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97 TJ on 35s

65K views 337 replies 50 participants last post by  Jay12 
#1 ·
ok I guess its time to make a build thread.

My parents bought this 97 TJ from Manassas Chrysler/Jeep in July of 2008 to be my 1st vehicle. I can't thank them enough for that. It was about 6 months before I would get my license. Here's a pic of it after getting washed- (sorry for the bad cell pic, thats what a lot of them will be in this thread)


Once I got my license in February 2009 I got a job also. I started researching lifts, armor, etc so I could start to wheel the jeep. Fast forward to November 2009 and I had enough money and so I bought a rough country 4" x series lift with all adjustable CA's and TB's. 1.25" bl and 1"mml as well. 5 35x12.5 km2s and 5 15x8 soft 8s. The tires were backordered so I had to wait about 2 months to get them. My dad didn't think we could install it so he said as my christmas present he would pay to have it installed. Once the tires came the lift was done in Jan 2010.





Over Christmas break I had made some more money from work and so I ordered front and rear bumpers from Eddie (BESRK)/Ground Pounder Fab.

After the lift was installed I obviously had vibes which I knew I would and so I bought a sye/ Tom Woodscv shaft. Again my dad didn't think we could install it so I took it to C&P Offroad and they did it. Then about a week later after the 2 ft snow storm in Feb 2010 I went down and met Eddie and picked up my bumpers. I highly reccomend using his business Ground Pounder Fab hes a great guy and will build you top notch bumpers at the cheapest prices.





Some time around then I ordered a Rokmen steering box skid and a front d30 riddler cover

I think it was about April 2010 I painted my faded grey fender flares.

Installed Cobra 75 cb that has all of the controls in the mic so I could easily lock it up when doorless/topless.
Then in May I went to the NVJA show and shine and the week after went on the NTJR to flagpole



A couple weeks after that I went on a peters mill ride


After that ride I ordered an engine skid. Even though you don't really need it for trails like flagpole and peters mill, this should be 1 of your 1st mods. I ordered the UCF aluminum skid


Next mod was to bedline the tub. I did this with monstaliner and rolled it on.
Tub stripped and vacuumed/washed

Sanded

After wiping down with MEK

And its on

 
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#41 ·
I finished wet sanding my savvy gts last night so I started to polish it tonight. Used the brown stick of cleaner/regular polish with an orbital bufferer and then did it by hand in the corners and areas where the orbital couldnt get. It's looking good, tomorrow I'll finish it with the high polish green stick of polish and wipe it down with some mothers polish.
Have to thank Dan(from NVJA) for suggesting the idea of polishing it instead of painting. This is the 1st time I've tried polishing something, so far I think it looks ok

 
#51 ·
i likeee your build, im a fellow virginian high schooler. did you mention the 8.8 swap anywhere? i want 35 km2's and a 8.8 soon also
 
#58 ·
Nice jeep. It was a pretty good day of wheeling. Traction sucked with the wet rocks from the rain. I was planning on going back today but my rear main seal is leaking. I'll be dropping the jeep off at a shop tomorrow to get that fixed. Don't have enough time to do it at home right now.

That sucks but atleast it'll be fixed. I think the next wheeling trip I'll take is to the Big Dogs Ice Breaker at the Cover on April 30-May 1st.

I also might look into getting an ARB installed in the rear axle sometime soon. Have the money for it but need to decide if I want to do that or look at something else.
 
#63 ·
I want to try to get a custom cage built this summer. Full cage with 6 frame tie ins. Haven't really decided if I want a fastback style or not yet. Just have a lot of pictures saved on my comp of cages that I like. Also I need to be able to atleast put a soft or hard top on once I get it since its still my dd and I don't think a windshield V bar will pass inspection unless I go to a guy in my local club but hes about an hour away.

Seats I'll just look into suspension seats..haven't researched them too much yet. Will look at Corbeau, PRP, etc
 
#65 ·
Thanks I really like your cage in person. Do you think the dash V bar will pass inspection or are you not going to keep it on the street anymore now?

I like how the polish turned out. It takes a little more work than painting but it gives a new look from the black/red that is on the whole jeep. Just make sure you wet sand pretty good and itll turn out nice.

Crozet is a really good place to wheel when its dry. I wanted to do body shop today but the damn rear main started leaking pretty good yesterday
 
#72 ·
Thanks

Forgot to say the temp gauge is Auto Meter #3849. The cooler I bought is B&M #70264 and I will put that in tomorrow or sometime soon hopefully. I will be at the cove wheeling next weekend for the Big Dogs Spring Fling. Wish I could have gotten the cooler in before then but it's been raining here lately and I haven't had much time with work. I also picked up a power steering cooler which is Hayden #401.
 
#73 ·
I made little wiring pigtails from the gauge to a couple inches out of the console so that I can easily unplug them incase I need to remove the console out. This will be much easier than trying to reach around underneath the console while its in the jeep. I took the idea from another write up I saw. I also marked the disconnects with a sharpie to tell which wire is which.

 
#75 ·
Today I ran all the wires except for the temp sensor because I need to get a couple more brass compression fittings to install that in the line.
I connected the light power to the light wiring that lights up the shifter so it dims with it also:

the 2 grounds are just grounded to a bolt right in front of the center console under the dash:

The power to the gauge is tapped into a a wire that is only hot when the ignition is turned to ON:

Center console back in:

 
#76 ·
Got the trans temp sensor put into the transmission line today and put the last wire to the gauge from the sender. The gauge is working and got up to 150* in the sun on my 5 min ride to work and was at about 125* on my way home at night. Get to wheel at big dogs tomorrow so we'll see how hot it gets before I put the cooler on hopefully next weekend.
 
#77 ·
Wheeled at big dogs yesterday. The few trails we got to run were good I especially liked Corum. It was slow moving all day though and we didn't cover much ground which was disappointing. Had to let a couple groups of 24 rigs pass us a few times. I think if they would open it up for wheeling 2 weekends a month then there wouldn't be that many people there but I'm not sure how it all works so oh well.
Today I got the transmission cooler in. Pretty simple install so hopefully that will keep the fluid nice and cooler than it is now.
 
#78 ·
Haven't done too much lately.

Picked up some soft half doors to use on the trails

Might try the fabric paint and paint them black.

Also got a deep pan for the transmission because my gasket was leaking and I put that in. Here's a pic of what it comes with


My CEL came on the other day and it said the upstream o2 sensor was reading lean but the Jeep was running rich so i replaced that today and the CEL is gone after disco'ing the battery for a couple mins.
 
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