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indredsnake99's build

31K views 146 replies 23 participants last post by  ZJPunk98 
#1 · (Edited)
i bought my jeep in 09/2008 as a winter vechile because my car is just not suited for the snow. little did i know the phrase JUST EMPTY EVERY POCKET would start to happen.

here is a picture from the day i bought it


some pics from shortly after i bought it with my zj canyon wheels and 235/75/15 goodyear wrangler sra's installed

my car in the back ground


the day i bought it the kid told me it needed a new catalytic converter, magnaflow highflow was ordered. got that in a couple days later and went to local custom exhaust shop to have it installed and ended up putting a new catback exhaust on it at the same time.



changed the plugs, wires, cap, rotor, air filter started alot better now still was not runnign right. brought it to a local garage and found out the head was cracked and needed to be repaired. got that done.

next went out and bought a set of tires since i the tires that were on it would not make it through the winter. bought a set of 235/75/15 goodyear wrangler sra's. had the new tries mounted and got the heep aligned.

since i do drive my vechiles alot i noticed real quick that i needed new shocks so took this as the chance to order a 2" Budget Boost along with a set of pro-comp es1000 shocks. installed at my mechanis shop and noticed that on his part grand cherokee it had the gas tank skid plate so i bought it and installed as well. now i had some armor and i was lifted.



i began to realize that my winter beater was going to turn into a new project at this point so i was ready to just empty every pocket

since the jeep did not have a stereo installed in it and i new this was now a project vechile i decided to start piecing together a sound system. picked up a kenwood cdplayer, alpine mono and four channel amp, jl wiring kit, alpine speakers, and had a set of subs that were supposed to go in to my car but just never did so into the jeep they went. this took about three months to piece all together since money has been tight.

since the previous owner neglected to keep up with matnance i had to do alot of the things they neglected. i had to do pads all around since the pads that were on it had very little life left, replace the rear hatch struts since it would not stay open by itself and also a bunch of other tiny anooying projects.

since i had a can of nightshades from tinting my cars tail lights i decided to tint the zj tails since i had it and wanted to make my jeep look different from everyother one



the tranny started to slip and grind gears from time to time telling me the previous owners had never bothered changing the transmission fluid in it 157000 mile life and so when i finally had to have it done it caused problems so out the tranny came and in came a used one with lifetime warranty as long as i own the vechile.

got the jeep back from the tranny swap just in time for the worst snow storm of the 08/09 winter and i am so glad i did since most roads i had to drive on roads were not plowed and had a foot of snow on them and i just went right through it.

i decided before i install my entire system that i wanted my windows tinted so you could not tell what was in the back so got the front windows tinted to match the factory rears and also had the rear tinted even darker so it was next to impossilble to see in
before

after


was at the world of wheels show when i was looking at some wheels when one of my friends pointed out a set of wheels and i just had to have them so i put a deposit on them to guarantee i got the discounted price they were offering them at.



i had picked up some rugged ridge front tow hooks and installed them for a recovery point when i go off roading and if i need to get towed or have to pull someone out.



next thing that went wrong and had to be prepared was the fuel tank was leaking from the top of the tank so my mechanic replaced the tank and sending unit with a perfectly sealed one from a parts vechile that he had

picked up a factory trailer hitch form a local junk yard to be able to tow something if i ever needed also had a rear tow hook mounted to it so i just had to have it knowing i could make use of it off roading

decided it was time to install my system into the jeep since it has been three months of driving it around listening to my ipod mounted evrything neatly and hidden. ran the wires so you could not see the bulge under the carpet and mounted my amps and stiffening capicator under the rear bench for a nice clean install.

the jeep started slipping and grinding gears again this time worse and ended up leaving me stranded when it stopped shifting as i was working. it sat at the shop for two and a half weeks while my mechanic waited on a tranny. finally ended up having to drive three hours round trip to go and pick it up since i was furious with how long it was sitting there.

while the jeep was in the shop getting its second tranny installed i ordered my Kevin's Off Road bumper mounted light bar.

took it off roading a couple days after getting it back and ended up popping a tire. since i wanted a bigger set of tires i used this as my excuse to get a nice set of 31" BF Goodrich All Terrain KOs. jeep started to look like a real jeep now.

installed my KOR light bar with some cheeap lights from autozone since thats all i could afford. will soon be replaced with some nice KCs or Hellas when i can afford them.
 
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#2 ·
Sounds to me like your wallet is bleeding a little and you've only just begun :D
 
#8 ·
yep especailly when this is one of the two vechiles i am modding.
 
#3 ·
Now lets see pics with the light bar and the new tires
 
#4 ·
i am up loading pics of the light bar with the lights on at night right now
 
#5 ·
night pics of the KOR light bar with cheap autozone lights


 
#7 ·
for got the camera at my house since i installed it at my friends house because no one bothers me there.
 
#9 ·
Loving that Redline :2thumbsup:

As far as the ZJ, it's only just begun, it's a sickness I tell ya :laugh:
 
#10 ·
i know this was just supposed to be a second car mainly for winter and when i was working on the car but now its an addiction just want to keep going higher and higher
 
#12 ·
since i noticed i never posted pics of my 31s and painted cladding decided i would just to keep this up to date

31" bfg at ko with black cladding


need to get pics of my clear corners that i got installed

also need to get a camera since i have to use my parents camera every time i want to take pics
 
#13 ·
the cladding paint doesnt look bad at all. i don't know why you wouldn't leave it. if the paint under the cladding is in perfect condition, go for it. but if you take it off and there's scratches, dents, and rust n what not, keep em on.
 
#16 ·
i actually need to touch it up a little on the rocker from getting in and out so much. thinking of going with the dupli color spray on bedliner or herculiner to see how it holds up
 
#15 ·
thanks i was told kor made some strong products and if the rest of his stuff is as solid as this bar i am a customer for life. the only thing i want to change is those lights to some nice hellas or kc's
 
#17 ·
hey inred, painted my front bumper today and I posted some pictures in my build thread. came out pretty nice. check it out
 
#19 ·
What do you find funny about the redline, just out of curiosity?
 
#21 ·
 
#24 ·
yesterday did the 9004 to 9007 headlight upgrade and what a difference it made and i did not get a chance to wetsand my headlights



today painted my chrome grill black
 
#31 ·
used duplicolor bumper coating on them just taped the cladding off and pianted front bumper i took off to trim so i painted that while it was off
 
#32 ·
updates on the zj


ordered and installed kor steering brace very easy install once you got the brace lined up

pics to come


today i ordered the iron rock offroad over the knuckle steering and can not wait for it to arrive to finally get my steering problem solved
 
#33 ·
got bored and decided to flex out the jeep a little in my driveway just wished i could have moved my fathers truck out of the way




 
#35 ·
thanks!!! i know i broke the glass on it so i just took it off saving up for some better lights
 
#36 ·
7/8/09 got a free front skid plate so i cleaned it an installed it



did not get a pic of it installed since i started to rain shortly after i installed it

7/9/09 had the day off of work so decided to go wheeling pics are from after we left the woods



 
#37 ·
ordered a kor crossmember and transfer case skid plate today when i noticed a rust whole through my cross member
 
#38 ·
picked up a set of black leather seats from the junkyard as well as a set of crystal clear headlights off a jeep from the cash to clunkers program.

pics to come when i get my mothers camera since i broke my camera last year and not been able to afford a new one since i got the jeep.
 
#40 ·
i have had to replace the rear hatch two weeks ago from when i back into a telephone pole on accident and also painted it with rustoleum bed liner.

replaced my gray cloth manual seats withe a set of black leather power seats and have also painted my 5.9 hood with rustoleum bed liner

i am going to be taking a bunch of pics hopefully tommorrow and updating this thread with a bunch of pics
 
#41 ·
so i had a busy day yesterday with the work i did to the jeep i only planned on sanding and painting the roof but ended up doing the roof and both sides. so the jeep is now entirely covered in rustoleum bed liner. i am really happy with the results. pics are coming today since it was to dark by the time i finished detaping the entire jeep to take good pics.

i also had to go to the registery of motor vechile to change my registration since i completely changed the color of my jeep from green to black.

i also forgot to update a couple weeks ago i got a cobra 29ltd bluetooth cb radio with firestick antenna and mount.
 
#42 ·
since i have been lacking in taking pics of my updates since i still have not got my self a new camera and have to borrow one.

the jeep has had a lot done to it in the last couple months.

since my zj had so many scratches in the paint and i knew it would just get alot more in the future i decided i should just paint the jeep something that could easily be touched up and would help with rust protection and something that looked good. after seeing clninja bed line his jeep in rustoleum bedliner i knew how i was going to paint mine the same exact way so i went out and got the paint a couple cans at a time till i had about 8 of them. i did the hatch first since i had to replace my original from a little incident with a telephone pole. the did the hood one day and the very next day did the entire jeep.





i picked up a 5.9 hood from aaron7 on here when he was selling his jeep.

it was in rough shape when i got it so sanded it and primed it to keep damage from getting alot worse. no pics of the hood when it was deep slate.

pics from after the rustoleum bed liner paint job



i got sick of having a broken drivers seat and having cloth seats so i was searching the junk yard to see if i could find a pair of black leather seats for the front of the jeep. i ended up finding a complete set of seats froma vechile that was turned in from the c4c program.



on the same jeep i got the seats from i saw it had a set of the crystal clear headlights that i was thinking of getting at the time because my lights were horrible



saw the tj gas bezel mod on here and decide i just want to do that because it is different so found a bezel at teh junk yard and did it. i loved the way it turned out and want to do something similar to thiers.



i picked up a cobra 29ltd bluetooth cb radio and and firestik antenna and door jamb mount and installed them for a big wheeling trip that i was to be going on and use it every time i get the chance because it makes driving so much more fun.





since i was having a real bad alignment problem and having already repaced almost everything on the entire front end minus the steering box and tie rod and draglink and ends. i ordered the iro otk steering system since i needed to get new tie rod ends and new i was going to eventually going to order the steering system just coughed up the extra cash and bought it. it ended up solving my alignment problem which was nice.

pic of it on my bed

installed


after noticing my cross member was starting to rust to the point where there were holes that should not be there i took this is my chance to order the cross member and transfer case skid plate from kevins offroad and glad i did because of how thick the skid was and solid he designs his products.


 
#44 ·
I am most likely bring the zj to the meet
 
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