Hey Everyone,

I've got a new Jeep on order, should be here sometime in May. In the interim, I've decided to start planning my build. But first, this is the Jeep I ordered:

• 2016 Wrangler Unlimited Rubicon
• 6 Speed Manual Transmission
• Firecracker Red
• Body Colored Hard Top
• Alpine Speakers
• Connectivity Group
• Front Airbags
• Heated Seats

This will be the second build I've done, my current Jeep is a 2014 JKR which I will be trading in when the JKUR arrives. Next post will include my planned build.

--Rex

Ok, so this post has the planned build. I will be doing all of these mods myself, so I will hopefully have pictures to show the entire process.

Suspension/Wheels/Tires:

• Rock Krawler 2.5" Front/Rear Coils
• Teraflex Tuned Fox 2.0 Shocks
• Crown Extended Brake Lines
• Teraflex Front/Rear HD Monster Trackbars
• Teraflex Rear Trackbar bracket
• Rock Krawler Rear 3-4" Swaybar Links
• Northridge Grade 8 Bolt Kit JK
• Rancho Control Arm Drop Brackets
• Rock Krawler Bump Stops
• Fuel or AEV 17" Wheels (up in the air still)
• Goodyear MTR w/Kevlar 35" Tires

Exterior:

• AEV Heat Reduction Hood
• AEV Tubeless Front Bumper
• AEV Rear Bumper
• AEV Skid Plate
• AEV Winch Mount Plate
• Teraflex HD Tire Carrier
• Teraflex JK HD Hinged Carrier Accessory
• Rotopax 2 Gallon Gasoline Container
• Rotopax LOX Mount
• AEV CHMSL
• Barricade Enhanced Rubi Rails 4 Door
• Quadratec JK 2" towing receiver kit
• Warn Zeon 10-s Platinum Winch
• JW Speaker Evolution J Black Headlights
• JW Speaker 6145 J Series Fog Lights
• JW Speaker 279 J Tail Lights
• AntennaX 9 or 12 inch Antenna
• Mopar Door Sill Protectors
• Mopar Fuel Door
• Mopar Hood Lock
• Poison Spyder Dana 44 Diff COvers
• Mopar Locking Gas Cap
• Rugged Ridge Hood Latches

Interior:

• Sickspeed JK Ol'Skool Shifter Knobs
• Katzkin Custom Leather Seat Covers
• Redline Goods Leather Shift Boot
• Alpine X109-WRA Stereo Receiver w/backup camera and accessories controlers
• Cobra 75 WX ST CB Radio

I've already ordered a few of the parts, more updates soon.

Take your time and shop your options unless money is no object.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N915A using Tapatalk

Yeah I've had good luck with a lot of these parts on my current Jeep, but I usually try to wait and grab things on sale when possible.

So I already started ordering some parts. I factory ordered my Jeep, but it is still in D1 status (gateline, sequenced for production) and still no estimated delivery date. Oh well, probably better to start stockpiling some parts so I have something to do when it gets here.

This week I received a set of JW Speaker 9700 J headlights and 6145 J fog lights. I'm super impressed with how they look and feel. I also ordered some blinkers/side markers from SuperBrightLEDs so all of my lights can be LED. I've got a set of JW Speaker LED taillights coming as well. I also picked up a set of MOPAR door sill protectors, Quadratec's towing receiver and wiring harness (not pictured), Northridge's Grade 8 Bolt Kit (the first of many suspension components I have coming), and a Gentex Homelink bezel mounted garage door opener (which I am planning to put in the windshield header trim). Finally, a set of paracord grab hands from 13cords, which look great and I think will match my color scheme well.

Nice bro! Just picked up the same thing except an automatic trans

Nice! What grill is that?

Sick!

I ordered the angry bird grille off amazon and then got it sprayed with line x. The flat fenders are also getting in line x and will be putting them on Monday after they dry over the weekend.

I just got word that my JKU was built yesterday and it will be delivered this week! It literally went from D1 with no estimated delivery to built and shipped overnight!

sweet!

This weekend I installed some Katzkin custom leather seat covers in my wife's 2016 Tacoma. I was a little hesitant at first to do the install myself, but it turned out to be much easier than I thought. That said, it still took about 8 hours (which I split across multiple days) to do the entire truck. The pic below shows the final product, although I do have a few minor wrinkles that I should be able to relax out with a little bit of steam.

The pic also shows kind of the direction I will go with my JKU. I am still on the fence about using red contrast stitching (my wife's truck is orange and the orange threading is a perfect match). I think Firecracker Red might be a little too bright to get a good match with the thread from Katzkin. There is also another company called Alea that makes these covers, so I may look into them as well.

Got a few more parts in today: Rock Krawler 2.5" front and rear springs, Poison Spyder Bombshell diff covers and Rugged Ridge hood latches. I plan on doing the lift, wheels/tires and brakes at the same time, so that won't be for a few months. But until then I plan on accumulating the various lift components piece by piece as the budget allows until I have everything. I should be picking up the JKU this week or next week (based on the order tracking info), so hopefully I will be able to show some mods installed instead of sitting on my basement floor. More to come.

Interested to see this build. I have a 14 JKU firecracker red. I am about to install the RK 2.5 flex lift this week. Can't wait!

Picked up the JKU on Sunday. First pic shows her after a 7 hour drive home. I didn't have much time to work on it today, but I was able to install a stubby antenna, some paracord grab handles, and the door sill protectors. Mostly small stuff, but I'm taking Friday off to install the replacement sliders, lights, AEV heat reduction hood. I'll also be taking it to get the interior of the hard top Line-X'd at some point.

Also, I ordered some Teraflex sway bar links ($56)... received a 6" long arm lift kit..................... And while I appreciate the upgrade, I don't know what I would do with 6" of lift on a daily driver. I'm contacting Teraflex and the vendor now to see what happened. Maybe by some miracle I won a contest?

Awesome! I almost went with that kit, except I don't need the front sway bar disconnects and I had already ordered Teraflex's front trackbar. Definitely post up a pic or two once you get it installed.

Got a couple more small things done today. First up was the MOPAR fuel door. I didn't like the look of the stainless screws, so I pulled them out and painted them black. Next I installed the JW speaker taillights. Super happy with the quality of these taillights. I was a little worried because I had read that some people were having fitment issues. Mine fit perfectly and look great. I also installed Quadratec's towing kit with wiring harness. It cost me $80 and took 10 minutes to install, which is much easier to swallow than $495 from Jeep for exactly the same thing.

On a side note, has anyone Line-X'd the interior of their hard top? I found a few older posts on here with people who did it, but when I called Line-X today they acted like they had no clue what I wanted to do.

Got a few more things done today. I sprayed the bottom of the Jeep with a rubberized undercoat. I also painted the pinch seam with POR-15 to prevent rust and to hid it a little better, and then installed the Barricade Enhanced Rubi Rails. I also installed my JW Speaker headlights and fog lights. I painted the retention rings for the headlights black so they don't stand out. Overall installation was easy, and I'm really happy with the quality. I also added a MOPAR hood lock and a set of MOPAR slush mats for the front and back seats. I also started taking measurements for my cargo area drawer system (more on that later, once I get a plan together). Finally, I attempted to install LED turn indicators from super bright LEDs. I ignored their warning that the CANBus version of the bulbs might not fit... and it turns out that they do in fact...not fit. Tomorrow I should be picking up my AEV heat reduction hood, so more updates then.

Had the AEV heat reduction hood installed. It looks great and judging by the amount of heat coming out of the vents I would say it is very functional. This is probably the only part which I won't be installing myself, and the only reason I had the shop install is because I couldn't find one prepainted. I've got some replacement Rubicon stickers coming from Pixel Decals which I'll put on myself. Overall very happy with this mod.

Got the Homelink installed. For those of you following the "Homelink Universal Garage Opener Install" thread check your wire colors. For me, the yellow/blue wire was constant on, and the pink wire was controlled by the key in the "On" position.

Project for this week: switch pod and bussmann relay box.

Its been a busy week with the holiday and family in town, but that doesn't mean I haven't accomplished anything on the Jeep. I finished wiring up the switch pod, and it came out great. I haven't been able to complete the Bussmann box though... had to make another order to Waytek to get some things I forgot to buy with my last order

I also applied some Rubicon decals from Pixeldecals since my AEV hood didn't come with them. Lastly, I painted my exhaust black with a high temp primer and paint. I didn't do this on my first Jeep, and after one Ohio winter the exhaust looked like crap. This should help prevent rust, and hide the huge silver can under the Jeep.

I finally have ordered everything for my lift kit. I'll be doing that, wheels/tires and hopefully bumpers by the end of June. I also have a camping trip coming up, going to be testing out the full size air mattress in the back of the Jeep idea. More updates soon.

I just installed a folding tailgate table from Springtail Solutions. I needed a table for my upcoming camping trip as well as something to hold a few molle bags for gear. I had a similar table on my 2014 JK, but this one is much better quality, no drill and does not rattle at all. Springtail also makes some side storage compartments which go over the wheel wells. I'll be picking up a set of those and integrating them into my rear storage drawer solution. Given the limited storage space in the JKU, these are definitely must haves for any Jeep that will be used for overlanding or camping.

Not really a build update, but I just got back from a trip to Acadia National Park and Bar Harbor, Maine. Got to drive across the sand bridge and take some neat photos.

Also, Discount Tire Direct has their annual Independence Day Sale starting up on Monday. I'm going to order my wheels/tires then. Other than that, I have everything for my lift except shocks. I ordered Teraflex's adjustable Fox shocks, which apparently are on a 30 day back order.

Finally, I finished up my Bussmann box installation, I'll post up some pics later today.

This is my second Jeep where I used a Bussmann fuse/relay panel to power aftermarket accessories. On my last Jeep, I installed by bolting it to the floor under the glovebox. This had two issues. First, my passengers would kick the box sometimes and second it was kind of a pain to climb under there to change fuses or add accessories to the wiring harness.

For this Jeep I decided to mount the box under the hood. I have to give a lot of credit to Rogue26 on this forum for the idea. He has a thread where he sells these boxes prebuilt as well as a bracket (https://www.wranglerforum.com/f37/bus...l-1522825.html).

I didn't end up buying my box from him, but I'm an electrical engineer and have experience building power modules such as this. I ended up wiring the four of relays to three of the switches on my Rugged Ridge switch pod, and the fifth switch to an ignition triggered source (gonna run a CB radio off of that and I didn't want to fiddle with a switch for it). Here's how the relay's are triggered:

1. Onboard Air Switch
2. Front Aux Lights Switch
3. Front Aux Lights Switch
4. Backup Lights Switch
5. Ingition ON (for CB)

I wired two relays for front lights off of one switch since 50" light bars use about 30 amps (the limit for one relay) and I still wanted some additional spots/driving lights. The pics show how I mounted the box under the hood on the driver's side. I ended up making a bracket out of aluminum to mount everything. I also have an 80 amp circuit breaker mounted on the passenger side right next to the battery. Overall I'm really happy with this setup, and I think (fingers crossed) the mounting location will leave me enough room to mount an ARB twin air compressor on top of the brake fluid reservoir.

Also, unrelated but I installed a Maximus-3 flashlight mount on the drivers side seat.

Looking really good so far man. Props on the very clean wiring for that switch pod.

I love that firecracker red!

Thanks. I probably spent more time than needed on that project, but I'm happy with the result. Can't wait to get some accessories wired in, but lift and tires are my next big project.

I started to get pretty good at doing clean wiring when I did my headlights, fogs and 3 sets of off road lights. Doing it cleanly takes a really long time!

In preparation for Independence Day, I decided to plasti-dip my grill black and add a mesh gray-scale American flag to dress things up. I also added some black American flag decals to the cowl (not pictured).

I also trimmed the air dam so I can fit larger tires. Which is good because the first of my 315/70R17 Cooper STT Pros on Method Racing Fat Five wheels showed up today. My last Jeep had KMC Rockstar IIs, which ended up being a little too flashy for me so I decided to go with something less crazy. Discount Tire Direct didn't have a full set of five in one warehouse, so this one came to me from Ohio and the others are shipping from Texas and should be here next week. Now if only Teraflex would catch up with their back order of Fox shocks so I can install my lift so these tires will fit.

Been a while, I've been waiting on shocks (5 week backorder for Teraflex tuned Fox adjustable w/remote reservoirs). I should have those sometime this week, so I'm going to start a few small projects so I have everything ready for my lift. Tuesday/Wednesday I will be installing Poison Spyder Bombshell diff covers, extending my diff breather tubes, installing the Teraflex HD tire carrier w/AEV CHMSL, and prepping for my CB radio (Cobra 75 WX ST w/Cooltech install kit). More updates tomorrow.