About time to start a build thread, but since it's 2012, and we're talking about a 1996 grand, we'll start with:
PREHISTORY Of JEEP
In june of 1996 my father purchased a green 1996 V8 Grand, first sold 10/95 (according to the book o' scribbles) we got it off a executive lease or something along those lines, low mileage, completely stock.
Purchased as a daily driver to replace a honda crx, after he saw another honda crx on the highway that an suv had used as a ramp killing the occupants of the crx.
Being a family of hams (hence the license plates and usernames) the first real mod that went into it was the radios (and the radar detector).
The original radios were a Yaesu FT-8100 (dual receive dual band) and an icom 706.
Two magmounts up front for the 2m/440 antennas, magmount on the back driver side for a 6m whip, and an outbacker spring with a hamstick mounted to the side of the trailer ball.
Eventually we replaced the mag mounts up front with nmo mounts drilled through the roof.
The control heads are mounted on the overhead console, custom speaker bracket puts one speaker between the post of the driver head rest and the other speaker sits at the top of the pillar between the front and rear door.
The 2m/440 radio is easy to hide, it sits under the driver side back seat right on top of the infinity amp. The HF rig was a bit harder, especially since we wanted to mount an SGC smartuner for the whip on the back. We ended up mounting both the radio and the tuner in the driver side window that is covered by the spare anyway. We cut a duplicate of the window and bolted to that, works pretty well.
Eventually the 8100 was swapped for an Icom 2720, and the 706 for an Icom 7000. Both great radios.
Those were the only intentional mods until I acquired it in 2008.
Of course there were a few unintentional things.
According to the book o' scribbles:
Got rear ended twice early on, one of the times the body shop didn't put the rear hatch lock back together properly.
Putting the tow hitch through the radiator of a honda did wonders for the alignment, ah well, unibody vehicle.
Transmission blew at 97k (late '03) something about the transmission cooler for the tow packade taking the transmission with it when it died, ah well.
Few other little things, water pump, power steering (a theme), ac, but nothing major.
Mostly it was a daily driver, occasional road trips or camping, or using it to pull out small palm trees.
(pics later tonight)
PREHISTORY Of JEEP
In june of 1996 my father purchased a green 1996 V8 Grand, first sold 10/95 (according to the book o' scribbles) we got it off a executive lease or something along those lines, low mileage, completely stock.
Purchased as a daily driver to replace a honda crx, after he saw another honda crx on the highway that an suv had used as a ramp killing the occupants of the crx.
Being a family of hams (hence the license plates and usernames) the first real mod that went into it was the radios (and the radar detector).
The original radios were a Yaesu FT-8100 (dual receive dual band) and an icom 706.
Two magmounts up front for the 2m/440 antennas, magmount on the back driver side for a 6m whip, and an outbacker spring with a hamstick mounted to the side of the trailer ball.
Eventually we replaced the mag mounts up front with nmo mounts drilled through the roof.
The control heads are mounted on the overhead console, custom speaker bracket puts one speaker between the post of the driver head rest and the other speaker sits at the top of the pillar between the front and rear door.
The 2m/440 radio is easy to hide, it sits under the driver side back seat right on top of the infinity amp. The HF rig was a bit harder, especially since we wanted to mount an SGC smartuner for the whip on the back. We ended up mounting both the radio and the tuner in the driver side window that is covered by the spare anyway. We cut a duplicate of the window and bolted to that, works pretty well.
Eventually the 8100 was swapped for an Icom 2720, and the 706 for an Icom 7000. Both great radios.
Those were the only intentional mods until I acquired it in 2008.
Of course there were a few unintentional things.
According to the book o' scribbles:
Got rear ended twice early on, one of the times the body shop didn't put the rear hatch lock back together properly.
Putting the tow hitch through the radiator of a honda did wonders for the alignment, ah well, unibody vehicle.
Transmission blew at 97k (late '03) something about the transmission cooler for the tow packade taking the transmission with it when it died, ah well.
Few other little things, water pump, power steering (a theme), ac, but nothing major.
Mostly it was a daily driver, occasional road trips or camping, or using it to pull out small palm trees.
(pics later tonight)
