[SwayzePDX89]

Ouch time for a ARB bumper....ha...but I envy those Rubi Wheels I want them! Looking good

[doogie]

Originally Posted by PaLftr

$300? Sounds like a good deal to me lol

Originally Posted by zjzach

i wish some kid would hit my jeep and give me 300 bucks. glad to see you didn't take too much damage though.

Originally Posted by SwayzePDX89

Ouch time for a ARB bumper....ha...but I envy those Rubi Wheels I want them! Looking good

Yeah $300 wasn’t to bad, I should have asked for more. I’m pretty sure this kid would have paid. There was a very serious reason he didn’t want the cops called. Thanks for the compliment on the Rubi’s. I love them to, I’ve run them on my last 3 Jeeps. And as much as I’d like to have an ARB, dang they are expensive.

Honestly I think I’m going with this guy….I found him on Ebay and he emailed me his link over on Pirate. $475 for non winch and $575 for winch. I’m going to have him add in his 7 slotted radiator guard for an additional $75 and go with the non winch. Says it can be ready by Jan 8th. I’ll keep you guys updated on how it goes.

You can find him on Ebay by typing "ZJ bumper" in a search

Here is his pirate link: Pirate 4x4 post and keep scrolling he's got some pictures of his rear bumpers there also.

[doogie]

We'll time for a little update.

A few of you may have read my thread about the RLC Welding front bumper I purchased. It can be found by clicking here for those of you that haven't. It's been crazy cold out and I have no garage to I haven't painted or installed it yet.

Today I did order some new tires. I whimped out and got some Cooper ATR's. It's not that I whimped out it's just I let the fact that 98% of the driving I do is on pavement. So I got some nice riding AT's instead of the nasty mud terrains I really wanted. That and money no longer grows on trees so the 50,000 mile warranty sounded great. I'll have pics up tomorrow.

Today I got in my KOR tire carrier. And I'm hesitant to give it a review since I do have some negative things to say but I'm simply stating the facts not bashing on Kevin. Good company, always answer the phone, good products. But here is my review. First off I know they got a little behind with the orders so I won't comment about the fact that this was ordered on Thanksgiving and didn't show up until almost a month and a half later on January 13th. Ok so I think for the sale price I got it's a decent piece. And if I've installed something wrong thus giving me the wrong impression of the product someone call me on it.

Here it is installed:

I ordered mine with the shovel and high lift jack mounts. I can't figure out why the large spacer was needed on this side. I will be swapping out those bolts for shorter ones. Also I had to re-tap 3 of the T-handles....3 of them were either not tapped deep enough or were full of trash, I'm not sure which but they wouldn't screw down as far as they needed to go without damaging the bolt threads. Also if you look closely at the tab and it's weld...there is a hole in it. Complete daylight showing through there. Not exactly structural so no biggie I guess but someone just started and stopped a weld and didn' overlap.

Another thing I noticed was that 2 of the handles have these burs on them. And they will cut the crap out of you. I used to work in a machine shop and you just don't send out stuff without deburring it or taking 3 seconds to roll the edge on a belt sander.

I'd also like to see a little more overhang on the outside of the top rail mount. It took me 15 minutes to tighten all 8 mouting bolt just because it kept sliding to the other side of the rail. Extend that top mount even a .25" further out on a 45 degree downward would make mounting it much easier. An even though it looks like it's it's holding to a minimal portion of the roof rails I really see no way possible it could slip off but it would also just make me feel better to see that top outside lip extended.


But I'm done complaining all in all I'm really happy with it. No wind noise, my cargo area is finally clutter free and I can impress everyone at the mall when I roll up with my shovel and highlift jack mounted on top. It serves it's purpose well.

Also wanted to throw this pic up of my beloved XJ (long gone to a forum member). I thought it was hilarious since I just got the tire rack on the GC today......I've got a thing for moabs, small lifts and roof tire carriers.

[MoonyJohn]

That XJ is sweet, i always loved the 2 doors, seems more enjoyable for a passenger to be sitting in the back with a lot more leg room. Both jeeps look great with what you have done to them.

[doogie]

Originally Posted by MoonyJohn

That XJ is sweet, i always loved the 2 doors, seems more enjoyable for a passenger to be sitting in the back with a lot more leg room. Both jeeps look great with what you have done to them.

Thanks man. I almost cry everytime I think about that thing, it was my favorite car of all time, 5 speed to! My boss pressured me forever to sell it to him and on a whim one day I did. I bought another oler XJ, looking back I should have hung on to that one also. However it didn't compare to the blue one pictured and I was unhappy with it imediately. Traded it in about 3 weeks for my the TJ I had. I never got into my TJ, lack of room, noise level of a soft top etc etc. So in a few months my boss decided he was selling my XJ and I bought it back. That was last summer when gas was so high and the economy was so bad and I tried for months to sell the TJ and never could. People were offering under wholesale pricing, even worse on car lots. So I finally decided I had to let go of my XJ. Sold it to a forum member and miss is almost daily. But I'm trying to fall in love with this ZJ that much and I'm keeping it regardless.



And here are the new tires, Cooper ATR 245/75/16. Yes I putz'ed out. But at $500 mounted and balanced with a 50,000 mile treadlife warranty and a ride like a limosine, with zero hum.....I'm happy. And I'm not a kid anymore so I just had to be honest with myself and the uses of my Jeep. Maybe 4 offroad trips a year and zero heavy mud.....an AT suits my purposes. And anything beats the ride quality and traction of 4 worn out MTR's.

[doogie]

Well finally got this crazy bumper painted and installed. I painted it Rustoleum Hammered Bronze, really more of a tanish gray to me. I have to say though that I will be pulling it back off soon for some more work. I just ran out of time yesterday. The guy from RLC told me "worst case scenario I might have to drill the unibody mount bolt holes out a little bit" and of course being my impatient self I never thought I'd be in that worse case scenario when installing mine....although when I install things I always fall into this category. So I got to work widening the front unibody holes.

And yes, thanks to Moony's direction, I will soon be switching to a 96-98 header allowing me to switch to that year grill thus filling the large hole there now.

A sawzall made quick work of this chore.

Finished up with the sawzall then cleaned up the edges with a ginder.

Then hit the edges with some paint to knock down the rust.

Pretty much after that you just stick the mounting tab in the widened holes and bolt it up using the mouting plate.

There was one bolt on each side that I could'nt get in. I'm going to borrow a small air drill and open it up. The huge electric Makita I have I couldn't get it up in the small spot. So I only have 3 bolt on each side.

I'd like this to be extended a little further back to transition into the fender a little better.

This is another area I'll need to address. It's the skid plate lower mounts. I need to weld on some 1 inch stock, fill the existing holes and drill new ones to get it to mount to the radiator support. I worked aligning this thing for almost an hour and the only way I could get these to line up was to tilt the bumper so far forward that the corners were rubbing on the bottom of the fender. Even then I wasn't certain I could get the bolts in. I just decided to align it with the fenders the way I wanted it and fix this later.


Might also relocate this little emissions canister (forget what it's called) up in the engine compartment. It doesn't necissarily hang down to low so it's not crazy high on the priority list.

I'd also like to see the top plate extended another half inch to fit snuggly under the headlights instead of sitting a half inch off of them.

All in all I still really like the bumper. I'm aware that trying to fab something on one vehicle and expect it to bolt up perfectly to another is virtually impossible.

I also pulled off the lower molding but hadn't had time to wash/polish the area underneith.


And to help boost my RTI #'s, prevent low speed roll overs and bring me good trail Ch'i, I added some stickers. Yes I'm from the east coast but make alot or work trips to LA so I frigg'n love Wahoo's!!!!!!

[torchd]

I'm really digging those wheels. Very nice Jeep

[JFox21]

That bumper looks real sharp.

[Mike97ZJ]

That's a great looking bumper, your Jeep is really coming along nicely.

I really think I need one of those for mine!

And I hear you on the tires...I'm running MT's right now, and it's crossed my mind more than once that I really don't need them, what with the amount of wheeling I do. P retty sure my next set is going to be some sort of AT.

And good call on the Coopers...not the most aggressive looking things, but I've read good things about them, and I've had good luck with Coopers. Other than the original GY's that came on it, that's all I've run on my ZJ since '01. And just by looking at the tread pattern, I'm willing to bet those ATR's will be great in the snow.

[doogie]

Originally Posted by torchd

I'm really digging those wheels. Very nice Jeep

Thanks man. I have some sort of thing for Moabs, I've put them on my last 3 Jeeps.

Originally Posted by wdwarriors

That bumper looks real sharp.

Thanks man, I'm pretty happy with it.

Originally Posted by Mike97ZJ

That's a great looking bumper, your Jeep is really coming along nicely.

I really think I need one of those for mine!

And I hear you on the tires...I'm running MT's right now, and it's crossed my mind more than once that I really don't need them, what with the amount of wheeling I do. P retty sure my next set is going to be some sort of AT.

And good call on the Coopers...not the most aggressive looking things, but I've read good things about them, and I've had good luck with Coopers. Other than the original GY's that came on it, that's all I've run on my ZJ since '01. And just by looking at the tread pattern, I'm willing to bet those ATR's will be great in the snow.

Thanks man. Yeah I'd reccomend it, especially based on price.

I have to admit on the tires.....I hate the way they look. I haven't had a tread this tame in a long time. If I didn't have to listen to them I'd have boggers on everything I own. Something about the narlier the tire looks the more I like it. I ran Swampers on my last Cherokee before I bought Moabs with the MTR's already on them, BFG Muds on my last TJ. But I'm with you, the older I get, I guess I'm wising up. Why have a bad ride, choppy steering from where they won't stay balanced, etc, etc, etc when I don't wheel more than 4 or 5 times a year? The Coopers have a 50,000 mile warranty and in this economy, smart money was the deciding factor. Yeah they do seem to review well and hopefully offroad I won't have any regrets either.

[PaLftr]

I hear you on that...They look really tame and I personally wouldn't like that look, but hey, can't argue with a 50k mi. warranty, that's awesome. Hopefully they go decently offroad. You'll have to let us know.

[doogie]

Originally Posted by PaLftr

I hear you on that...They look really tame and I personally wouldn't like that look, but hey, can't argue with a 50k mi. warranty, that's awesome. Hopefully they go decently offroad. You'll have to let us know.

In the 4 days I've had them....I've already formulated a build plan to get rid of them. It's not that I don't like them...I love them, I just hate the way they look. I think by mid summer I can have enough saved to throw on the IRO 3.5 or 4.5, may even buckle down and go for the 5.5 LA, add gears and step to 32-33s. My dad wants to buy these tires for his Tundra and I'll have only put 5,000 or so miles on them by then. Might also dump off my moabs and go to soft 8's at that time, who knows. Should have done all that to start with....as many times as I've done this you'd think I'd learn, just get what you really want to start with. But I thought the BB would stop my desires for a least a couple years.

But in the meantime I'll keep fixing the pee-willy things. I fixed the broken interior light today and ordered a new Crown rear wiper arm from car-stuff.com. The spring was dead in mine and it wouldn't even touch the rear window. Oh and since I'm a pic ho, I washed and rubbed on her today.

[torchd]

Originally Posted by doogie

Thanks man. I have some sort of thing for Moabs, I've put them on my last 3 Jeeps.

Where can i get thos wheels? Do they make them in chrome to? Also what tires are you running again? BFG A/Ts???

[doogie]

Originally Posted by torchd

Where can i get thos wheels? Do they make them in chrome to? Also what tires are you running again? BFG A/Ts???

Ebay, Jeepforum, Craigslist, etc, etc, etc.
Since you asked I'm starting from the beginning. They came on 03-06 Jeep Wrangler Rubicons. They do not come in chrome although there is a machined version (unpainted) that I think came on the 06's but don't quote me on that. The new tires are Cooper Discovery ATR's, 245/75-16. If you at post #63 or older they are the tires that come on the Rubicon Wranglers, Goodyear Wrangler MTR's in size 245/75-16.

[AEagle326]

dude i freaking love your ZJ


kthxbi