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636K views 5K replies 220 participants last post by  JK08JK 
#1 · (Edited)
Firstly, I would like to thank Pat (Nevermonday) and Blaine (mrblaine) for all of their help with all of my questions, the phone calls, and everything else. Without those two, I'd be clueless. Also a big thanks to Robert, Rod, Jerry, Connor, Chris, Marty, and Mike. For all of the help so far, and all the work that you'll help me with that you don't know about yet. :) Also, thank you to Idaho Jeep, thedirt, jason m, Jerry Bransford, and anyone else that I may have missed. There have been tons of people on here who have given me plenty of advice (not that I listened to all of it ;) ) but I think I've got what I want figured out now with everyones help. So, cheers to you. :cheers:

I started ordering parts today for my build, so I thought I'd go ahead and make a thread. There won't be any actual building until I get home from Kuwait, but until then, I figure someone may want to look in on what I'm up to.

If I had any idea how much things would change.... lol... yeah... I edited the first post because I saw how wrong it was after not being changed for like 2 years. Anyways, the Jeep changes a lot in this thread. Enjoy the read, and the banter. There's lots of that. Lots and lots of that.
 
#172 ·
New developments, I found a rear axle to match my JK Rubi front. It's paid for and on it's way to the house now. I called TNT and talked to them about some new products coming out. I'm waiting on a price quote on a list of parts from them, but the list includes their new front and rear JK to TJ axle kits. Once I get the email back from them I'll have more goodies to buy. One way or another.

At some point, I'm going to have some pics of the pile of crap in my garage because who wants to look at a build thread with no pics anyways? lol Though I figure, anyone that's read along this far will be a real fan. haha You troopers who hold out until the pics and actual build start when I get home will not be disappointed. I promise.
 
#173 ·
OOOOOOOOOOOOOK, well... I bought the rear axle, it should be showing up to the house any day now. It should have been there the other day, but they missed my wife, and then didn't return her calls to set up another time, but it's all good. They'll get tired of driving around with my axle and drop it off eventually.

I've decided to go through Tom Woods for my SYE and DS package deal. He can manufacture the yoke adapters I need for the axles, and make the driveshafts work, AND I get a military discount, which is more than anyone else was going to do for me. As much as the guys at Redrock4x4 rock (Big props to Jason who's been a big help), they don't price match, and do not give any discount for the military. I'm not a fan of that.

Aside from that, I've decided to go back to the original plan and run a LA kit. The long arm in question would be the TNT Rock Treks kit. Not the 3.5, the "Long Arm Upgrade". I'll be using the RC 2.5 coils and shocks as a crutch until I decide what to do down the road. I don't know, the RC kit might work out well with the LA, but I'm thinking not. I'm thinking AEV coils are in my future.

On top of the LA, I've also decided that I'll be running TNT all around. TNT's Gen II tube fenders up front, their rear extended wheel well corners with flare, and their rockers. There's some other misc stuff they are going to do for me, but it's not worth mentioning right this minute.

I was going to hold out until Savvy came out with their product line to see their rockers and corners before making my decision, but Rod at TNT really took care of me on a bulk deal. And I can't afford to look anywhere else.

I'm going to do things a little differently than I normally do, instead of buying up little stuff here and there, I'll be waiting to make one large purchase once I get home. I wanted to have everything home once I got there, but in taking on the long arm, it swelled my budget a bit too tight, so I'm going to have to push things off a little to be able to accommodate. It's all good. It will still all get taken care of, I just have to wait a little bit.

I bought almost the last of the little stuff. I got all the LED lights I'll need today, I also sealed the deal on a set of JK Rubi wheels. All that's left is SYE, Tires, and TNT. ALMOST DONE! Well, almost done with phase 1...(don't tell the wife)

To give folks an idea of what my Jeep will look like, (even though the color is off, and I don't have beadlocks on the JK wheels...) This is Jason from TNT's rig. He has swapped JK axles under his TJ as well, and is using the same tubes and corners I'll be using. He's running 2" on 37's.





I love it. I dig the wheels, but when/if I finally go to beadlocks, I'll be running Stauns internals. But I do LOVE the look of those beadlocked JK wheels Trailready did for him.
 
#175 ·
Thank you. That makes two of us! I'm just waiting on the next Jeep fund allotment on the first, I'll be home by then hopefully, and able to place the TNT order. Aside from that, all I've got left to make it streetable is tires, wheels, and SYE/driveshafts.
 
#176 ·
Well, I am back stateside. I'm currently in Norfolk VA, doing my out-processing. I flew in the night before last (I think, I don't remember if I lost or gained a day lol). Anyways, as long as this goes alright, and I'm not on med hold, I plan to start work on the Jeep within another week and a half easy. Here's hoping there's no med hold.
 
#181 ·
If you like the movie, you should watch the show Firefly, which is what the movie Serenity was based off of. Buy the DVDs though, don't pirate it. Show the retarded Fox execs that people out there are still interested. Plus, it's worth it, there's 3 extra episodes, plus a bunch of bonus stuff on the DVDs.

Thanks for saying thanks, and for following along guys. Hopefully we'll get the ball rolling here soon. I've got medical on monday, so as long as I'm not on med hold there should be no problem. If I go on med hold yeah, I'm back in the states, but I'll still be a long ways from the wife and the Jeep for who knows how long. :( Here's hopin.
 
#178 ·
Glad to see you are back in the country. I have been waiting to see this built. Also....
THANK YOU VERY MUCH. We are all in debt to you and your fellow co-workers.
 
#182 ·
Woot! No Med hold. I fly home tomorrow, and after the wife falls asleep, I'm sneaking out to the garage to work on the Jeep. It begins!
 
#183 ·
Glad to hear you are good to go. Can't wait to see progress. Once again since I don't think the first time covered it
THANK YOU. This country is forever in debt to you and your comrades. :salute:
 
#184 ·
The build starts Tuesday. DUN DUN DUN.......

I put seat covers on yesterday if that counts? lol

I'll have pics up here in the next few days of all the stuff in the garage. The Rock Krawler tie rod is ridiculously beefy. It has to be an easy 40 lbs. The JK axles are sexy as hell, and I think I have the worlds smallest muffler lol. Get ready for the updates.

PS... TNT order goes in soon. Then it's fun fun fun.
 
#186 ·
Can't wait to see the re-birth of the Pumpkinator, should be interesting.
 
#187 ·
Headed to harbor freight to pick up a jack and jack stands tomorrow, and getting paint for the tubes. If we get froggy, we might do something to the Jeep. If the wife is done with me.
 
#190 ·
#191 ·
Thanks guys, and lol Jeff

Here is todays highlights... I went to Harbor Freight and got 4 6-ton jack stands, and 4 3-ton stands. Picked up a 3 ton floor jack. I met up with Rod there, and followed him back to his place, then picked him up. He decided to be a champ and help out today.

OK, I'm pissed. I decide to go ahead and start my build tonight. Out of my mountain of Jeep parts in the garage, I grabbed the ORO SwayLOC first. We decided it was too late in the day to mess with the BL or MML today, so that's up tomorrow. I have one of the "new generation" SwayLOCs. It came in the mail a few months ago. So, I doubt it's one of the old ones. So, anyways, we sat down to work...

We take the bumper off, grind my seized lower sway bar link bolts off (since they haven't been taken off in a year) and it wasn't happening. Anyways, the first step is to grease the inside of the poly bushings, and then beat one of them into the front crossmember of the Jeep. Then, the instructions say to insert the outer sway bar through the crossmember tube and push it through the bushing... Small problem, the bushing is about 1/4" smaller than the tube. No amount of lubrication is going to make the outer sway bar fit in that bushing. Now I'm driving with no front swaybar until this gets resolved. lol.

I called ORO and left a message, hopefully I'll hear back from them tomorrow. I'm not pleased thus far.

This had better not be any indication of the rest of my build.

Tomorrow we are going to tackle the JKS 1.25" BL and Brown Dog 1" MML (with engine brackets). I'm sure it will be a pain in the ***, but hopefully it goes better than today did.

I told Rod earlier, "hey, at least if we take the Jeep to my moms tomorrow to do the BL and stuff we'll have the rest of the beer left from the coming home party"

He said, "Yeah, because that's going to speed things up"

I got a chuckle out of that. Meh, it's time for bed. Hopefully tomorrow shows some progress. Gotta get the camera too.
 
#192 · (Edited)
Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but you'll have more annoying setbacks than that. Very few things will go smoothly. But I can imagine the TNT stuff will go pretty smoothly.

Later on, when you have an issue, go back and look at my build thread about the time when I had to CUT MY TRUSS OFF after super-welding it on. That will make you feel better. Holy crap, that sucked ****. I doubt you'll have an issue that large....at least I hope not.
 
#193 ·
It happens man.

Happened to me when i went to raptor line my tub. First i didnt have the right tools, then my air compressor kept blowing fuses at my house, then the connector from the hose to the compressor broke so i had to buy a new hose. lol. It will be worth all the **** you wil run into in the end man. Good luck
 
#194 ·
I'm more pissed that the swayloc was so expensive, and I am having this problem. When I pay that kind of money, I expect the product to work... correctly. I'm still hopeful of tomorrow. I put a thread in TJ tech to see if anyone can help out with the swayloc. We'll see. I've still got plenty of work to do.

OK, time for bed. Rod is snoring on the couch. Connor, if you aren't busy, drive to Anderson tomorrow. Free beer and scraped knuckles. Neither me, nor Rod have done a BL/MML before. We've got directions, but who knows what will happen.
 
#195 ·
I'm doing some work for a friend of my dad's tomorrow until dark but I can come over after then. The body lift is easy....just get the 4 rear body mounts, front mount and one side loosened, then do the other side. Keep it loose and do the remainder. Your hi lift will probably come in handy tomorrow. The MML is a ***** but with two people, you guys will get it.
 
#196 ·
Well, with the weather, we decided against it for today. Here in a few days I'll start up again. I've got some stuff to take care of, so no jeep stuff for a few days.
 
#197 ·
I was right. I just talked to ORO. They grabbed them out of the wrong bin like I had thought. I should have the right ones here in a few days. Chuck over at ORO took care of me.
 
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