So I went and did something I never thought I'd do, I bought a Jeep.
Found a 04 LJ at daveys jeeps in Ohio. Of course it's a salvage title, but that doesn't bother me. Had front end damage. Grille, fenders, hood, radiator. Other then that it is pretty clean and interior is spotless. Higher miles at 200k, but runs out good.
I decided on a Jeep because I wanted the convertible type rig that was 4x4. And an eb in similar condition would be three times the cost. Not a lot of other options. I felt I was putting to many miles dd'ing my f350 so I would pick something up for spring/summer/fall. Build process by Cheapthrillb2, on Flickr
Brought it to work to get the initial repairs done. Had a retired police officer come out and do the salvage title inspection. Did no work on it, passed as it was when purchased. During down time at work I worked on the front end.
Got a good hood from @Tacker from "the other grey lj" :sonicjay: and picked up some sinister motorsports fenders to replace the damaged ones. Build process by Cheapthrillb2, on Flickr
Fit with no lift, stock. Had to remove bumper otherwise tires would rub turning. And on tighter turns it hit the sway bar, but good enough to still drive. I drove it like this for a couple weeks. On bigger bumps the rear inner plastic fender would rub the tires just a little. The 35s and 3.73s leave a bit to be desired but haven't been to terrible.
Top looks real nice and I really like the lines and lack of hardware. But man its a pita to zip up the windows. Super tight being bowlers etc. Build process by Cheapthrillb2, on Flickr
My wife really enjoys tooling around in this thing with the doors and windows off. Seeing her enjoying is rewarding enough. As long as I get to drive it now and then lol.
Took it wheelering for the first time at some private property for a local clubs charity event.
Did pretty well, like traveling back in time, forgot how much open diffs suck :sonicjay:
Also weird having to pay attention to the back half of the rig as to not damage it by rubbing into things lol. With the buggy I don't pay attention and rub against everything when turning around obstacles.
Of course some careful stacking had to take place..
There won't be nearly as much fab work getting done on this, I've done plenty of that with the buggy and ongoing with the galaxie. A lot of what I'll do here is bolt on stuff.
Ordered a rear bumper / tire carrier from black box fabrication @xj4life. Should see that in the next couple weeks.
Also I plan to order front and rear 4.88s with front and rear zip lockers.
Simple and Very nice. I like it. The front bumper is very nice. Much of the same plans I have for the wife's TJ. It's even silver too.:beer:
As far as the 3" Zone lift, that is just coils and shocks, with factory control arms correct? That is one of the lifts I'm considering. Actually thought about just snagging the 4.25" combo kit, but I'm unsure about the quality of the 1.25" body lift. Any particular reason why you didn't use the Zone body lift?
My kit was coils, shocks, 4 sway links, rear Trac bar bracket, bump stop extensions.
I tried to get them to sell me the 4" kit bug with the 3" coils and they wouldn't. But they would up grade the 3" kit with the control arms for more $ then the 4" kit cost
That's the kit I was looking at too, pretty much everything except control arms. Which is fine honestly, because I'd rather get arms with Johnny Joints later on. I don't quite understand why they wouldn't have just switched the coils out for you.
I need to get rolling on mine soon.
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