Jeep Enthusiast Forums banner

LGriffith LJ Build

95K views 606 replies 88 participants last post by  LJTim 
#1 · (Edited)
This is my first car/Jeep. I searched long and hard for the perfect LJ. After constantly pestering the PO on his Ebay user name :)rofl:), He finally responded and we ended up getting an awesome deal and an awesome first car for me. It was in PRISTINE condition with only 9300k on the clock. I'll basically be spending all of my money for the next few years building this into a great and capable offroad machine while also making it a great looking, street legal, daily driver in as good condition as possible, that I can keep for a long long time.

The PO had put on:
2.5" OME HD lift
32x11.5" BFG A/T's
on M/T Classic Locks
4WD Rear Bumper
4WD Nerf Bars
Bushwackers

Also gave me a brand new Hi-Lift with it. Score :2thumbsup:

_______________________________________________________________________________________

The Plans Are:

Tires and Wheels:
33" m/t's 33/12.5r15 MTZ's, DONE
Cragar soft 8's DONE

Suspension and Steering:
Replace RE control arms
Front track bar
Rear track bar
Ext. front brake lines
Sway bar end links
Anti-Rock
3" Coils
Shocks

HD steering (Currie) DONE
Tie Rod Flip

Armor:
Belly Up (Rokmen) DONE
Engine/Tranny/Oil pan skid (Rokmen) DONE
Steering Box Skid (Rokmen) DONE
Front bumper (Savvy) DONE
Diff. covers (Riddler) D30 DONE (will be replaced with Barnett front and something else for the rear)
Cage (AtoZ, KOZ?)
Gas tank skid (Savvy)
Control Arm skids (JKS Minis) waiting
Short Corners

Other:
Rubi Flares -DONE
Exhaust - Flowmaster 50, DONE
Full Soft Doors -DONE
Window tint
Bedlined interior (U-Pol Raptor)
Novak Shifter
Windsheild Lights -DONE (but removed)
Better Headlights
LED Lights (LiteDot's? Savvy?)

Drivetrain:
JKS MML - DONE
SYE/CV - DONE, Tom Woods HD SYE and Shaft
4.88's
Locker(s)

Later on:
Front tubes
Vanco Big Brake Kit

I'm sure this list will change a bit, so If you have any advice, please let me know! Any help is appreciated.
 
See less See more
#2 · (Edited)
Right when i got it home:





Friend took my "offroading" for my first time...Or just driving through mud pits over and over.:rolleyes: Never doing that again.

Than the second time out, just some trails, through a little river, you know.
And again back to that same spot:





First full out flex (sorry for the cell picture):


Bent my fender doing that, and got my first body damage hitting the nerf bars up into the body going over a fallen tree. This is when i decided to get rockers.



Also somewhere around this time, I installed a third LED brake light in the center of my spare.

After that fender bending incident, I epoxy'd in some hockey puck bump stops

Went offroading by myself and took some pictures on the trail we have in the woods behind our house:




 
#3 ·
Brother was coming home for a weekend, I went ahead and ordered some Rock Hard sliders, and a PA 1" body lift so we could put it on while he was home. Also, took off the bushcrackers, and got a free set of stock flares from a friend.

No pictures of the BL install, but putting on the rockers:

Got them in bare steel, painted them with rustoleum semi-gloss black. Didn't do it the right way with the right stuff and now there all scratched from being stepped on.


(krylon'd the flares and pu them on too)


Before:

After:


Much better in my opinion.

Driveway ghetto RTI ramp :thumbsup:
 
#4 ·
Not much new from then till now. Popped a tire on my trail, on the sidewall :brickwall, so I had to get a new tire. Foundone on here and go it $110 to my door (thanks to zjlla). Some more little runs on our trail and that's about it.

So that brings us up to date.

Had a nice Thanksgiving day in November, spent it getting ready for my frist serious wheeling trip. Finally got my doors off for the first time so i could drive around for a little in the nice weather. Ended up being real cold (but fun). :)



Spent Black Friday at Rausch with a few friends and some guys my brother knows. Lt. Dan, Dan Connor, Lee ___, Kat ___...and some friends.

(pictures will be up shortly)

The other night, I picked up a used set of:
4 RE fixed lower superflex control arms
4 RE upper adj. superflex control arms
for $300, as my christmas present. :2thumbsup:

Only catch is, that they need a new bushing, and 2 new superflex joints, and I wanted to paint them, and make them look good again. So it's going to be about another $200 to fix them up.
 
#5 ·
Tonight, I cleaned up the 4 lowers, taped them off, and painted them with Rustoleum Sliver Hammered paint.

Before:



After:


good one of the texture:


I think they turned out real well.

Hopefully I can order the parts soon and start rebuilding the arms, so come Christmas, I can put them on for hopefully another trip up to Rausch.
 
#7 ·
Pictures from Rausch. Here i'm going to do the same thing my brother did in his build thread :rofl:

Dan spotting my newb a** :laugh:


Lt. Dan


Kat


Dan Connor and Lee


Brian



.....and one bent fender and bent drag link later


Yes folks, that is my brother's cherokee pulling out a RUBICON with a 4.5"SF and AEV high line on 37's. :hahaha:
 
#9 ·
Alright, so here are my future plans for my LJ (all suspension to be done hopefully by the time these 32's wear so i can go to 33's or 35's):

Heavy duty steering of some sort
RE adj. front and rear track bars
Extended brake lines
Sway bar end links
Coil spacers (size depending on whether i go to 33's or 35's)
BPE's

Steering box skid
Belly up skid
Front bumper of some sort
corner guards
Rubi flares
Gas tank skid
Diff skids

i'm sure theres plenty more, but that's the plan as of now.
 
#12 ·
Thanks, for the BL, probaby took us like 45 minutes? It's not terribly hard just a pain. I had two other people helping though, one of which knew how to do it. The only hard part is you have to put some bracket on the radiatior and fan so it fits with the new lift. Than you have to adjust the t-case. Other than that, putting in the mounts was real simple.
 
#16 ·
I really like what you did with the Jeep. I would have done the same exact thing - removed bushwackers and put on stock flares, put on sliders, it looks awesome.

good job finding a nice already lifted jeep. it looks good and an awesome first vehicle. I didn't have 14k to spend but i did have 7k and searched real hard for my jeep.

i know what its like on high school budget, saving for a hardtop to replace my crappy soft top
 
#17 ·
Thanks everyone. Checked on the paint on the arms after a night and day of curing, and it's gummy. Like I can scape it off with my figernail gummy. Definately not gonna hold up at all on the rocks. Thinking that it's cause I painted over powdercoating? Maybe I should clear coat it? Who knows, atleast they'll look good for a little :dunno:
 
#27 ·
I stayed home sick from school today, so what better time to stand outside and paint the arms? Put a whole can on the uppers, which turned out nicely. And pu a second coat on the lowers, which didn't turn out so well. Not sure why, but the paint started to wrinkle a lot? It's pretty weird, and doesn't look to good. Than again they'll be under my jeep.

Uppers:



Wrinkled paint on the lowers:




Anybody know what would cause that?
 
#46 ·
Nice looking LJ.

The paint wrinkles like that cause you didn't follow the directions on the can. Recoat within1 hour or after 48. Also check the temp your suppose to paint in. Basically the paint wasn't cured yet, due to time or temperature. That is what happened to my headlight bezels when I didn't follow the directions.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top