Thanks man. I am just hoping I get my wheels soon. It's driving me nuts.

 

Nice build man! Wish my tax check looked more like yours! lol. lookin to do about the same thing on mine...lift/tire-wise

 

X2 on that tax check lol

 

Yeah I was pretty happy with my refund this year lol.

 

So I haven't got around to installing my CB yet, but I made some progress today.

I pulled off my front bumper and gave it a fresh coat of paint. It was faded and had some rust and white paint splattered all over it (which is splattered all over my jeep actually lol). I also ditched the bumper guards, mainly because I had to spread the bumper mounts out so I could install my recovery hook brackets and the guards were in the way. Anyways, here is a pic of the bumper (not a perfect job, but way better than it was).

 

Then I mounted the brackets for the hooks.

 

While the paint was drying, I figured I would remove my grill and headlight bezels and install my new ones.

 

Here is a before and after of my new headlight bezels with new clear turn signals and clear bumper lights.

 

And finally my new grill.

 

So I went to install my bumper and the factory bolts for the bumper bracket would not fit! The recovery hook brackets moved the bumper brackets out just far enough to prevent the factory bolts from reaching the nuts. So I had to make a trip to the local hardware store. I needed M10 size with 1.50 thread, but none of the local hardware stores carried that size in class 8 strength. So I had to get class 8.8 to get me by for now. Class 8 strength is 132,000 lbs IIRC, while class 8.8 is 92,000 lbs. I am not sure if that will become a problem when attempting a recovery. If anyone knows if it will, please let me know.

Anyways, here is the front end all cleaned up with new grill, headlight bezels, clear turn signals, clear bumper lights, and recovery hooks.

 

Did you torque the suspension bolts while it was on the stands? I've heard it's a bad idea to do that. Anyway, nice xj!

 

We didn't torque anything until it was on the ground, then took it for a drive, and checked all the bolts again. You definitely want to do that when installing a lift. Then check the torque again after 500 miles.

 

Oh yeah! I almost forgot. I also replaced my rear hatch shocks the other day! It is so nice not having to use a stick to hold up my rear door anymore.

 

Yesterday I called Jegs to check the status of my wheels I ordered. They told me they wouldn't be available until June 17th!!! That is the 3rd time they changed the date on me. When I ordered them at the end of April, they said it would ship the 5th of May, then they changed it to the 15th of May. And now they said June 17th! That was the first and last time I will be using Jegs. So I searched some more online and found some Rugged Ridge wheels that were the same size and back spacing I needed on Ebay and ordered those instead. These come with free center caps too. I cancelled my order with Jegs. The ones I ordered yesterday are already on a UPS truck and I have a tracking number. They should arrive this Thursday. So stoked!

 

I've heard bad things about Jegs taking forever to deliver from a buddy too, glad you found somewhere else to get wheels from.

Rig looks great man, nice work.