UPS man made a visit today!!! Install is happening Friday.

Also decided to carve a pumpkin this year to help pass the time until installation begins. Not my best work but it'll do.

Took a couple days to get the Stiffeners in due to some other plans, but, they're in! Had to do a little modifying (read grinding) to make the transfer case cross-member bolts fit back in, but for the most part they fit nice and snug.
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The muffler I got from the junk yard a few years back also decided to give up the ghost and every time I would use the throttle it would rattle like crazy, so it definitely needed to be fixed. Thankfully Virginia doesn't require a muffler so the fix came by way of $11 in exhaust pipe and an adapter piece.

Took part in a parade at the oceanfront in honor of our nations veterans with the Jeep club including Red82.

The Virginia Beach Christmas Parade is less than a month away and once again HRJC is in it. So, decorations for the XJ started being made. First up, two 8' candy canes that will go on either side at the b-pillar. Carpet tube, a saw, and some tape make it easy.

Hey how does that straight pipe sound? Is it too loud? Does it drone? I love the sound of a 4.0 with out the muffler but I don't know if it'll be too loud.

It's actually has less of a drone now than it did with the muffler. The sound is nice and throaty, but not as loud as a flowmaster 40 series. I had to add a little rtv gasket maker to the last hanger clamp so it wouldn't rattle against the gas tank skid, but other than it's perfect.

Wow. Well thanks!

And for the 3rd year now, Red82 and myself (along with some others from our Jeep club) were part of Virginia Beach's Christmas Parade. This one nearly got cancelled due to weather, but thankfully we got an opening in the gloom and rain the day of and the Parade Committee said it was still a go.

Awesome! Y'alls jeeps look great in lights. I could have done it with my club this year, but I didn't hardly have any timeoff work to prep it, and I didn't get the parade off either.

So there hasn't been anything new on The Jeep in a while (except for new wiper blades, an oil change, and greasing the zerks on the front end) mainly because I am trying to save up for a cage (gun purchases keep bringing my "savings" to nothing). But, I need some help on a decision that I am completely on the fence with. I am 50/50 on whether to do a full interior cage, or to do a hybrid (blend of an interior/exo).

For a full interior I'm looking at something similar to this, but with the rear section extended back to include a D-hoop.


For the hybrid I'm looking at a design similar to this. The roof pattern would be a little different, and I would have hoop "legs" at the B, C, and D pillars, but the main idea of coming up through the fender, then blending into the interior legs through the roof. The main issue would be figuring out how to run the cage along the snorkel, or if I would have to ditch the ARB for a cowl snorkel.


I like both of these, so let's hear your vote, and please let it not be just about the looks. The Jeep isn't a mall crawler, so I need to know which of these is the better design for wheeling. And yes, either design will be ties into the unibody stiffeners.

hybrid (the blend between exo and full interior) looks the best protects the most essential pieces and looks awesome

Yeah, the one downside is losing the ARB snorkel if I can't figure out a good way to work around it. that would be a tough loss for me to be honest.

Well... I guess my question would be what is your reasoning for not wanting full exo? That would protect everything the best... especially if you're going to be wheeling it around rocks.

Honestly it's all due to the looks. Just never been a fan. The cage is obviously for protection, but it's also necessary for some future mods I plan on doing that involve some serious body modifications, one being a retractable roof (which is heavily effected by an exo). I could still do it with an exo, but it's be a lot harder to use.