'04 RME TJ Build Thread - Page 3

hammer99tjdd · 12-26-2007, 11:23 PM

hey, great build. your jeep is sick. I noticed in earlier pictures you painted the fenders from black to grey. did you use krylon fushion or did you have them painted? I think I have to do something to my faded ones and this is a look I think I want on my Jeep. Cheers and keep posting, looks awesome. btw, can you post a pic of 31" tires w/ that lift? I want to see what that looks like before I upgrade my lift and tires.

Lostj · 12-26-2007, 11:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hammer06

hey, great build. your jeep is sick. I noticed in earlier pictures you painted the fenders from black to grey. did you use krylon fushion or did you have them painted? I think I have to do something to my faded ones and this is a look I think I want on my Jeep. Cheers and keep posting, looks awesome. btw, can you post a pic of 31" tires w/ that lift? I want to see what that looks like before I upgrade my lift and tires.

some(most??/some same as body color???) of the Rocky Mountain Edition TJ's came with the fenders prepainted grey like that

**bman9089** · 12-27-2007, 12:50 AM

you're flying through the mods. nice!

x2 for the sickest jeep on 31s. VERY impressive.

hammer99tjdd · 12-27-2007, 08:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lostj

some(most??/some same as body color???) of the Rocky Mountain Edition TJ's came with the fenders prepainted grey like that

you are correct sir, it looks like they were painted all along.

JAW_WRANGLER · 12-27-2007, 12:13 PM

Very nice build... im ready to see the new lift and tires! congrats on that bad *** jeep!

**BigGillyStyle** · 01-03-2008, 03:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lostj

some(most??/some same as body color???) of the Rocky Mountain Edition TJ's came with the fenders prepainted grey like that

The 2004 RMEs (I have one) had those gray fender flares, while future RMEs (2005+) had body-painted ones. I believe 2004s were also the only model with the nice Alcoa wheels.

imbezol · 01-03-2008, 05:02 PM

Yup, the fenders were painted from the factory and they are an inch wider than the sport models as well. The Alcoa rims the '04 RME models come with are quite nice as well but the backspacing is the same as you get with most other stock rims. At least when I bought new rims I was able to sell the nice Alcoas for a decent price.

And thanks for the props guys. I'm super anxious to get the rest of the stuff I need to get the lift on.

imbezol · 03-08-2008, 11:18 AM

I took this week off work and I have been working on my Jeep pretty much all day each day. Even before that though, I started into my SYE so that part would be done before I got to putting the lift on. It didn't go exactly as planned. I think there may have been "too many cooks in the kitchen" at that point, but I put the oil pump on the inside of the casing and broke two tabs off it. So I had to run to a local drive-line shop here to get another oil pump for it but then everything went together smoothly. I'm skipping a couple days ahead at the end to show it completed because it sat on the bench for about 4 days waiting for the oil pump.

I also decided to remove the transfer case and bring it to the bench because I had never had one apart before so I wanted to get a good look at it while I was doing the install. They're pretty neat actually and now that I see how easy the install would be I think I may get the 2L conversion kit from TeraFlex at some point.

I also was going to be putting on the new skid plate from my lift so the old one went directly outside of the garage into the snow. So, I dropped the skid plate, drive-shafts front and rear, tranny mount, and unbolted the tcase from the tranny.

And then for the install...

imbezol · 03-08-2008, 11:18 AM

So, skipping a few days ahead to where I got it put together properly...

imbezol · 03-08-2008, 11:27 AM

So Saturday, a week ago today, I started into the lift. The first step, of course, is to get rid of all the stock suspension.

While I had the wheels off I changed the hubs out for some replacements I bought as well. I didn't get any pics of this step though.

imbezol · 03-08-2008, 11:37 AM

After removing the stock suspension the next thing that has to happen is getting rid of the control arm mounts. I think this is the worst part of the install but if I had to do another one of these lifts it would go a lot faster. I finally figured it out real well on the last one.

imbezol · 03-08-2008, 11:43 AM

After the control arm mounts comes the new cross member. This involves drilling 4 1" holes up into the frame, and 6 1" holes through the frame.

imbezol · 03-08-2008, 11:49 AM

And now some pics of the front end done. It measures 7" of suspension lift right now.

**john NC** · 03-08-2008, 11:57 AM

wow great build can't wait to see the lift finished

imbezol · 03-08-2008, 12:01 PM

The backend requires you to do some grinding and drilling on the upper control arm mounts on the axle. Other than that, it's a pretty easy install. I don't have any 100% complete pics yet because the Jeep is going into a shop Monday to have the new shock mounts welded onto the axle. The way the stock ones are I can't get the shocks on at all if I want the pinion angle to be anywhere close to correct. These pics are the last today but I'll post more when the Jeep's on the ground again and done.