure once i get the first scratch or dent i wont care much anymore. although im not sure how much offroading im going to be doing around here because i cant find many legal places to go

[offrdjeepfreak8]

heres a little bit of an update.
i took some scrap diamond plate and made a cover in front of the grill to replace the plastic "Jeep" one. i painted it flat black to match.



then i put on a brush guard that i got from a friend for free. i know, i know...not much protection off road. but u cant beat the price


i also decided to paint my hi-lift because it was starting to rust.




took the hard top off yesterday. not looking foward to driving in the rain. all i have is a bikini top

[93jeepyj]

nice jeep man, The paint came out great. I'm getting ready to paint mine too. where abouts in ct are you?