joecotter47

Alright, I recently bought this jeep, about a month ago, and so far it seems to be what I'd hoped for. This is my third vehicle, and my second Jeep, so I figured third time's the charm, right? Anyway, here are a couple of pictures of it when I bout it and drove it to my Dad's place.



We shopped around for a full day after a few months of research, and this one did have the highest miles (182k), though it was the one that drove the best, felt the best, and was exceptionally clean. It has all the bells and whistles I wanted, power windows, locks, mirrors, seats, and it even came with one of these.


Anyway, I brought it home, then took it wheeling for the first time, thought it would be a good time for a few poser shots.



Then I went ahead and gave it some new shoes, Big O All Terrains 235/75/R15.


My friend had an extra 4' CB whip that he didn't need, so I took it off his hands and used what I had to get it mounted. The cable for it is currently on it's way in the mail.






It started shifting a little bit harder, and as we all know, the transmission is not a good thing to go bad on you, so we replaced the filter and gaskets, and put some ATF cleaner in there. It really helped, and she shifts smooth as butter now. Really a simple project, 14 bolts and 3 T-25 screws and it was a done deal. Anyway, after a good wash and tire shine, this is about how it sits today.


Plans for the future are:
1: Rock rails
2: Lift Probably about 3"
3: Tires
4: Rack

joecotter47

Quick update: I've not done much work on the jeep. Not much time on my hands, and I have to dump some money into my KTM to get it fixed, and hopefully street legal. Anyway, what I have done is I installed a temporary subwoofer, a Kicker Comp 12" in a ported box tuned to 32 hertz, running off a Boss CX150. I still need to carpet the box, but this is where I'm at currently with it:


I also installed a pair of Hella 500ff offroad lights:






Also Getting a little patriotic for the 4th of July right around the corner :



That's about all for now. Still on the lookout for some rockrails. I don't have the Fab skills to make them myself so i'm trying to find a good set for under $300 shipped. If you know of any good options, help would be greatly appreciated.

joecotter47

Quick update here: My dad, who has been an avid jeep lover for a very long time, owning countless jeeps (30+), just bought himself a ZJ! He found a '93 laredo for $500, and will be joining me in the build. I don't have any pictures of it when he bought it, but it has around 150k miles, and the interior is halfway bedlined. He got a half gallon of bedliner with the jeep so he decided to just do the whole thing. I'll Get some more pictures when I see him again.

This is after one coat, and there is still work to do yet, but it's looking pretty sweet.

Some poser shots I recently got of my jeep:





Anyway, for the silver bullet's progress. Nothing has been done as of now, though I just ordered this lift:


These tires:


A set of OE style headlights, and a 1295NA Bulb to replace my burnt out front passenger turn signal. Also, we found a killer deal, rockrails bedlined and installed for $280 each, so that will be the next step. That's all for now. Stay tuned for this now double ZJ build thread!

joecotter47

Bad news, my jeep won't start. I'm thinking it's the cps. This weekend i'll be getting together with my dad and diagnosing, and hopefully fixing, the issue. I got some more pics of my dads ZJ, and I just installed my old HU in his, so here are some more pics:





Group pictures. Like Father, like son.



and the new HU:


Well, that's all for now. Hopefully my jeep will be a simple fix, but we'll see.

joecotter47

Got the Jeep back up and running. The CPS was a Pain in the *** to replace, but you gotta do what you gotta do. I also installed the new headlights and a 2" BB with the help of my dad. New tires will be coming soon.

Before:



During:




After:



It feels nice to finally have my first lifted vehicle. Now time for some rockrails......

ExTrEmExJ99

Man I thought I liked bedliner lol..... Anyway great start to a nice zj!

joecotter47

Thanks for the reply, glad someone is paying a bit of attention!

Anyway, I took the jeep out wheeling some with my dad and got some pics:






Also Came across this random truck that was wayyy stuck and ditched. Plates were gone, and it had a bag of chips unopened in the bed with a 2004 expiration date on it. So I thought I'd salvage a few bits from it. scored this lookout mirror off of it, though it is a bit big. I'll keep it on and see if I like it or not.





Also, Plans have changed a Bit. I decided to go with the 31x10.5x15 treadwright BFG A/T look-alikes. Should be interesting to see how those work. Plans for the future at this point are gonna be sound system and lights as winter is coming soon and the need for rock rails is dwindling. The plan is LEDs on the A Pillars, and LEDs inside of the rear bumper for reverse lights (Has anyone done this? I haven't seen it yet and am really curious). For those of you interested in sound systems, I'll be running an SQ HDC3 12 on a SQ 1200.1D Pushing around 1300 watts RMS. I'll be building a custom box tuned to 32HZ. Thats all for now.

joecotter47

Slight change of plans, the tires I was going to get were sold out, and with winter just around the corner, I'm going to stick with my Big O A/Ts for one more season. I'll be purchasing another new one to go with my recently purchased one. Plans for the next couple of weeks are lights, sound system, and maybe a splash of bedliner.

joecotter47

Progress has slowed to a grinding hault, as school has begun, and random things keep breaking (it's a Jeep thing, right?). Anyway, my front right wheel bearing went out on me, so might as well replace the whole front right axle and cv assembly.
Out with the old...



In with the new...




Also have to do the O2 sensors.. I got some paint for the plastic trim, so soon that will be taken care of, as for now though, here are some more random pics of wheeling and so fourth:

Look outside at work to see this :


Just a tad muddy:


The trail ahead was blocked by a tree, the only way out was to turn around, sketchy situations:


Flexing:


Flying the flag for 9/11 remembrance:


Plans for before it snows are: get the o2 sensors fixed, paint the trim, probably upgrade to SQ audio, possibly some new lights, maybe some random fun stuff? Dunno - any suggestions for random mods would be appreciated.

joecotter47

Well, I'd say it's about time for an update here. Since my last post, I've done a decent amount of work and had some fun in the Jeep. First, I decided to do the "Angry Eyes" mod. I just did it with some electrical tape to see if I like it, I'll probably re-do it with paint sometime in the near future.



Then I took it wheeling on some logging roads with a buddy of mine.




Got it home, washed it off, noticed it was a beautiful day, so I decided to start painting.



Got the side cladding done, then took it on a camping trip. Here's a beautiful sunrise from the lower crystal lake.



Decided to keep the bumpers off to see how it looks, played around with the hellas a bit. I think I'll keep the front one off, and fabricate myself a cosmetic cover.

joecotter47

Then I took it wheeling some more.





And ended up getting pretty stuck...... (left it for the night, went to rescue it the next day after school.)



Standing on the road...




Looking at my friend's truck from the jeep...



Getting winched out with my little 2000lb come-along (handy little thing)




And right as it was almost out... This happened...



And it got a bit caught on the front diff...



And we finally got it out and I got the tire re-mounted and balanced and the hole patched.

Then today, I painted the rear bumper cover and got it re-mounted and also got my CF decals applied. Thanks Cball917!



and that is prettymuch up to date, gotta mock up some designs for the front bumper and see what I can get done before winter hits.

clockwise

Nice build man... been watching as the updates come in. ZJ love.

joecotter47

Bumper or no bumper?

joecotter47

Got a Little bored, so I decided to buy some cheap walmart lights for the rack. Also did some wheelin'.


Think the lights turned out pretty good. Eventually gonna get some hellas up there.
My buddy with a stock WJ tagged along:




I have a shop with a welder to work in finally, so I'll have some fabracation going on soon, after I get done with school in december.

Soon to come: IRO 3.5" lift 31" duratracs, adj upper arms, sway discos. We'll see how the money flow goes though.

The goal:

joecotter47

It's Been a while since I've posted to this thread, so i figured it might be time for an update! We got plenty of snow this winter, here is just a taste of the many big storms.
We got over 36" in 48 hours in mid-winter during that storm.
My steering problems have been continuing, and it's starting to get annoying. I replaced all tierod ends, got a new steering stabilizer, replaced the ball joints, and finally got new tires, though the steering is still amiss. I'll be replacing the steering gear once the funds become available, but as of now, I'm dealing with it.
I got some new rack lights, got a hi-lift and mounted it, and got some new reinforced brackets for my hellas.


Here's what she looked like when i got her back home with the new shoes, 31X10.50r15 Goodyear Wrangler Authorities.