all i can say is....WOW!

The rig looks amazing. nice job!

 

That's good to hear. I'm planning on getting aussies front and rear for my 84.

 

Yeah, for the price, they are almost a no brainier. Installation was especially easy in the Chrysler 8.25.

 

Very nice Tim. The nose and fenders turned out nicely. Are those wheels pretty light?

 

Still gotta do the fender flares. They're just sitting in the garage. I'll get to them. And I'm not sure about the weight of the rims. I can only assume they are lighter than the typical steal soft 8s.

 

I was thinking they were pretty invisble or some sort of low profile flair. Actually I have no idea what I was thinking. Just one of my many dumb moments.

My steel wheels and Toyos weigh a ton for 33" tires. Would like something a little lighter so the dirveline could have a easier time turning the wheels both on and off the highway.

 

I don't know if I can even tell a difference in the ease of driving between this set up and my 32s and rubi wheels. I do know Toyos are about the heaviest tires out there. I planned on just getting some steal soft 8s initially, but the more I looked into it, the more I found how people complained about their weight.

The tires I had narrowed down to Goodyear MTRs and these Baja MTZs. All the reviews I could find of the two put the tires neck and neck as far as performance and longevity. So I decided I'd be happy with either tire, but would go with the best price I could find for a wheel+tire combo mounted, balanced and shipped. Jegs on line price was by far the best I was able to find.

 

I have Goodyear MTRs in my sights when my Toyos wear out. Good to know about the Baja MTZs though. You made a good wheel choice I think. They will be lighter then the soft 8s and keep the wear and tear down on your XJ. On the flip side, steel wheels are nice to beat up on in the rocks. That's my only concern about getting alloy wheels is one cracking on me on a rock. Maybe better wheel placement would solve that problem.

 

Got my Napier flares installed. It ended up being a lot more involved than I anticipated. I just could not feel good about doing that much cut n folding in the rear and not doing anything about the integrity of that pinch/weld seam where the wheel well joins the outer body. So I welded each tab from the cut n fold, then grinded it smooth then used some bond-o to eliminate the little holes for rust to develop. Then I bed lined it nice and thick. I'm happy with how much it opened up the wheel wells. Here's a little neighborhood flex testing to see if I'll need to extend my bump stops. In one of these shots the front wheel barely touches, so I'll probably throw in a 2-3" Extention in the front coils.

 

Looking good Tim. Those fender flares look good now, ha ha. Nice flex pics too.

 

Went down for a quick overnighter in Moab. Had just enough time to run Moab Rim Friday night, then Poison Spider, Golden Spike and Gold Bar Rim on Saturday. The first couple photos are my 15 year old boy driving. I have to say, these rims and tires made a HUGE difference from the old set up. Aired down to 10, and crawled everything I touched.

 

I haven't posted in a while. I thought I'd share the couple things that went down in my garage over the late fall and winter.

I replaced my upper and lower control arms. Very happy with them so far. The Rusty's lowers are extremely beefy. With both uppers and lowers adjustable, I was able to push my front axle forward an inch or two. Now my tires are in centered in my wheel well.

 

After taking a wheeling trip with the new control arms, I noticed, my alignment was jacked, and there was some new clicking. I looked under to see my lower control arm-axle mounts were pretty mangled.




I ended up ordering some heavy duty mounts from Rugged Ridge. The prep was a bit of a bugger to grind off the stock mounts, and smooth up the axle to weld on the new mounts. We're all straight now. Hopefully these will stay straight.

 

I haven't done much else with my rig over the winter, as most my extra wrenching time has been tied up in my 16 year-old son's new rig. After months of shopping around, we found a great first vehicle that he has completely fallen in love with; a '93 XJ with 3.5" rancho suspension lift and BFG 31" all terrains that are nearly new. We picked it up for $1100, with 170k miles. Seems to be running strong for these first 4 months.

We threw in an extra 2" puck up front, and looking for some 5-6" leafs, since we can't get his shackles off for the budget shackle lift we planned on for the rear. We have also trimmed the fenders a tad, painted the rims black, bed-lined the bumpers, removed the trailer hitch, tore off the rubber rocker thingies and bed-lined the lower lockers. We installed rough country sway bar disconnects. I installed a Spartan locker in the rear. He picked up a fairly basic stereo and installed it himself, and tonight I helped him install a sub-thump 10" box. These boxes are pretty killer. I just may have to pick up the 8" version for myself.

After my brother installed some new control arms on his jeep, he gave my son his old Rubicon Express lower control arms.

I have to tell you, building jeeps together with your son has too be the best way to bond there could be. We've never been closer, it has been really rewarding.

 

I've ripped the same lower arm mount completely off. Was a hard drive getting it to a trailer