Well I ended up swapping out back to my old shocks, the others were just too long. I am praying that IRO will do some kind of swap with me on a shorter shock since I was steered in the direction of these shocks by the tech support.

Here are the "new" shocks mounted.



Here are some comparisons with my old shocks







....and here is the Jeep completely flexed out on the old shocks with the shocks limiting drop. Coil unseated approximately 2 inches.



For reference here is the longer "new" shocks. Bottomed out on the driver side, definitely not fully dropped though. Coil unseated approximately 4".





Also went to a local guy's property who has been building some trails. I ended up going through the rock garden which was pretty sweet...Jeep performed amazingly.

Here are some pictures of the garden.

Start, what you don't see is that he is high centered on a big round telephone pole footing. It is pretty tight getting into the garden between the trees.



Always looks less aggressive in pictures...





Here are some pictures of my Jeep going through it, already about 2/3s of the way through. I should have more pictures when my friend uploads them.

 

Few more from the beginning of the "garden"

 

Last batch I just got from a friend.

 

Really starting to think about doing some bed lining. Specifically the rocker panels and inside the door jambs.

What kind of preparation is required before bed lining? I have some light surface rust here and there on the pinch seams on the bottom of the rock panels, is that something I can safely just bed line over and kill the rust?

 

Also not necessarily a Jeep up date but I thought I would post a new photo of my garage queen. We used a rig set up and it turned out awesome.

 

Awesome pic of the STI man. I love thos cars! I just did bedliner on mine 2 weeks ago and i just hit the rust with a wire wheel good and then scuffed up with sand paper.

 

I don't even think a wire wheel would be necessary, it is very light surface rust. Sand paper would likely take it off. I just didn't know if it was necessary to sand it before I bed line it.

Which bed liner did you use?

 

I can't remember what kind it was off the top of my head. I got it at napa i know. I would sand it if i was you it will help it stick better.

 

Alright I will go check it out and do some more research, not sure what I want to do just yet.

 

Are those the Dostech Shocks, from IRO?

 

Yeah I bought them but they are too long, so I put my Rusty's shocks back on. I am going to just ride around on the Rusty's and send the DT shocks back to IRO and order a new double shear tracbar.

 

my whole xj is roll on bed liner it doesn't look bad considering i used a piant roller not one for the bed liner material

 

That is one sweeeeet looking rig you have there nice build.

 

haha my shocks made my coils fall out too.. i had the shocks for a 9" lift on 5" and it hit the bumpstop on bumps..still to long now on 7" but the coil is literally a pube from falling out now. im going to 8.5" once i get a DD so they will be perfect then

 

How long has it been on? How did you prep the paint?

Thanks, always things left to do though.

8.5"?!?! What size tire are you wanting to run? Are you replacing the coil + spacer to get up to that height? You going to sell the coils that are on there now?