Project Stormtrooper (built from the ground up)
 

Hello all im new to the forum but have been following for along time and wanted to share my build. It started its life as a bone stock 2wd classic that a buddy of mine bought (don't have pics when he first bought it unfortunately) He rebuilt the top end of the motor and then decided to sell because he did not want to swap it. I swooped in and bought it on somewhat of an impulse because i was fresh outta highschool with a good paying job and wanted a new toy.(If only i kn
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ew what i was getting myself into.
this is exactly what it looked like the day i purchased it (he was nice enough to leave the mud for me)

The build was very slow in the beginning just did light stuff like new headlights got window tint that was how it started.
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just bought the cheap rampage kit works well and was cheap enough.

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also painted the lower rear quarters and rocker panels the tint is a great touch at keeping the Cali sun out

Did a coolant flush along with normal maintenance had to put a new oil pan in because old one was bent up and warped. Also bought a nice steering wheel and quick release combo because it didnt have an alarm yet and i loved the steering wheel setup.
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i still use the quick release but have a new steering wheel itself

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coolant was terrible looking but much better now

Then i began contemplating the 4wd swap. My uncle said i should just stay 2wd because i wasn't doing crazy trails. So i kept that mentality for awhile and decided to throw a set of 31'' BFG KO2s on the stock ride height with a 2 inch coil spacer upfront.
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i fell beyond in love with it at this point it was perfect at the time for me.

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Went out with the buddy i bought it from with his new jeep and slowly began to realize it needed a lift because i chewed up the front fenders terribly.

After that i decided i wanted the 4x4 swap. I had a hard time finding places that had parts i needed (my local junkyards suck). So i found a shop by the name of Inland Jeep that specialized in Cherokees. I went down to their shop one day to see what the guy thought of the swap and on an impulse buy i purchased a used automatic(got really lucky and came out of a 98' like mine)minus a torque converter and an NP231 t-case now it was time to see what i was gonna do with this Jeep.
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I brought them home the same day in the back of my daily driver and they sat for some time while i collected parts.

Lets see, 4wd conversion, newer body style, white, local so cal, I cant say there isnt anything I dont like. Post more pictures!

Once i got a hold of the transmission and t-case i was originally going to have the whole trans rebuilt but plans changed and i ended up planning the swap for early November of 2016. So finding the parts meant the race was on
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I scored a low pinion dana 30 for dirt cheap because it was what Inland Jeep had at the time and im not building a rock crawler (I plan to do 44s front and rear later down the road) but this will work for now

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Had the axle steam cleaned and threw a fresh coat of paint on it and just about looked brand new

Then came the good stuff :icon_biggrin: I was going to just do an RC 3 inch x series lift because it was cheap and simple but the Sean at Inland Jeep sold me on the 4.5 inch x series which came with everything including brake lines, sway bar disconnects, full rear leaf pack, and the adjustable front short arms (think i'm going to go long arm eventually) It was way cheaper ordering it through them and came in a record 2 days to my house.
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I was like a kid on Christmas when the Fedex guy dropped it off it was becoming way more real at this point

Now came time for driveshafts. I wanted to order a custom set front and rear but couldn't get them made in time for the swap. So again went to Sean and he hooked me up with a stock front driveshaft and being that i was doing an SYE i learned of the front driveshaft working in the rear he happened to have a beefier built driveshaft i could use in the rear and all it needed was a new u joint which knocked the price down alittle now i had most of the parts i needed.
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The driveshafts the day i got them they cleaned up very well

Now I was about a week away from the swap i got very lucky and we have a lift in our shop which made this swap very easy. I decided to rip the entire front end apart on my own one day. I got lucky and everything came loose easily and no broken bolts (for the record i didnt use pb blaster on the front at all got lucky to have a rust free Jeep). It came apart with breaker bars and impact guns really easily
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Front end came apart with ease (did loose two damn sockets int the frame rail when trying to loosen upper arm bolts)

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I proceeded to lay everything out for the swap right next to the jeep and labeled all the boxes for easy installation.

It was now time to put all the new goodies on.
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Last time it will ever look like this

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This was putting the axle in its new home with all its shiny new parts.(Wasn't shiny for long)

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Front was mostly done in this picture. Didn't get any pictures of the rear unfortunately my Dad and Uncle were in the rear while I put the front together

We had planned to complete this swap over a weekend. We did the complete lift in one day then the trans and t-case swap the next day. First day went smoothed and only took about half a day to finish it. This was the first ever lift kit my uncle had done and mine as well my dad had done a few leaf sprig toyotas back in the day so Jeeps were new to him (I will admit i gave him the Jeep itch as well)
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This was the first time we rolled it out after the lift kit was done. I literally was beyond happy with it

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The next day the trans came out in order to get the new one on

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The new trans in it's home then came time to do the SYE when we discovered the chain in the tranfer case had to much slack in it and needed to replace. Couldn't find one on short notice so until next week

Now onto next weekend. The chain was do in that saturday so we had time to kill and i had a bad heater core in it when i bought it so now was time to replace it. Only took about 4 hours to do it with 2 guys (had to ghetto drain the ac as well)
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Now was point of no return

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Now the HVAC box was back together and ready to reassemble

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It really did need replacing

Now that it was running i still had alot to do. Had to find new bolts for the front driveshaft, change both diff fluids, trans fluid and get the 4wd to work. (unfortunately my Uncle didn't realize when he put the case togehter it was in $ high and when we connected the linkage we spent a whole night trying to find the problem. One part i really like is the boostwerks engineering t-case linkage i didn't want to spend money on the novak kit and couldn't find stock linkage. Still love the price of the linkage and it works great.
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This was its maiden voyage before we found the 4wd issue damn it felt good to drive it

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I know it's a simple piece but it works so well for cheaper than everthing else out there (as you can see well abused)

After getting all the loose ends tied up and Black friday weekend i wanted to get it aligned and have it dialed in. Also ended up sellin the 31s and stepped up to 33s
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for being an eyeball alignment it came out very well surprisingly

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This was right after i had the 33s mounted and in my head it was perfect (Or so i thought)