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12K views 60 replies 11 participants last post by  deanp  
#1 ·
Decided we needed to start over. We had a '10 Silver 2 door "Danielle". After injuring my back and having problems with my left leg we decided to trade it in because the manual trans was causing a lot of problems for me to drive. Found a '14 at the stealership with 36 miles. Ended up costing $15 more a month than what I was paying. Only problem now is I have to start over with the mods. I feel like I'm driving a low rider not that the old one was lifted that much but with an auto trans its much easier for me to drive. No more killing it taking off. :) Will get some pics posted soon as I can. Really is nice looking with the gloss black paint.

When looking at new ones they all have a hard top. To me that was a deal breaker as I don't care for them and have no way to take it off easily or a place to store it. Dealer agreed to take the top off the old one and put it on the new. Sounded good to me so we made the deal. Then found out the soft tops for the '10 only fits a '10. Do have to say the dealer took good care of me. They found a shop that will put a brand new soft top on and trade for the hard top. Makes me happy so that will happen on Monday.

Already looking at the wish books for items I cant afford to put on her. Wife has named it Skrump. Really not sure where she came up with that but that was the ruling of the boss. I know the zombie thing has been done over and over but kinda thinking of going with the green accent for some of the future mods.

Did stop at the local Ace hardware and picked up the grade 8 bolts to get the factory ones replaced.

Pics to follow
 
#3 ·
Well the dealer came through with the top trade. She now has a brand new Supertop with tinted windows. Install looks nice and clean. Much better than the hard top. Between the wiper motor and the seat backs not sure how anyone sees out the rear view mirror. First thing I did was remove the headrests to get them out of my way. Graphics company made new window sticker and hood stickers so now it is beginning to become our Jeep.



New G8 bolts will get installed this weekend and hoping the new brawler sliders will be here in a few days then the mods will probably be on hold til the bank account recovers.
 
#6 ·
Gunner, yep noticed that myself and it is fixed now.

Look what brown santa dropped of today!


I think the plan will be to mount them so all of the holes are taken care of then take them back off and get then painted.

Jeremy, may be looking you up.
 
#8 ·
Will do, I just dropped them off today to get powder coated. Should be back in a week or so with the holidays coming up. Will be done in a granny smith green w/clear. Really think its going to look good with the black.

I have the nutsert tool from HF along with the one that was sent with the sliders. Haven't used the HF tool yet but since my other project is a 74 CJ5 that we replaced the floor, I got that to put nutserts in to bolt center of the trans tunel down. Figure I'd practice with that before messing something up on the JK body.
 
#9 ·
Sliders came back from powder coat today!. Personally I think they are going to look great. Won't be able to install til next weekend due to the toys for tots run and a birthday party this weekend. Guess they will sit in the living room where I can drool over them.





And a close-up


Now just need the bank account to recover. Building 2 Jeeps at the same time takes a toll on the check book. Youngest said he wants a Jeep too, at least I have a few more years before that happens.
 
#15 ·
Can't wait to see those on the jeep. I agonize over my red on commando choice all the time. I like it but I'm always waiting to see a picture of it on the forum with a what was he thinking tag. I think yours I gonna rock. Btw I love my PSC sliders. They work so good in sharp and heavy rocks for pivoting on.
 
#16 ·
So we had a Jeep party this weekend, father and sister came over to help work. :iamhappy: Managed to get the tub set back on the CJ, (will get updates to that thread soon too) Grade 8 bolts on my sisters JK and the sliders on Skrump.

Decided to removed the doors instead of just opening them to help line everything up and also gets them out of the way. Forgot to get pics of the first side install. Took a bit to actually pull the trigger on the drill to put the first of many holes in a brand new Jeep. Once the first one was done it didn't hurt so bad.

Nutserts - the first side when pretty good using the HF tool. Need to contact PSC as the directions say not to drill into the second layer of metal but there is no way to install them on the back holes without doing that. There is only about 3/8" between metal layers. Went ahead and drilled through so it woule seat all the way. The front fenders were the same but we removed the 4 bolts holding the fender on around the door an held it away to install the nutserts. HF tool broke on the 3rd nut on the passenger side to had to use the one supplied with the sliders. It actually wasn't that bad to use. Certainly would not want to spend the day using it but it works.

Grabbed a shot of the passenger side with all the nutserts installed. We did have tape on the whole side to we wouldn't scratch anything.


Have friends at a tire shop and they gave me a tractor inner tube to make my own gasket so I don't have any metal to metal contact.

Here are the finished shots. Few stares from folks driving by while I'm taking the pictures as we hadn't got the doors back on and it was just starting to snow.


And with the doors back on



With these babies on the cars at the mall better watch out!!
 
#17 ·
Brown Santa came again today. Dropped off a new Rock Hard Cage. Few first thoughts when I got it, the box had a few holes in it and was worried something may have fell out during shipping. Opened it up and everything was there. Must say I would have expected a bit more for packaging. Everything was there but the bars were zip tied to each other. Somewhere along the trip quite a few of them broke letting parts bounce around. Inspected everything looking closely at the mating areas and don't see any dings. Guess its all good, but would have felt better seeing it packed better.




Once everything is installed and fits then we can take it back out and then the plan will be to send it off for powder coat with the same green the sliders were done in. Have an estimate of $125 to powder coat everything.

Only other thing I need to do is run a cable into the cab for future light/accessory switches before the final install as right now it doesn't look like there will be a lot of room to run wires once it's installed, could be wrong but we'll see.
 
#19 ·
Brown Santa stopped by the other day. Dropped of a new POD. Read about this in one of the Jeep magazines. Since someone (we shall omit names) seems to leave headlights on on occasion, we thought this might be a nice thing to have. Came from the factory with 3/4 charge on the battery, set of jumper cable leads and another cord for misc phone/ipod/etc charging and a 120 & 12v charger for the unit.

Image


Was really wanting to try it out but didn't want to just leave the lights on and drain the battery down for no other reason than to play with a new toy so I put it in the console and waited for a time to use it. The built in LED flashlight has been really handy even thought I have a few already in the Jeep (cant have too much light)

Needed fuel yesterday and as I'm going in to pay I heard the familiar clicking sound of a dead battery trying to turn a starter from a nearby vehicle. So I turned around and saw a lady in her vehicle trying to make a call on her phone. I asked if I could help jump her car to get her going. She was very happy but didn't think there was room to get another vehicle next to hers to jump it. I said no problem and I went to retrieve the POD and walked back to her car. She already had the hood up and had a strange look on her face since I didn't come back with my vehicle. I hooked it up to her battery and said try it. It took a couple cranks and fired right up. She was very happy as her husband was not going to be able to come help for a while.

I understand this story didn't have much to do about building my Jeep, but it felt good to try out my new "toy" and also got to help out someone in need at the same time. Seen other stories about folks coming up to a Jeep somewhere and saying "you Jeep folks always seem prepared, you have anything that can help me with.........." Kind of nice to help keep that image going.

On a side note...did get the sport cage installed. Had a few hurdles getting it to fit correctly, grinding here and there. Hopefully get it back out first of the week and send it to powder coat. Will get the install pics and such when I get it back.
 
#20 ·
So while waiting for the cage to be powder coated I decided to get my electrical needs taken care of since there wont be a lot of room to run wiring once the cage is back in. Really don't have the money for an Spod so I fabed up my own version. Picked up a project box, some switches, relays and relay bases. Had a piece of 18/9 cable that fit my needs. Eventually we want to have on-board air, a post lights, front bumper lights, light bar above windshield and rock lights. Found a project box that will fit 5 switches. Wired all of the switches now so future mods will be a pretty simple plug and play operation.
The switch box.
Image


Mounted the box to the footman loop between the visors and ran cables through the plastic molding above the windshield and down the drivers side a post.
Box mounted
Image


Had a couple mending plates so I bent on into an angle bracket and mounted the relay bases to it. Mounted a fuse panel to the other.
Image

Still have to run cable through firewall and to the relay bases. Plan to pre-wire all of the bases and install relays I have a bunch of old blown fuses I am going to put into the fuse block just so the terminals wont get corroded. Once new mods are installed, just have to replace blown fuse with good one and we'll be good to go. (at least that is how it is working in my mind) Main power will come from a switched fuse (think its number 17, stlll have to run that one down) to a 40A relay then to the fuse panel. I am using a 40A maxi fuse from the battery to the relay. All lighting plans are LED lights. From what I have researched this should run everything that we have planned. Guess it can be added to if plans change :)
Wiring diagram included just so I have a record of it.
Image


Just noticed I forgot to move a couple of the labels on the relays to match the switches in the drawing.
Hoping to get everything finished up this weekend.
 
#21 ·
New toys for Skrump

Got to go shopping a little at Northridge today. Came home with a new set of Rigid A pillar spots and mounts along with a set of heated Trucklite LED headlights and the flicker modules. We had LED's on our last JK and the wife really hates driving with the factory lights. Never really had a problem with frosting over but decided the heated option would be worth it.
Image


While doing that, received a call saying the cage was ready to be picked up from powder coat. Looks great, now have to wait for the Jeep dealer to get my new stereo head in since the factory one decided it doesn't want to remember where it was when you turn the key off. "Should" see it next week. Cant install the cage until the new head is installed since the dash bar will be in the way. So my freshly coated tubes will have to occupy a spot in the living room for a while.
Image

I think its going to look really sharp. Picked up some green duck canvas and some sew on velcro, just need a couple feet of roll bar padding and I will make a cover for the center bar. Can just touch it if I stretch but would feel better if there is a little padding on it, just in case.
 
#22 ·
The cage is finally installed. A little cutting here and a little grinding there. Had to trim more on the drivers side. Read about taping the top of the dash as the laser cut leaves a pretty sharp edge. Ran a sander across all the edges, but I guess it wasn't enough. Recently heard about cutting a plastic jug and using that to slide the parts over and protect the top of the dash. Wish I heard about that sooner. Tape worked but still managed to put a couple scratches in the dash. Nothing big, but I still know it's there.
Image

Didn't have to remove alot of material but was time consuming putting it in, checking where it hit, removing it and grinding and doing it again until everything looked to have room around it.
Image
Can't stress enough, measure, measure and measure again. The issue I had here was the template was right on, but with the side plate hanging, it hangs at a slight angle. Didn't see that so I had to message a couple holes. Nothing big but just made more work for myself.
Image
Forgot to get pics of the passenger side but was pretty much the same.
 
#23 ·
Now for the finished product. I didn't get the padding kit but made my own for the center bar using some green canvas that matched close enough for me. Velcro runs the length so it can be removed and cleaned. Thinking about sewing some webbing to it later for what-not's down the road.
Image

trimmed the interior molding and used picked up some door edge trim to cover the cut ends. May have to get something else or some glue as it doesn't want to stay on.
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All in all, very happy with it and looks pretty sharp if I do say so myself.
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Top showing my homemade padding/cover
Image
 
#24 ·
Few more...
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Finished up trimming the drivers trip piece tonight but didn't get a pic of that since it was getting too dark. Did manage to cut the blue tooth mic back in almost at the factory location.
Image

Along with the cage install, mounted the Rigid a-post spots and the LED headlights.
Image

Will have to wait a while for the check book to recover before any more mods will be able to happen.
 
#25 ·
Been working on our other Jeep and finally had some more funds saved up to buy Skrump some presents. Northridge had their open house and I picked up a 2.5" Rock Krawler lift and a set of wheel spacers. Have to wait a few days for the rear shocks to arrive since they were out of those. Don't mind the seat, its for the CJ, Brown Santa stopped over while we were at the open house so both Jeeps got presents yesterday.
Image

Will need a wrenching party soon!
 
#26 ·
Looks like I forgot to update here. We did get the lift installed. Got almost 4" of lift and it settled to around 3 1/2". Should loose a little more once I can afford new bumpers and a winch. Really like the ride compared to stock. Did upgrade the shock to Fox since the Bilsteins were back ordered and wouldn't be in for a couple months.

Here she is after the lift was done.
Image


Had been wanting tube doors for a while and had some rectangle tubing given to me. It was outside and had quite a bit of surface rust but nothing a flap disc and the grinder couldn't take care of. Did a lot of measuring and remeasuring and figuring angles and got all of the pieces cut and mocked up.
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Here is one welded up and test fitting everything.
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