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Jurassic Park Project - 94 Sahara to JP 12

48K views 106 replies 57 participants last post by  rininger85 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
Hello all

I recently purchased a 1994 Sahara with a few mods to turn into a Jurassic Park Jeep.
The Donor:


I'm trying to turn it into:


I bought this Jeep knowing that it has some things wrong, but it had more things right.

The good:
NO rust on the frame or body, which is surprising having lived its 20 year life in Ohio.
Correct interior color (green)
Tan Original door pouches.
Newer Spice colored top with roll bar padding.
Factory (!!) A/C

The bad:
The original owner sold the Sahara interior
Has a lift that needs removed
Have 31" General Grabber tires with chrome rims (FOR SALE) that need to be switched for BFG and aluminum OEM 15" rims
Needs a paint job from the Sahara green to the LJ1 low gloss paint
Transmission synchros dont like second or third

Whats on the plan before end of the year:
Sell the 31" tires (note, I do not know what these are actually going for, but here is the craigslist ad, if I priced these too high or you are interested, please let me know. I would like these gone sooner than later: https://cincinnati.craigslist.org/pts/4139853584.html

Also attempting to trade my new Rugged Ridge interior, the entire thing, for the Sahara interior's front seats, console and rear seat. I have a FS/FT thread on this site here: http://www.wranglerforum.com/f14/trade-your-yj-sahara-interior-for-my-brand-new-rugged-ridge-interior-everything-352290.html I'm in the Cincinnati area and willing to travel half way to swap or each person pays shipping if the distance is too far.

Transmission fluid change is scheduled this week with RedLine MT90 to hopefully help with the synchro issue.

Getting the custom license plate from the state of Kentucky "JP 14". Will have the Jeep registered this week with a temp tag.

Will remove the lift once the tires are gone.

Meeting with the paint guy sometime next week to discuss monies and timeline. Since there is no rust, dings, dents, etc, it should be (hopefully) cheap-ish to paint.

Thanks it for now. I'm looking forward to finally having my childhood dream car. I will be updating here and on the Jurassic Park Jeep forums: Redirecting to Jurassic Park Jeep Forum.
 
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#63 · (Edited by Moderator)
Paint and the Winch

I've been searching for the proper winch, late 80s early 90s Ramsey REP6000 on eBay, craigslist, searchtempest, smoke signal, you name it, and had been very unsuccessful. So I started just searching google and found an 87 model REP6000 in Oklahoma. Only problem is, thats a 13 hour 841 mile drive, one way. The only way I was going to be able to get this winch is if the buyer was really trusting and was ok shipping it to me. Thankfully, Adam, was super awesome and agreed to do just that. We spoke a few times over phone, text and I paypal'd him a lot of money and I received it a few days later.


It needs a little cleanup, but nothing a few coats of black spray can paint and degreaser wont fix. It is the exact model they used in the movie so I'm super happy :D

I visited the paint guy yesterday and there was a lot accomplished. He stripped all of the old, bad paint and used some body filler where necessary. I had mentioned that the jeep was in an accident about 1.5 years after initially purchased and that they had used an aftermarket/1995 hood on the Jeep even thought it was a 94. As the paint guy was working on removing the old paint, he had found that they had also resprayed the entire body a few years ago, and did it the maaco way. Several seals were painted over, lots of paint flaking/chipping, and just all around bad prep/paint work. So he had to strip the entire Jeep, which was more than he wanted (and more than I wanted as the cost just went up) but in the end, it will be a factory or better paint job.


The front right fender was aftermarket and the body shop in 95 did a poor job, they didn't even paint the part of the fender that rests inside the engine compartment. You can see the original sticker showing it was aftermarket and date of manufacture.




A little bit of body filler on the rear side to hide the spot welds.


Same story on the driver side.


The front driver side had similar issues to the passenger. They did not paint the inside of the fender here either, and something hit the cowl that required a bit of body filler. The paint guy is going to leave the existing body filler and just sand it smooth.




Doors, rear hatch and hood all stripped from the previous couple of paint jobs.

The jeep should be going into primer today. The paint guy will be removing the front end that I did not have the time nor expertise to do. He will paint the front end properly, so the only green paint that will be left on the jeep will be the firewall. I will remove what I can and paint it black so it wont look out completely out of place.

I dropped off the lightbar and discussed painting the Jabsco lights. They will be painted along with the Jeep in the next few weeks.

Current ETA to have the paint done is by the second week of August. I've been discussing with friends and internally the proper gloss for the paint job. Low gloss/matte was used for the movie, but the red seemed to have a little bit of gloss to it in some shots. What I am really afraid of is that if I go with low gloss, I will be unable to wax and take good care of the paint over the years. So I am thinking of going with a semi-gloss, to keep the shiny down, but to be able to take care of the paint as needed over the next several years.

Any thoughts on the gloss for the jeep?

"John Hammond: There is no doubt our attractions will drive kids out of their minds.
Alan Grant: What are those?
Dr. Ellie Sattler: Small versions of adults, honey."
 
#64 ·
What I am really afraid of is that if I go with low gloss, I will be unable to wax and take good care of the paint over the years. So I am thinking of going with a semi-gloss, to keep the shiny down, but to be able to take care of the paint as needed over the next several years.

Any thoughts on the gloss for the jeep?
The low gloss isnt difficult to maintain. the only places ive seen the low gloss not be waxable is where the paint was overly thin. since you have a professional painting your jeep this wont be an issue. Id highly recommend going with the original paint. remember, its an enamel, so its smooth!
 
#65 ·
Jabsco Lights

I realized that once I decided to make JP#12 that the Jabsco lights would be a challenge. They were easily had, unlike some items, but they were customized for the movie. Someone went through a lot of trouble to 'spare no expense' on the lights. They made a custom Red Ring and 5 pieces holding said ring to each light housing in the workshop. Unfortunately there are no accurate measurements for the ring or attachments.

Here is what it looked like from the prop guy before installed on the Jeep:


Courtesy of JurassicParkJeep.com

There have been several #12s built who customized their lights with the custom rings and attachments. They used everything from thin pieces of metal, to hand molded plastics. The only thing that really appealed to me was 3D printing. Luckily the local library has a 3D printer available for public use, with the only cost for material used at $0.10/gram.

So I unpacked one of the lights and started measuring. With a strong IT background and current day job as a software analyst for the local hospital, I felt right a home with Sketchup. I loaded up Sketchup and got to work making the ring and attachments.





These were pretty accurate I felt, at least according to the measurements, but I had no idea if it would look good or fit together once printed. I had to guess the angle of the curves on the ring, and the attachment was a complete guess. I have previous architecture and design knowledge from university classes and IT careers, so I tried to use these experiences to help with the attachments.

My first print was a disaster. I exported my files from Sketchup, but the 3D printer and Sketchup were not getting along. Sketchup said the 3D drawing was solid, the printer said nope, and printed random stuff. I asked the guy at the front desk and he suggested 123d Design from autodesk, which was designed specifically with 3D printers in mind. Not wanting to redo everything in 123d and learn a new program, I tried one more thing while there that also failed.

So off to 123d to learn the application and design these again. I made a few adjustments here and there based upon what did print from Sketchup. Even though the original prints were failures, they allowed me to see that the attachments were not big enough, so I needed to resize in 123d.

Here are the final results:

After redesigning everything in 123d, the estimated time to completion was 4.75 hours. With only 1.5 hour slots available, it looks like I was initially SOL. After talking with the guy about what I was trying to do, he really took care of me. He generously offered to print everything during the day because there were few reservations.

He emailed me this morning and said he had everything printed. I went there after work and picked up the 6 pieces for $6.90.


How they came from the 3d printer. The printer prints a white base that the plastic build sits on for removal from the printer. The base easily snaps off

In my attempts to dry fit everything, I originally tried the 3M command strips, but they were not strong enough to hold everything


So i ended up hot gluing the attachments to the main ring and then using a command strip on the top to hold everything in place. The measurements are absolutely dead on :D







I think the ring is pretty accurate to the screen used, though the corner angles make it more square. The attachments I think look pretty good, I guess they could be wider but honestly, I'm super happy with the way everything turned out.

I'll have to outsource these to a 3d printing company for higher quality prints. These are low quality prints due to the time allocated to users of the 3d printer. Even on low quality, the ring took 3.5 hours to print, with the 5 attachments at 1.25, for a total of 4.75 hours. With high quality sitting at just under 9 hours for everything. Obviously I can not use their printer for 36 hours. With the dry fit test complete, i'll begin looking for outsourcing companies.


"Quiet! All of you! They're approaching the tyrannosaur paddock."
 
#68 ·
Lights and Interior

I talked to my paint guy and he primered the jeep a few weeks ago but ran into an issue acquiring the paint. His initial intent was to the order the paint and flattener after the jeep was primered but that fell through. The paint he was going to use has been discontinued due to EPA regulations on emissions from the painting process. So the new paint is in stock but they still need another week to get the flattener in stock. He and I are both hoping it is in stock asap so he can get the base coat down and then we can mark the red.

I started working on some other pieces that also required paint/customization. First up was the rear amber fog lights. I purchased a set of these: Eagle Eye Lights 1613QHC 6-1/8" Chrome 12V 55W Fog Amber Rectangular Off Road Light with Grille Guard Set. They are very close to the KC lights used in the movie with two exceptions. 1) is that they have a rock guard because these are front fog lights and 2) they have a chrome backing instead of black.

I got to work cutting off the rock guard.



I've used my dremel multimax before to cut plastic so that was my tool of choice



I made the initial cut as flat as possible to match the existing. There were some rough edges that i cleaned up with a exacto knife and then I then used the sandpaper attachment for the smooth and rounding. First I used the medium grade to start beveling the edges to make then round like the bottom section. Then the fine grit paper to finish the smoothing and beveling.



I finished the lights by painting the rear chrome piece with black plastidip



The plastidip stuck well to the chromed metal. I wasn't sure if regular paint would work on the chromed surface so the plastidip was my safe option. I think they turned out as great substitutes for the rare and expensive KC lights.

Last year when I traded my marine grade interior for sahara interior I knew the interior pieces would need to be painted. The YJ Saharas came in two interior colors, green and tan, with green being in the movie. I was happy to get the interior swap so I wasn't going to be picky about the color as long as they were the oem pieces.

I needed to paint the pieces from tan to green and researched how best to do that. A few people were able to get the interior paint color, dark green #47091 in a spray paint can from their local autoparts store, but I wasn't as lucky. All of the stores I called were either not able to mix paint, or were unable to mix the dark green in a spray can. The only way I could spray this color of paint was if I had a spray gun and air compressor. I have an air compressor, a 3.0 gallon campbell system that I dont think could provide enough air to paint well. Add that to the lack of spray gun and I had to look at alternatives.

So I went to the local parts store that could mix paint and had them mix a half pint of the paint and bought the pre-val paint system. Its a pretty ingenius system that can turn any mixed paint into a spray can. It comes with a glass bottle to mix the paint and reducer and a nozzle that feeds a propane based sprayer the size of a small hair spray bottle. For $5, its an economical way to spray any type of paint you can get mixed without a lot of equipment.

While at the auto parts store I picked up a can of plastic/vinyl adhesive promoter so the paint would have a better chance of sticking to pieces I needed to paint. I sprayed my first coat of the promoter, waited 15 minutes and reapplied. I waited another 15 minutes and mixed the paint and got to spraying. I did 3 coats on each piece which covered extremely well. I finished with spraying 2 coats of gloss clear coat to protect the finish.

Finial results:





Considering I have little painting experience and the $5 equipment outlay, I think you wouldn't be able to tell the parts were initially tan. I'm letting them dry completely and will try to scratch the surface to see if I need more clear. I used about 80% of the half pint mixed and have over 3/4 a quart of reducer remaining (the smallest quantity they had was 1 quart of reducer). The alternative to this method was to buy a hunter green spray can from home depot, but I wanted the door panels to match the other pieces 100%. This way was definitely more expensive, approximately $65 with paint, reducer, promoter and pre-val system, and I think the investment was a good choice.

I also repainted the winch, which was a huge challenge because I was not happy with the first coat. I stripped everything to the metal and repainted so its better, but definitely not 100%. I've decided to leave it as is because I dont think I can do a better job. A few of the decals were original to the winch from 1987, but are old and need reprints. I'm working with a friend to redesign and print them so I can put them on now thats the winch has been repainted.

"How do you know they're all female? Does somebody walk into the enclosure and look under the dinosaur's skirt?"
 
#69 ·
We have Paint

Over the past few weeks lots has been happening with the JP Project. After the primer we had to discuss the paint and the appropriate color. The painter went to his normal paint supplier, Sikkens and sprayed a color sample. Well, it was more silver than what the jeep color should be so we had talk about another paint company. After getting a ProSpray card sample and spraying a body panel, the ProSpray color was the correct LJ1


Sikkens on the card and ProSpray on the rear tail gate

Here is the final result





On the 10th of October I went to the painter with my friend and we finalized the lines for the stripes. There is a nice guide on jurassicparkjeep.com that shows distances, angles and where the stripes go.


We then started placing decals. On the movie Jeep there are few decals, just the JP Logo, Jeep decals over the stamped Jeep letters and a rear 4.0l High Output decal.

After the decals we started marking the lines for the front stripe.

We then needed to work on the front edge of the front stripes. The difficulty here is taking a straight line across the hood but making it curve to match the front edge of the front stripe. This part took us the better part of 1.5 hours to get everything right. We did our best to match the lines on both sides of the hood with tracing paper.



Painting took place the next day







Part of the red stripe painting process included placing decals in certain areas that are painted over and then decals removed to reveal the base body color beneath. This worked very well for the front fender numbers and hood JP12.

The final result is simply amazing







With the windshield installed


On the past Saturday I rented another uhaul auto transport and retrieved the Jeep :D





It is now home and reassembly started yesterday. We got a few things done while trying to organize what parts we have and how everything was removed 8 months ago.
 
#71 ·
Look forward to more pics man!!! Looks Awesome so far
 
#78 ·
Light Assembly: Part 1

Lots of updates coming! Since the Jeep has been painted, reassembly has begun. Its been a flurry of activity and frustration as lots of bolts were either lost or mismarked in the last 8 months. So it has been a lot of "lets put x y z on today. Well we are missing parts to X and Z so lets get Y done and move onto A and C done". Lots of bolts off of ebay, junkyard runs that were a waste of time (the YJ they had was picked over 3 times before I got there) and new parts over the last month.

During that time, I started to work on the Jabsco overhead lights. As you saw in a previous update, I 3D printed some of the custom parts, the ring and attachments, with a redesign necessary. The redesign was done pretty quickly after the test fit and I received those parts a few weeks later. I had the ring painted with the rest of the red on the Jeep to match the body color and started to work on the base.

Here is the base build:

I've made some very nice friends on the jurassicparkjeep.com forums that helped gather a list of what was needed to make the lights as movie accurate as possible. I went to Pepboys a few times to get some parts needed, along with some eBay and Homedepot purchases.

Here is all of the parts I needed to build the base (not including black plastidip).


The parts here are Pepboys body molding, 10 Tirestems from eBay, 1 12"x12"x.6" thick plastic sheet from eBay, windshield wiper spray tubing, and a good beer.

First thing was to cut 1" x 2" rectangle pieces from the black plastic sheet from eBay. I marked out the lines and scored them pretty heavily. I then snapped the plastic sheet against some wood to make some nice even lines. I then used a 3/4" drill bit on a press to drill a hole in the center of the rectangle piece



The tirestems fit perfectly in the 3/4" hole. The tirestems are needed to complete some of the cosmetic parts of the light



I then cut 15" lengths of the windshield spray tubing to go from one tirestem to another to complete the black wire as seen in the movie (you can see the movie used Jeep at the Islands of Adventures in Florida to the right). I chose 15" because that was a good length to ensure the light has free movement left and right because the light can turn 320 degrees left and right.

I did a quick test fit of the plastic piece to make sure it was going to fit properly and to get a feel of placement on the rear of the base



The windshield spray tubing fits perfectly into the tirestem opening. I had to take the tirestems to Pepboys and try different sizes to make sure I got the one that fit snug. This is a test piece to see how strong the hot glue was going to hold the cables.



Here is the final test before I started gluing



I'll admit that I felt like cheating using the hot glue gun, but I didn't feel that I had a better alternative to make sure these pieces held to the light. I'll know more in a year on how they hold up and can always rebuild these if necessary

Next was cutting the auto body molding that I am going to use as the ribbed pieces that go around the base and end at the plastic rectangle piece. These I cut to an undetermined size because I would make minor adjustments as I attached them to the base. They came with double sided sticky tape for easy installation. After I installed the top and bottom pieces I measured the difference between the two to get a better idea where the middle needed to go.



Final placement for the first base of the tirestem, plastic rectangle and 3 body molding pieces. It turned out really well!





After building all 4 bases, they needed to be painted or plastidipped black. I disassembled the base easily making note of the wires and motor placement



It was late so I did the first coat inside to get a feel of how they would look. I would do the other 3 bases and more coats outside where overspray was not a concern



This is what the inside wiring and motor looks like. The light itself is pretty impressive. It can rotate 320 degrees left and right and 70 degrees up and down. They are considered marine grade lights, normally installed on boats and vehicles requiring adjustable lights



Here is what the base looked light after reassembly :D

 
#80 ·
Light Assembly: Part 2

After the base, I moved to assembling the ring and its attachments before final assembly. I wanted these made so when it was time to work on the Jeep, I could have an extra hand or two to help secure the ring to the light correctly.

Again, lots of tools and specialty pieces were needed for this process. You can see the rings better in the following pictures after they were redesigned and painted.



The first thing I had to was to find the middle of the attachments so I can easily mark the rest. I used this as a template so I didn't have to mark each individually. I would hold the template up to one attachment and drill through that so the hole matched on all. It didn't take long, but I was definitely glad to be done with all 20 attachments that needed to be drilled.



The hex cap screws I used were the #8 x 32 x 1/2". When designing the attachments I made sure to account for the screw size and the height of the ring so I could find a screw that would be an appropriate size to go through the attachment but not all the way through the ring. 1/2" ended up being perfect. I hot glued the attachment to the ring so that a) it would make a stronger connection than just being held together with the screw and b) to hold the attachments in place during the assembly.

After the attachment was hot glued, I then drilled through the existing hole into the ring. I marked my drill bit with some painters tape so I had a marker on how far I needed to drill without going through the ring completely. This was very helpful, especially needing to drill 20 of these holes.

One thing I found while assembling everything is that if you tightened the screw too much, you would crack the attachment housing. I made that mistake once or twice, so I was glad I had extras when needed.

This is what the ring build looks like after everything was said and done:





I did a quick dry fit to ensure everything looked good. This is where you can really see the redesigned ring and how everything is going to look once together




Side note: I know the attachments need painting. That will come in spring when I have better weather and the paint.

On Saturday after some reassembly (updates coming) we moved to final light assembly. The next part was to attach the ring build to the light housing by using some #8 cap screws. Same build rules applied here, using the template I drilled a hole in each attachment facing the light housing and then had someone hold the ring in place while I drilled into the housing. We went slow to make sure everything lined up well. It didn't take long, but it was tedious to make sure everything was lined up correctly.

Here are the final build results for the lights :D





After building the lights we wanted to get them mounted and wires run before we called it quits for the day.

Here is the first installed



Running 4 sets of wires through the lightbar was a challenge. We tried a few methods until the tried and true metal fishtape worked best. We were afraid of scratching the paint and just doing overall paint damage, but we worked slowly and the Jeep cam out damage free.

Heres the look now with all of them installed with wires run through the lightbar.



I'm glad to see the lights done. Custom creating the ring and attachments, having them painted both body color and red, finding custom parts, custom part assembly and the constant fear of ruining over $1,000 worth of equipment, was challenging. I know the attachments need to be painted red and body color, and the cap screws I purchased from Home Depot are silver instead of black. I'll take care of all of that in the spring when I have better weather and paint back from the painter (he is going to fix some minor issues when spring rolls around).

"Doctor Grant's not machine compatible."
 
#81 ·
Reassembly has begun

Reassembly has begun!

After trailering the Jeep from the painter, it was time to take inventory of what we needed to do, and what parts we had. We did an o.k. job marking all of the bolts, nuts, and various pieces when we disassembled everything earlier this year, but not good enough. We were constantly searching for parts, or bolts and everything in between when reassembling some areas. I definitely learned that I need a better part marking system on the next vehicle I disassemble. This definitely played its part in a few delays we experienced as we were waiting on parts or making multiple trips to the hardware store.

One of the first things we worked on was the doors. And immediately we had a problem. While inserting the door locking cylinders, we damaged the paint. UGH. The paint was so fresh and thick enough that I was unable to seat the cylinder without issues. While trying to shove in the cylinder (with care, I swear!) this happened:


So, delay 1, on day 1. :( I called the painter and he offered to fix it. I brought the door to him with the locking cylinder and he touched up the area, filed down some parts and installed the cylinder. Not a great start.

While we had wanted to start at the rear and move forward, our missing parts required us to jump around while parts were available. So after the door damage, we moved onto the light bar. Problem here also. The bar wasn't square, so it was not lining up with the windshield frame. I called my blacksmith friend (hes the one who welded everything together) and had him help out. He bent everything together in about 5 minutes, and we were good.





I think the Jeep looked a lot better with the lightbar. Almost if the lightbar is a missing accessory. Along with the lightbar, we installed the black rubber side step pieces.

Wanting to take the Jeep on our annual camping trip, I needed a trailer hitch. The Jeep is only rated for 2,000 so I wont be towing much, just a small trailer with supplies. One thing I wanted with the trailer hitch was retention of the bumperettes. A smittybilt JH44 2" class II looked promising. A quick order from SummitRacing proved that the pictures were correct. We installed the trailer hitch and bumperettes in one go. It was a challenge because the trailer hitch was super heavy and some bolts very difficult to reach.

After installing the trailer hitch and bumperettes, we worked on other rear parts. The tail lights, tire stop, tail gate tire protectors, rear tail gate seals and locking mechanisms. We also installed the stainless steel ball mount housing into the hole we drilled before the paint. The rear was mostly done at this point. Still needed to attach the tire carrier, find the bolts for the tail light housing and mount the rear fog lights.



After working on the rear, we moved onto the roll bar padding. It was then that we noticed a missing zipper pull that went... somewhere? I'm pretty sure it was there 8 months ago. Oh well



My coworker lives near the painter and knows him well, so he picked up the door for me about 2 weeks after I dropped it off. We reassembled the door locking mechanisms, and interior panels one evening. We did have to run to the Jeep dealership to get a small plastic piece that locks a metal bar into the external door latch. It had broken during disassembly and I had completely forgotten.


I forgot to take pictures during the reassembly, but trust me, you aren't missing much.

After installing the rollbar padding, door reassembly, we reattached the doors with their new seals and got to work on the windshield. With the new windshield cowl seal, we really had to pull on the windshield frame to get it to line up with the roll bar. It took a little muscle, but we made it all fit. We tighten down all of the rollbar an windshield frame screws, and attached the windshield visors. We also attached the mirrors after installing the doors on the Jeep



Some of the last installs needed were electrical based. Now, I work in IT, finished my basement, built retaining walls and can work on cars well enough, but auto electronics I know nothing about. My first thought was that the new lights needed to go through the electrical fuse box under the steering column, but I did some research and just bought a power distribution block. I ran a wire from the battery to the block and will tie all of the lights through it.

The winch was heavy and in the way, so we mounted that real quick. I have tow hooks that I was hoping to install on the front but the winch plate from Harbor Freight didn't have the clearance. I'll figure out what to do in the spring about that.



The first lights we installed were the front Delta 100 fogs. These are aftermarket because the OEM are almost impossible to find (p.s. if you have a set, I am interested in buying them). These are xenon based and look very close to the OEM fogs that were an option on the Sahara models. We ran the wires easy enough to the lights, found a ground point, installed a switch and done.



We left the rear fogs last because we had to run 20+ feet of wiring and as it was late in the day, we got lazy. Trying not to interfere with the rear tailgate, I did my best guess on where the rear fogs should go and drilled into the tail light housing (we found the bolts, btw, in the bucket of random bolts. We, uh, did not mark these)



We drilled a small hold next to the bottom lightbulb to run a wire through the existing opening on the body. We drilled another small hole next to the mounting bracket for the fog light to run the positive wire. Nice these about these lights is that the mounting bracket acts as the ground point. So we drilled through the top of the light housing and through the huge existing ground plate and were done.

The final product of the rear light was one of the items I was excited to see. I never understood why the Jurassic Park Jeep designers put the rear fog lights on the Jeep, but I was always enamored by them. Seeing these installed made me a happy man! :)



We cleaned up the interior yesterday in preparation for the soft top and interior install. The soft top install went, ok, but the cold temperatures and kinda subpar parts made for a tough install. We had a 65000 BTU forced air heater going and it definitely helped, but the Rampage top just has a few QC issues. I contacted them and they should be sending new parts soon, but unsurprisingly, it'll be a few d(el)ays.

So not many things left to do. We need to finish the soft top install, wire the overhead lights, wire the winch to the battery, install the interior and do a road test.

"Dr. Alan Grant: You married?
Dr. Ian Malcolm: Occasionally."
 
#86 ·
Disappointment

Hi Everyone

Im sorry about the lack of updates, I hit a rough patch with this project and kinda moved on to other things for a while. The Jeep is basically done with a few things here and there to finish, but I am disappointed.

When I first started this project, I thought it was going to be decently quick and decently cheap to build a JP Jeep. Once I got a little bit into the research I knew it was going to take longer, and cost more than originally thought. But, that was ok. I wanted to build a childhood dream of mine, and was in a good place to do it.

However, the Jeep has not driven right since I purchased it. I thought it was the large tires, 2" shackle lift, bad alignment, etc that was causing such issues. My brother (almost ASE certified, went to school but never finished his senior year to work at the family business) and I checked it out, was amazed at the lack of rust on the body and frame, and was impressed at how well it ran. Well, I was wrong. I was in such a rush to start the project that I didn't follow my own rules when purchasing a car, pre purchase inspection.

So at the beginning of May, after finishing up some exterior work after the winter break, I took it to a local off road shop to have them do a once over and fix my steering problem that was causing me to turn the wheel 45 degrees to the left TO 15 degrees to the right to go straight. Thinking it was a basic fix and in need of a 4 wheel alignment, I left it there and told him to look it over and call me with the total. The guy called and gave me a real shocker, the entire Jeep is basically crap. Having had several owners who replaced parts poorly with bad parts to begin with, the suspension, steering components, joints (u, ball, etc), belly pans, tire rods, etc are all bad and in need of serious work. He went so far as to say the Jeep was not road safe in its current condition. What we didn't see when we looked at the jeep originally, is that all of the problems were covered with rhino-lining. This helped the Jeep not rust, but it also covered all of the issues the shop had seen with a lift and closer (read 1 hour) inspection.

The cost to bring it back up to great condition: $10,000. Way more than I want to spend on it at this time after all of the other cash put into it. I had already been afraid to drive long distances with the previous steering issues and with the shop's long list of *critical* items to fix, I'm kinda to the point where I'm done with the Jeep and this project. It was fun to build it, its been fun to drive it around a few times and see people's reactions, but it has been a PITA since I started this thing. While I do not think the Jeep needs $10k worth of work, I do not feel comfortable driving it thinking it could crash and burn at any minute. And with that said, I'll be selling the Jeep this summer.

I plan on replacing lots of the parts the shop has recommended over the next few weeks. When it is sold, I want to know its in good condition where its safe to drive, while having the standard problems of a 21 year old vehicle. Its disappointing to come this far, with all of the work/money/time/custom fab done to it, to have the base Jeep be in such bad condition. I should have had the Jeep checked out before buying it to know the base was good before the customizations, but I didn't. I'm mad at myself for getting myself into this mess, and as such, been avoiding this form like the plague. I look at the Jeep and it looks amazing, my childhood dream come true. But as soon as I start it up, and pull out of the driveway, I lose the joy and wonder if i'm going to survive the trip. Harsh, yes, and maybe unjustified, but its the truth.

I know many of you have been following along and wanting to see my progress, and I'm sorry I have let you down with a lack of updates for 6 months. Final-ish updates will come this weekend, promise.

Thanks for traveling with me to Isla Nebular.
-Dave
 
#88 ·
Thanks JP4VPI.

I picked up the Jeep and talked to the guy a little more. Apparently when he said $10k worth of work and not road worthy, he was more referring to how they build Jeeps, and roads as in trails. Most of the things wrong are typical Jeep YJ problems, so I'm feeling better.

I had him replace the YJ Steering knuckle, and I'll replace the tirerods, shocks etc. It definitely steers correctly now and it was nice to have someone look at the Jeep to tell me what needs to be fixed. Though it wont be show room new underneath, it'll definitely be serviceable.
 
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