Loving the new look bro, your jeep looks sick with its new ride height, flares and all its new upgrades, i gotta do the same thing with mine!

 

lookin good, lookin good!

you should flip that bar with the tow ball on it so it lower the ball a couple of inch... better angle makes for a better tow!

 

Yeah I think satin black was the way to go. I'm happy with the way it turned out. Still looks nice and refreshed but doesn't have that cheap, greasy Armor All finish you sometimes get with gloss black.

Funny thing is that me and my friend both need to use a car dolly over the next couple days so we searched high and low to buy a used one. We figured, at $50/day we might as well just own one and never have to rent it again. But we haven't found a decent one in the area yet, we'll keep looking. They are useful though!

Thanks dude. It's a sickness, once you START modifying..........

I wasn't actually towing a vehicle that day, just transporting the car dolly from the rental facility out to my buddies house. I will keep your advice in mind though when I go to tow a vehicle/trailer in the future. Good looking out!

 

bad ***

 

Went ahead and installed a RC steering stabilizer. Probably wasn't necessary, but I was in the modifying/upgrading mood.

Remove cotter pin and castle nut...


I used a hammer to whack out the bolt...


Remove the bolt and nut from the axle mounting...


Make fun of your old, tiny and very rusty stabilizer...


Reinstall the aftermarket unit with the supplied hardware and take her for a test spin...




Pictures aren't great, camera was acting up. The shutter on the lens hasn't been opening fully.... you get the idea though.

I'm actually impressed with the difference the stabilizer made though, the wheel doesn't jostle around quite as much, feels more steady. Not a bad upgrade for $28.

 

Thanks for the laptop wallpaper

Pretty much everything you're doing to your jeep I'm doing to mine next summer(Saving up the cash). What's the spec on your wheels? Do they stick out of the fenders? My province has a stupid law on that.

 

is your steering tighter? cause mine is loose and constantly requiring corrects..... and i was thinking of the stabilizer

 

They stick out a little bit, I'd say about 2''. It's not really that noticeable if the fender flares are on. I have 15x8 Cragar Soft 8's with 4.5'' of backspacing. The tires are 32x11.50.

Stabilizer definitely tightened up the steering, it was a worthwhile upgrade for me.

 

Just a quick question regarding the painting of the fenders/bumper end caps... did you give the paint (Satin) a shot of clear coat over the colour... as I noticed the pic of the clear coat spray can... hard to see in the pics but is the satin paint a solid colour or metalic based... am doing the same on mine and I totally agree with the satin look over the full gloss look....

thanks

 

Rig looks good man!

 

Sick Jeep man! Read the entire build, good stuff. Removing those swaybar end links are hell.. I should of read your page before not only failing on taking mine off, but breaking a torx bit. Now armed with a pitman arm pulley, I'm read to put those disconnects on.

But once again, awesome build thread!

 

The can I think you're talking about is not actually a "clear coat" but a clear primer.... I sprayed it on before the satin black to help prepare the surface for painting.

The satin black is a solid color, there is no metallic flake in it. I'm sure you'll be happy with the way it turns out, it really renews the look of the trim pieces without over glossing them.

Thank you sir

Thanks bud. Yeah, I'm not exactly sure why they even designed those splined bolts with a torx head.... it kind of gives the false impression that they can be unscrewed when in reality they have to be pressed out. Good luck with the intall!

 

Thanks for the reply, re my paint question... yep, will be doing this sometime this week....

cheers bud !

 

Been a while since I posted, just wanted to let you guys know that I haven't been slacking. In fact, I've been shopping. Ordered up a set of 4.56's from Rusty's Offroad I went with one of the Gear Combos he has available, that includes the ring and pinion for both axles and both corresponding installation kits for $430.

Just want to get my engine back into it's power band. I've really noticed a difference in the performance since the new wheels and tires, feels sluggish on the highway especially. And even though the XJ isn't my "daily driver", it is driven almost daily.... if that makes sense In fact, I recently drove it home to Ohio ~ 4.5hrs.

Anyway, the gears are on their way as well as a new low-ratio carrier for the Dana 30 up front. Even though I consider myself a big do-it-yourselfer, I'm gonna leave the ring and pinion install to the professionals so I'll likely have Jeeperz Creeperz ( http://www.jeeperz-creeperz.com/ ) here in southeast Michigan do the work.

Also did a little wheelin on my way home from work... heard about a little spot near where I live and decided to check it out. Didn't bring the camera, so phone pics will have to do. I was by myself, so I didn't get into anything aggressive and I left my antisway bar connected so there isn't a lot of great flex. Turned out to be a very cool local area to do some wheelin though...

Getting back there was kind of tough, had to squeeze around some trees. Looks like the normal route is to take the ruts, but they looked a little to difficult with no backup to help me in case I got stuck.





I made it though, onto the next obstacle...

You full width boys might not have fit back here


















I decided to pass on this path...

 

Couple shots of the area




I see a LITTLE bit of flex there


Thought hard about this one, but no.




On my way out I passed some of our fallen brethren: