[ChiliPepperXJ]

Originally Posted by TreyXJ

Well I work at a car dealership that has a body shop so I got one of the guys that works in that department to lend me a hand with some of it. First I had to take the fender flare off. I bought a replacement rocker panel from our shop distributor and then we cut out the existing and replaced it with the new. I've never welded before so the guy helping me had to do the welding. It turned out really good. Then we just primed it and color matched it to the Jeep.

For the spot above the flare, you have to take the fender flare off. I had already taken it off for the rocker panel so that was one step already done. Then you just grind away with a grinder at the rust to the bare metal. There were only a couple of tiny rust pinholes, so we knocked them in a bit with some fancy kind of hammer that people in the body shop use. Then we put some body filler on to smooth it out and sanded it till it was smooth. We painted it to match the body from the bottom of the factory stripe down.

And as for the 31s, they don't rub too bad. I've only been wheeling once and that was this last weekend but I never had any trouble with any rubbing at all that weekend. The only rubbing I get is I rub my LCAs a bit up front when I'm turning as sharply as it will let me left or right. So its a tiny bit of a pain to park because I can only turn the wheel about 80% to the left or right before I start to rub. But its not a problem at all doing regular driving.

Well you did an awesome job! From those pics, I can't even tell! I asked because I have some very small rust spots on my rockers (just paint gone and slight surface rust) and I was curious on how you did yours. Your job sounds like it was far more involved than mine will be. Again, good work! I like what your doing with this!

[Tylerzap]

Its so beautiful!

[TreyXJ]

Originally Posted by ChiliPepperXJ

Well you did an awesome job! From those pics, I can't even tell! I asked because I have some very small rust spots on my rockers (just paint gone and slight surface rust) and I was curious on how you did yours. Your job sounds like it was far more involved than mine will be. Again, good work! I like what your doing with this!

Yeah mine was a pretty big fix. It was completely rusted out into a hole about 8 inches long + more rust on the sides of the hole. If yours is just surface rust on your rocker you should be able to just grind, tap, and use body filler like a used in the rust spot above my flair. Just make sure when your tapping the metal in that the rust isn't too big. You only want to tap it in if its a very small amount of rust left after grinding. Any spot to severe you'll risk tapping a hole through the weak spot in the metal caused by the rust and you'll have to go into a bigger mess of repairs.

* edit. And actually you might not even have to tap into your rocker after you grind away the rust. You only tap if you can see any remaining rust after you grind to bare metal. If your rust is small enough chances are you won't even need to tap. But if you see the smallest bit of rust, just tap it in as it'll save you time in the long run.

Originally Posted by Tylerzap

Its so beautiful!

Thanks for the compliments both of yall!

[TreyXJ]

I drove my Jeep out to work to use the company garage to bedline my rockers, fender flares, and bumpers today. I also had to clean it up a lot from the wheeling last weekend. I had to shampoo the carpets because I soaked them in mud and they stunk the car up really bad. Then I painted it. Heres what I started with


Taped it up and got to scuffing up the paint just a bit


Primed it






And then I bedlined it! It turned out great! Here are the finished pics.





Let me know what you think!

[TreyXJ]

I painted my rims black with bedliner today to match the rockers/flares/bumpers.

Got it up on the lift

Got the rims real clean

The backs of the rims were coated with black grime. I sprayed acid on them to try to get them as clean as I could. I'm not really concerned with them since their on the back and no one ever sees them, but I figured why not clean them while I have the wheels off. I just did one quick rinse with acid, so its nothing perfect, but its a huge improvement.
From this

To this

Then I prepped them by giving them a light sand, and sticking index cards between the rim and tire. Then a primed them with a self etching primer.


While I was waiting on the primer to dry, I painted my brake drums and did a little touch up painting in my wheel wells.

Then I started spraying on the bedliner.



This is a terrible quality picture of the somewhat finished look of the rims. Picture quality is terrible, I know :/ These are still a little bit wet in the picture so their not going to be glossy like in the pic. I'm letting them dry overnight in the garage then I'll mount them tomorrow. I'll post pics of the finished product on the Jeep tomorrow.

[TreyXJ]

I ended up having to drive back out to work because I left my phone in the breakroom, and while I was at it I decided the rims were plenty dry to mount. They've still got to cure overnight, but heres how they look!




I love the new look! But what about you? Any feedback and suggestions are appreciated!

[reichard117]

looks awesome! i know what its like being young and in high school, ill be 17 tomorrow and possibly getting my OWN vehicle finally. looked at a couple xjs and tjs but no luck yet with little money.
and about your speakers... REALLY?????? HA 'SPACE MAKES BASS' and jeeps definitely have the space.. one 10 or 12 is plenty! but hey thats your dig and as long as you like it, give er!
keep us updated!

[Back_In_Black]

Trim. 33's.

/thread.

[TreyXJ]

Went to the local tint shop to see what the cost of getting my windows tinted would be. Went there with the expectation of getting 25% all around...turns out the shop refuses to do any illegal levels of tint :/ On top of that they wanted $240 to do the whole car in 50%. Ha. I'll go to another shop and get it at 25% for way under that price thank you very much! To anyone with tinted windows reading this, how much did they cost you and what % did you go with?

[TreyXJ]

I'm not sure if I updated this a while back with this piece of information or if I left it out...but I bought a Carr light bar like a month or so ago to mount some lights on. I test fitted it the other day and it needs to be cut back a couple inches on each side. I don't have any cutting tools so I had to give it to a guy I work with to do the cuts. I should get it back tomorrow or Thursday. I'll post pics with it mounted up. Then hopefully this weekend I can mount my KC daylighters on to it.

And also my best friend bought a Jeep Cherokee almost identical to mine yesterday. His is a '00 with a 3 inch lift kit + 31s exactly like mine. We may be doing a very small install in his sometime this summer, but I'll try to get some pictures up soon

[NJXJ91]

Hey man, jeep looks great

[wokkerk]

nice job doing the bedliner with the flares also, I always think it looks funny to have flares that match the body color. In my opinion black flares always look better. I will definitely be following your build!

[nwpipelayerxj]

Looks good keep it going

[BRae_in_a_ZJ]

yo man good looks on your jeep! im 17 so i can relate with this so much! your jeep is kept in great condition i wish my PO had taken better care of my ZJ... theres only so much i can do with a HS budget.

by the way, in that pic up there^^ with the grey primer, it looked like you were trying to make it a ZJ... i was like HELL NO! haha but then i saw that was just the primer, and i was like thank god! only GC non-limiteds are allowed to rock the butt ugly faded grey trim and bumper covers!

[shanimal]

That Jeep is dirty as hell (thats a good thing ). I'm not a fan of the bumper and trim being black, but to each their own. I do like the blacked rims and wheels though, that looks sick as hell. You should save up for some actual black rims like sidebitters. Great build so far, and i LOVE the sound system.

One question, the amp is a 4 channel amp, correct? If its powering your speakers whats powering your amp, or is the amp powering two speakers and you bridged the other two channels to power the amp?