project "Silver Surfer" back finally
 

Its official! I finally have started on my DD 04 grand SE!

when I bought it, it came with a RC 3" lift already installed and 265 65R16 Nittos on KMC XD series wheels. I like the way it sits so I'm leaving it there.

Let me start off by saying this Jeep is a mall crawler that occasionally sees some wet grass occasionally lol. Say what you want. IDC. My Jeep=My Rules

this is what she looked like when i got her

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this is after I replaced the headlights which were, as you can see, were due for replacement. picked them up off of ebay for about 150. came with bulbs and all
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Can't really tell lol. this is what they looked like
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I knew i wanted to replace the brakes. Not just the pads either, everything. I went to pep boys and bought 4 rotors, 2 front calipers(I thought I could get away with just doing the fronts. I was sadly mistaken and I'll elaborate later.) and pads

jacked up all 4 corners. during the removal of the locking lugs, I broke my key. OF COURSE! I already had 2 tires off and I couldnt even put them back on. I went back to pep boys and got a new key($5) that was impact rated so I could finish the job that I was only 30 minutes into LOL. you can see my pretty new rotors
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I was planning on painting the calipers anyway so I got a can of caliper paint while I was getting a new key and Brakleen. you can guess the color. BLAAAACK because black is MAAAAAD:thumbup:

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after getting the fronts on I put the original rears back on. when i went to bleed the brakes, both of the rear valves were stuck closed! I should've known after 171k miles. my own fault. I ended up running into the corner of my house with no brakes. it was either the corner with the siding or the garage door. lesser of two evils there. needless to say I was leaving my Jeep out there overnight

the next day I was at it early since I had to work at 11am. went to pep boys to get the rear calipers and pads. They had the calipers on the shelves but not the pads? That's strange. So I had to wait til 1pm to get pads. wrong pads came. Now I was waiting til 3pm. (didn't make it to work)

finally I had everything I needed to get this sum***** put back together.

old vs. new
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Build tip: USE BRAKLEEN FIRST! I found out the hard way lol

Finally, I had everything back together again and everything felt right.
my buddy convinced me to paint the grille black because black is MAAAD. He wanted to do flat black, but I knew it would look terrible so i went with gloss and clear. i think it looks great
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That's pretty much it for now. this weekend(4-18,19) I'll be getting into the worn out and busted tie rod and drag link ends to try to cure my steering. I hope you guys like it so far!

im not usually a fan of wj's, but yours looks nice! keep up the good work!:thumbup:

Looking good sir

thanks guys! hopefully I'll be able to keep this one for more than a year lol. its by far the nicest I've owned and there's much more to come, so stay tuned.

Said it before, I'll say it again.... LOVE lifted WJ's... Looking good.

update
 

I have a few updates that I'm doing/have done this weekend!

First things first, tie rod ends. With 171k miles on the originals, I thought it was time for replacement. Plus I had terrible death wobble and bump steer. Car-X wanted $1200 to do the job! I laughed and walked out. The parts were less than $100 from Pep Boys with a $10 coupon and my military discount so I dove right in!

First thing was to jack up the Jeep. I recommend jacking it up anytime you work on it. Taking the tires off makes it a lot easier most of the time. Undoing the cottar pins and knocking the ends loose was the easy part. The hard part was unscrewing the ends from the rods. I thought about it and soon figured a solution. If I put one side back on at a time, I could break each end loose so I could remove them. Even doing this it wasn’t easy at all. I still had to but my back into it, lol.


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<a href="http://s1215.photobucket.com/user/xPlover24x/media/IMG467.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1215.photobucket.com/albums/cc504/xPlover24x/IMG467.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo IMG467.jpg"/></a>


I had the Vice grip on so tight I couldn't get it off. I had to use another vice grip on it to loosen it.
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Don't forget to count the threads showing before you start removing! Also don't forget the C-clips on the crush sleeves! makes the alignment a lot cheaper and faster


Halfway done after about an hour. Not too shabby. Yes, that's the original stabilizer! It's even got the Chrysler five point logo on it!. wow.
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these are the old ones
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after about another hour, I had the new ones fitted and tightened. I didn't bother painting that day because I had a feeling they were gonna get chewed up when the alignment was done. I was right! thanks Pep Boys service! now I have to grind them!
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after 30 minutes of grinding with a flappy disc, I had them all shaped up and ready for primer/paint! guess what color
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MAAAAADDDDD


Took about 3 minutes flat to tie them back in and get new cottar pins


took it for a drive, and guess what!


I cured DEATH WOBBLE. :thumbup:


my jeep got :pwned:




anyway, that's it for this weekend. It was a very successful weekend if I do say so myself!