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Bobs boring build.

160K views 1K replies 85 participants last post by  bobthetj03 
#1 ·
I've been putting this off for quite some time now mostly because my boring, wimpy progress was simply not worthy of "Build" status, but I guess if I don't start something, I never will. If nothing else, I guess, it will serve me as a good timeline of things I've done to my heep and things to come. I'll be starting a little backwards since I don't have any pics of when I first got my rig. Kicking myself for that!
I've owned my rig for over 6 years now, and along the way most of the goodies I've added have been from a culmination of Xmas presents, birthday presents, Fathersday presents and the like from my beautiful, and very patient wife! I've managed to sneek a few important goodies in for good measure as well.
Anyways....Here's where I'm at now.

Updated: 4/9/13:
 

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#2 ·
After a 6 month search, I found it at a local dealership and the addiction began. It had 30 X 9.50 cheapo all terrains bout half worn out, and was luckily bone stock! So first thing for Xmas I got an OME 2.5 lift. Ignore all the other goodies allready on it cause it had nothing when I started. The following summer came the BFG 31 X 10.50 mudds.
 

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#3 ·
As I have the time, I will try to add explanation and pics to what has already been done and future plans for where I want to end up (if that's even possible..LOL)!
I have to give thanks to all the folks out there that have taken the time to put together some awesome builds and advise(Imped, Hendrix, Dafuzz, Heap to Jeep, UnlimitedLJ, Spyder just to name a few that I've actually had time to follow recently). I hope to read others and hope they too will inspire me to keep my Jeep addiction alive!

Summer time mode with spiderweb, windjammer, duster combo. I roll mostly that way all summer long. I have a Safari top as well, but rarely use it.
 

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#4 ·
Found a pic of my early days of ownership on one of my first offroad trips with some locals. The spare tire cover, Safari top and Windjammer/duster combo in this pic were all gifts from my lovely bride! Also the Olympic rear bumber. during this trip my battery took a crap and I had to be jumpstarted to wheel out of there. Luckily, once I got jumped, it stayed running for the trip home. Just couldn't turn it off.
 

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#7 ·
Thanks DaFuzz! The great thing about white is it can hide a lot of sin! It has it's fair share of deer brush and manzanita brush graphics on the sides courtesy of our Norcal scenery.
As far as my plans, I'm kinda at a stand still right now. I have a king's dreams at a peasant's salary, so my plans will be slow, hence the title to my so called build. Most of what I have done already is documented on my profile, so I won't bore you with that, but I plan to add pics of what I have done and a brief explanation as I go. I don't think I'll go any higher than the OME 2.5, but would like to get the rest of the Currie CA's (I have the front lowers for now), do a TT, SYE, DC DS, and some Under Armor. It's my DD, so it has to be reliable, and my wife needs to be able to drive it comfortably on occassion.

This was a Xmas present a few years ago. Decided to do a little cheapo mod to keep the front license plate on.
 

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#8 ·
Don't have a garage, so this is jeep's home when not in roam. The trail cover was yet another gift from my awesome wife! First summer I got the jeep and took the hardtop off I made the mistake of not covering it up one night. Needless to say the local wild cats in the neighborhood decided to leave me a nice present on the front carpet(stinky,stinky cat piss)! Had to completely tear out the carpet, pressure wash, urine gone and dry out the mess. Learned my lesson after that! Gotta love my "poor man's hard top storage solution"!
 

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#9 ·
Was bored one day and with little funds to throw at the heep, I decided to practice my fab/welding skills a little. Figured worst case scenario, I'd run without a front bumper if I screwed it up too much, so with some shop access I began to play with the factory paper thin piece of tin.
 

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#12 ·
So, after the lift and the tires went on, the wife was having a hard time climbing in and out of the jeep, so I got the go-ahead to search for steps of some sort. Being early on with little jeep knowledge I wasn't sure what to get, and I wasn't frequenting the forums for advise, so I picked what I thought was a good choice to fill the need. Needless to say, after I installed them, I immediately hated them, that is, until I got a big thank you from my wife for getting steps. Still hate them and hope to sell them soon!
 

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#13 ·
I've been putting this off for quite some time now mostly because my boring, wimpy progress was simply not worthy of "Build" status, but I guess if I don't start something, I never will. If nothing else, I guess, it will serve me as a good timeline of things I've done to my heep and things to come. I'll be starting a little backwards since I don't have any pics of when I first got my rig. Kicking myself for that!
I've owned my rig for over 6 years now, and along the way most of the goodies I've added have been from a culmination of Xmas presents, birthday presents, Fathersday presents and the like from my beautiful, and very patient wife! I've managed to sneek a few important goodies in for good measure as well.
Anyways....Here's where I'm at now.
looks good
 
#14 ·
Well, it's been a couple years behind the wheel and was approaching the 60k service. Time to change the diff fluid, TC, trany fluids. This was my first go at doing this, and everything went smoothly. Decided to go synthetic for TC and trany. Went the Redline route. I had some left over Mopar gear oil, so decided to use that in the diffs. The Redline oil worked just fine. Shifting seemed smoother.
This darn TC drop is irritating me though. 2.5" of lift, but 3/4" of TC drop, so technically, I have only 1 3/4" of gained clearance! Gotta do something about that! Well, when I put the lift on, not knowing any better, I just put The TC drop on per instructions. I never test drove it without to see if I had vibes or not. So, I decided to take the pucks out and give it a try. Bad idea! Vibes like crazy! Back in go the pucks! Hmmm, what to do now? Just so happens UCF was coming out with a low pro TC mount soon. May have to try that. Yeah, I know, could go the MML route, but for some reason, I was just dead set on not doing that. I felt that if I did the MML, I'd have to do a BL as well, and I really didn't want to do a body lift. More to come....
 
#17 ·
Thanks! Glad I can help. That's what I like about these build threads. Lot's of great ideas out there to help out fellow jeepers.

Well, it was time to find some disco's for the front sway bar, so next came the JKS quickers...
http://store.jksmfg.com/merchant2/m..._Code=JKS01&Category_Code=Swaybar_Disconnects

They installed easily and put my sway bar angle back to normal. A little tough to put back on if your on uneven ground though. I've been doing some research on the Anti-Rock , and I may graduate to that eventually as funds allow.
 

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#18 ·
This isn't tech helpful, but what the heck, it's my build thread....some pics of our trip thru the "Lost Coast". The road was pretty easy and the views were awesome! Just wish it wasn't so foggy.
 

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#19 ·
Ordered up a little something to help take care of the TC drop I had on my shovel. I opted for the rubber bushing vs. the poly to help quiet the added engine vibes I suspected I was gonna have with this mount....
 

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#22 ·
the following are some shots of the UCF low pro mount installation. I had a few clearance issues, but nothing that a grinder couldn't fix....
 

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#23 ·
I ended up having to fab a bracket to space the cat mount back to the length it originally was to get the muffler to clear the shovel. Had I got the UCF skid, it probably wouldn't have been an issue. Hopefully down the road I can scrounge up the coin to get the UCF skid.
 

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#24 ·
That took care of the TC pucks and only a very,very slight vibe only on hard acceleration from a dead stop. I can live with that for now.
Paid a visit to a local 4WD Hardware store and picked up a reciever hook. The Olympic rear bumper I installed had no D-rings, and I had to remove the factory tow hook from the frame to mount the bumper, so for $10 problem solved.
 

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#25 ·
Next project was to do something about my chaulked up faded fender flares. I had a fair bit of trail graphics on the sides of the jeep, so I decided to remove the flares for painting and while they were off, took the polisher to the jeeps paint. Here's what the flares looked like before painting.....
 

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#26 ·
I first cleaned them with APC and a grey scuff pad, rinsed them and wiped em down with rubbing alcohol. Then another wipe down with a wax/grease remover. Applied a coat of adhesion promoting primer, and finally, 3 coats of SEM trim black. You can also see another recent purchase of some gas filler door bling compliments of Bestop....
 

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#27 ·
A little adventure to Indian Valley Resevoir. Saw this poor fellow who got a little too close to the water and asked us for help. After getting them unstuck it was time for some fire trail exploring....
 

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#28 · (Edited)
A recap of where things sit at this point:
OME 2.5 HD lift
OME steering stabilizer
BFG 31"X 10.50 KM M/T's
Bestop gas door bling
Bestop Safari top, Duster, Windjammer combo
K&N replacement air filter
Interstate green top batttery
Redline synthetic oil in trany and transfer case
Modil 1 synthetic engine oil
Rokmen steering box skid
JKS Quicker discos
UCF Low Profile TC mount
Olympic rear bumper w/reciever
Spare tire cover
Warn M8000 winch & Warn winch plate
Jeep rubber floor mats
Modified factory front bumper
Misc recovery gear(tow straps, D-rings, gloves, tools etc.)
Warrior Rockbarz rocker/steps
Repainted factory fender flares, polished jeep's paint(clay bar'd, machine compound, polish, sealer, wax)

Next on the list: upgrade the factory stereo system. I have an existing Alpine HU from another project hanging out. It's an older one (bout 12 years old), but still works fine. 15watts X 4 RMS w/sub out. I'll install that, see how it sounds and go from there. I'm pretty sure I'll be upgrading the factory speakers next.
 
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