Jeep Enthusiast Forums banner

Lo2aY's Chinook TJ

63K views 266 replies 54 participants last post by  autotrader 
#1 ·
Welcome to yet another build thread!

This Jeep is the first I have owned. Bought new in August of 2001. it was the Jeep I wanted since I was a little boy. I love this thing more than anything with gears in it. I'm being really carful with what i'm doing as I plan on using it in a lot of places and also be able to go back words to stock which will probably happen later. My little brother used the TJ for sometime and really abused the Jeep. so a lot of parts need to be replaced.

Here's what she looked like 2 years in to her life





aftermath after playing with a Nissan Patrol in the mud



Here's what Chinook looked like when I saw her this Feb. ( I haven't seen her in over a year before this picture).

The night I got there



I did not like how it drove. it had a really bad death wobble, so I pulled the rear axle apart and found that my spider gears where toast!! also rear bearings needed to be replaced. all the bushings for the arms and all the steering parts. and finally front ball joints were so bad I don't have to put any pressure on it and it would just fall.

Not too bad for a 10 year old TJ with 250K+ miles



Here's a shot of the interior



Rust free


Here's a shot of what was a (year old) set of tires. the Jeep was parked for over a year. and well,, summer decided that the tires should not be used again :( at 130F+ I don't blame any tire going bad! :mad:



I got a new set of sand tires for it. those Shaheen tires are good sand tires. their very light.

parts acquired for drivetrain rebuild





teardown begins





basically replaced spider gears and bearings in the rear.. the ring and pinion also need to be replaced but I want to put 4:10s in it. so I decided to live with that until my parts show up. a stupid mistake I had to learn the hard way was that I miss installed the rear axles. I thought they were the same size for both sides. as I was tightening the retaining plate. I noticed that one side was a lot harder to bolt up vs the other side.. checked the other side, and I noticed it had some play in the shaft (in-out) pulled both sides out.

Hard to see here but I actually stressed the steal and couldn't find a replacement part for it anywhere. (Jeeps are not popular vehicles in the Gulf region). so I had to flatten it back and just wait until I get a new one from my lovely US of A.



Moving to the front.

I had no issues with installing stuff except for ball joints. I had to work with what I had since I couldn't access any tool stores at 11pm and had work the next day. this was my solution to popping balljoints out.



no pictures to the new ones in.. but I basically had to make sure the were level and used a flat wood on top and then hammered them down or up. checked my "Cs" and play. and found no issues! I do need to get proper tools for this.

went out with some friends and played in the desert!











Next to a friend's Scout. there's only two in the country and both were with us lol.. we did roll the Scout in this run so this picture was after the rollover.. no real damage was done.. it rolled on soft sand.. so the sand basically formed to the truck lol



Saw this guy and had to take a picture with it the next day



After that I drove off to Dubai which was 1000+KM

Leaving my house (replaced the trailer to a single setup)



Half way there



Unfortunately, I didn't take any pics of the Jeep while I was there. I was to busy catching up with friends for a few days. here we are on our way back, dad decided to load the bike. he got tired from all the wind and sand flying at him.



To be Continued...
 
See less See more
24
#2 ·
a few weeks later, Spider LJ showed up. and it brought a couple of gifts for Chinook. OME suspension lift and a bestop softop (that doesn't fit for ****)

Tear down of the front suspension (I love this Job minus working on the floor, Back hurts like ****) :mad: Hoist is on my list of things to get!







How she sitts now with 2" OME lift and 33" sand tires



Some Urban Wheeling in the heart of the Capital City,, its good to know some people :D



different day.. we were out exploring and sight seeing.. basically trying to find areas to wheel for a group.. but I found this old castle :D



The drive back home had some surprises. I have never seen dust mixed with sand and winds. it was coming straight at the Jeep.



Jeep got sand blasted



here is the list of parts i'm getting from the US.. nothing crazy.. good on the rocks good on the sand and good on road. I plan on driving it everyday as I set a goal to hit 1,000,000 KMs with it. it has close to 300K now.

Terra skid
Terra arms
Terra brake kit conversion
4:10s
ARB lockers
front and rear axle shafts
SYE kit
4:1 terra kit <-- not on order but thinking about it
33" tires
17" wheels
Bestop Supertop NX (what I should have gotten in the first place)
Rubi flares (mine are shot)
Speedo gear
front and rear bumpers
Radiator for it and Spider
Cobra CB
Race radio
Tierod
Exhaust kit
soft doors
winch
skid for steering
BL and MML
Yellow top battery
Hi-lift jack
rear drive shaft
Duster cover from Btop
New backing plates instead of the one I messed up lol
CR1s
New interior and carpets (Dash ,steering wheel and door panels are brand new from Jeepsareus)
Rockers
Repaint Jeep and powder coat parts

If you have any suggestions please feel free to contribute. Justt keep in mind that I would like to be able to go backwards with it.

I can't wait to get started on all this..

I have about another week before my container ships. this will be a fun build. I'm also very sensitive about it. so most of you hardcore Jeepers will not like it. but I will and that's what matters!

like I said, If you have any suggestions, fire away!

Thanks!
 
#4 ·
Cant wait to see what you do with it. Im sure it will be nice when your done.
 
#5 ·
Rockdrummer93 said:
Looks like it'll be a nice looking TJ in the end. Just need to find me a Jeep over here and we can go wheeling sometime. Keep up the good work.
Where are you located?

Sent from my iPhone using JeepForum
 
#6 ·
MGIMELLI said:
Cant wait to see what you do with it. Im sure it will be nice when your done.
Thanks. I can't wait to Play with it

Sent from my iPhone using JeepForum
 
#8 ·
Rockdrummer93 said:
Cool. You should come our to the jeep events. Keep an eye on my threads. I will post dates on there.

How long are you there for. I'm currently in CO about to watch batman movie :p

Sent from my iPhone using JeepForum
 
#9 ·
Thats cool. I'll probably be here till next summer. Need to fine me a Jeep first. I found a Lifted up Cherokee in Kuwait Im looking at but kinda want to get a wrangler while Im here, something that has already had some stuff done to it. Don't really want to be putting a lot of money into a Jeep over here.
 
#12 ·
Love that you finally have a tj build thread...can't wait for the jk and j8 threads.
 
#16 ·
Rockdrummer93 said:
I did not know of that law, thanks for letting me know about it. I'll have to think about it. Cause with the shipping and import cost/time if I can't get the off-road parts here then I will probably not do a lot of building. And if thats the case I might just try and find a Rubi if I can't fine something built and do as much as I can stock. I'll just have to look around. Thanks for the info. Ramadan Kareem.
Rubicons were never offered in the ME. So you might have to find an imported one which would be really hard to find. you could buy whatever and do group buys with us. That would save you a lot on shipping. A 40ft container was 5500 for me from Denver to Riyadh. I'm sure it will be cheaper if you shipped coast to coast. Like Dammam to NY.

platinum5.9 said:
Love that you finally have a tj build thread...can't wait for the jk and j8 threads.
Thanks! Im working on the JK build thread.

B2CARPEN said:
This will be interesting... I like that you have a sweet JK crawler, a badass LJ expedition rig, and now a DD TJ sand cruiser. I would say at this point you have a serious jeep addiction my friend :shhh: :laugh:
What can I say, it's my way of life. I don't like driving anything else. That includes the Ferraris and lambos I drove.

redrelyt12 said:
subscribing to this build as well!
Thanks!

IH8PEPL said:
Wow, the Chinook has more rust on it than I would have expected from a desert rig.

I look forward to more :cheers2:
Negative on the rust. That's just crap stuck to it. It's so dry there. I have hard time breathing sometimes. You can leave metal raw and I doubt you could see any rust on it. That's why when the front end got sand blasted I just left it lol.

On a different subject. My JK started today she's alive!!! :D

Sent from my iPhone using JeepForum
 
#18 ·
Rubicons were never offered in the ME. So you might have to find an imported one which would be really hard to find. you could buy whatever and do group buys with us. That would save you a lot on shipping. A 40ft container was 5500 for me from Denver to Riyadh. I'm sure it will be cheaper if you shipped coast to coast. Like Dammam to NY.
Alright thanks for the info.
 
#20 ·
Dogbones said:
this is scary, you said you were going to the batman premier and I just read that the shooting took place in Colorado and you haven't been online. :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:

i hope your okay Lo2ay...
I'm okay man. Thanks for asking. We were far from that theater. But hat could have been us. I feel sorry for those affected

Sent from my iPhone using JeepForum
 
#26 ·
anyone recommend the tuffy center consol and the overhead consol?

I'm going to install two radios (CB/ RACE).

any reviews on those?
 
#29 ·
Must wait. This is so close from being done, I can taste it in my mouth.

Patience my good friends. Trust me, no one wants to install as bad as I want too. Lol

This is somewhat a major overhaul.

Sent from my iPhone using JeepForum
 

Attachments

#31 ·
LOL!! yea their just a little bent :rofl:

I got some bumpers replacing them :thumbsup:
 
#32 ·
Thank you for putting jeepareus down in your build-sheet, I just found my inner door panels that were cracked for a decent price..i've bee looking at junkyard jeeps for a long time and these are new! sweet! Have you ever considered building jeeps for customers? If I had the cash i'd definately grab one of your designs :thumbsup:
 
#34 ·
Thanks man! that's a really nice thing to say. I'm starting a shop pretty soon :thumbsup: I'm glad that info helped. Tony at Jeeps are us is a great guy to work with :thumbsup:

Was that snapshot of the JK on the dyno??
Testing the new V8 output.................
Correct. I'm building the fastest JK on 42s :D

Last year I was in a rally and we stopped by the strip to see how fast our cars would go. my Jeep was the slowest at 26 seconds :rofl:

should be in the low teens or possibly breaking the 10s barrier with smaller tires :thumbsup:
 
#35 ·
One of many pallets boxed up and ready to be shipped. 3 more weeks and it will be ready to leave. I don't think you guys understand how excited I am with this build. Yes it might not be much. But it's my first jeep and the one that started it all. If any of you enjoy my work. Then you should thank this Jeep lol. I will give up All of my Jeeps for it. Can't wait to turn some wrenches! Waiting game now :(

Sent from my iPhone using JeepForum
 

Attachments

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