Making the best of the virus...

[Frank]

There was one guy that came to FnF with what looked like this size bus . But a full length bus chassis with the Jeep behind it on a deck. Buses are mostly riveted . Maybe took the round back part and moved it forward. Looked cool. FjR68

[MDSRACING398]

Yeah a couple are being built right now in another club. I am not a fan of a dedicated vehicle.

[BlackNBlue-ISH]

Yeah a couple are being built right now in another club. I am not a fan of a dedicated vehicle.

Thats been my thought. I've been thinking for a long time about how I want to do the tow/camp thing. I'm leaning right now to just fitting out the tow rig with more of an "overland" setup that can be installed in a few hours for a camp trip, but removed for daily use. On the otherhand, i want to get a small commercial truck and fit a custom flatbed for parking the jeep on. For now, i'll just keep the jeep street legal and tow it when it makes sense.

[JGav4]

Hey all - I can't wait to see all these builds in person, some good stuff.
I have clicked off a few projects that were on the never ending Jeep list this winter. Installed new Metal Cloak fenders, rockers and skin. Also added a new rear bumper, after much complaining from the tailgate carrying that larger tire around.

See everyone on the trails soon
Be safe and stay healthy
Jim

[RandyCarol]

Oh hey, we still need to seal those fenders up

[Lisah311]

Jim, it looks great!

[Hank]

Hank: Hows the lift install going, done yet?

It is now, just got it back from the alignment.

Did brakes/rotors on all 4 corners, both driveshafts, and the 3.5" Game Changer... if you don't count the parts store runs, and the time spent doing a million other things, probably right around your 24h mark. I really need a garage and a lift.

New exhaust will be here Monday.

[BlackNBlue-ISH]

Hank: Hows the lift install going, done yet?

It is now, just got it back from the alignment.

Did brakes/rotors on all 4 corners, both driveshafts, and the 3.5" Game Changer... if you don't count the parts store runs, and the time spent doing a million other things, probably right around your 24h mark. I really need a garage and a lift.

Nice work!

[WeekendWrangler]

Late to the party but... been very busy keeping myself occupied all this time.


1. New exhaust (easiest mod ever!)
Magnaflow rock crawler series. Sounded loud at first but wife approves so I guess it actually sounds pretty good. I

2. Brakes (again), back to solid rotors, (avoid drilled/slotted), lesson learned. New pads broken in and I can trigger ABS easily now when I stand on the brake. Stops very quickly (a light 2 door).

3. New steering! Metalcloak HD. My old tie rod had a few extra bends in it than when I bought it. Chromoly tie rod and nice adjustable drag link (not the corroded mess I had before).

4. Ball joints! This was a fun learning experience. You want the XL or "Large" ball joint press. Trust me. Teraflex HD greasable upper and lower.

For extra caution I went ahead and replaced the front hubs (106k). They were gross and beginning to rust, and after comparing old and new, I noticed one was likely beginning to fail!

Btw: I want to punch the person who decided the very difficult plactic clip for the ABS cable should be directly behind the shock tower and mere inches from the exhaust. If you have aftermarket inner fenders, well lucky you! Do it from underneath, but I hope you have long arms. I wish I had a lift.

5. New front axle shafts! Yep, I pulled them due to the diff issue (see below) and sure enough, the splines are a wee bit twisted. Not horribly but I know this means "REPLACE". Now I have a decent trail spare 27 spline front set. Replacements are RCV with outer axle seals as well.

Sidenote: Did you know you may likely have dirt or even MUD inside your axle tube? Oil seal on inside, nothing on outside Yeah, eww. Fixed that!

6. New front lower control arms. I'm now at 50% of a gamechanger.

7. Bumper. I liked the barricade I got from the BBQ. The price was right but I didn't feel confident. Also I accidentally changed the studs from SAE to Metric with my impact. They are welded in. Replacement: Metalcloak. Two words: WORTH IT.

8? Finally, the Jeep is back at Off-road Elements right now. I took a look at the front diff only to discover contact wear between the locker and pinion. Spec is for .5mm min clearance which seems scary tight to me. Apparently want enough. I might want to beef upy axle next year, was probably just a little flex that did it. Nothing destroyed, just some surface scrapes.

Offroad Elements is fully warrantying the repair work. They pulled it apart, resurfaced the pinion gear face according to the ARB bulletin and put it all back together for no charge.

Eric is an awesome guy and they are just as busy as always. Can't recommend this place enough, but for me it's just for the very sensitive stuff that can fail catastrophically. (Gears!)

Finally... there will be a winch in that new bumper. I am ready to graduate to big boy trails (F&F!), Just GREENS for now

I'm obviously very eager to get back out there and take my skills to the next level this year but new baby says otherwise (and I'm good with that). I'm thinking by mid-July I should be able to get away for a full day.

Keep on wrenching!

If anyone wants to come by Norwood to work on Jeep stuff, I have the space both inside and driveway to accommodate and I'd love to help with other's projects. I just can't travel too far right now. (Have tools, can't travel, lol)

[WeekendWrangler]

(Photo: at one point midway through repairs, looks like a Jeep skeleton)

Oh! Also I got all the skids, pulled, sanded primed and painted. Dropped the gas tank and hit every single pocket of rust anywhere I could reach and hit it with corroseal, black enamel, then the whole frame got a nice coating of fluid film. (I want hand this one down to my son some day, if he wants it)

Bring it on!

[Hank]

1. New exhaust (easiest mod ever!)
Magnaflow rock crawler series. Sounded loud at first but wife approves so I guess it actually sounds pretty good. I

2. Brakes (again), back to solid rotors, (avoid drilled/slotted), lesson learned. New pads broken in and I can trigger ABS easily now when I stand on the brake. Stops very quickly (a light 2 door).

I also did an exhaust on Hammerhand. Went with the Woods exhaust from Dominion. Love it. A little throatier when you're on it, but basically as quiet as stock the rest of the time. Got the muffler tucked up where the evap canister was now, and the tailpipe should be a lot safer up over the swaybar than it was. I guess time will tell.

As for brakes: Nothing we do should warrant drilled/slotted rotors. That's just begging for cracks. What did you go with for pads? I always had luck with EBC's in all my racecars, so I pulled their Extra Duty truck/SUV pads for this job, stop nice, feel solid. No fade on the last class VI run, which was nice. We'll see how the hold up. I also spent a couple extra dollars and installed speedbleeders on all 4 calipers (another thing I always had on the toys) and fully flushed the system.

Sounds like Metro West has been pretty busy on the Jeeps.

[WeekendWrangler]

Powerstop seem to work great for me. Ceramic metal whatever?