Gladihater Build 101

[Superglue]

Hey everyone, decided to make a build thread to track my progress and also because its nice to know all my information is saved here. This will be a very bare minimal build as I have a Comanche that is my main build and this is more of a fun daily driver for me. The road to work is pretty treacherous and I wanted to be able to take the roof off for beach shenanigans which is how I talked myself into the purchase in the first place... I found myself looking at Broncos on Carmax and was shocked at how expensive they were. After looking around I found this nice 2020 model with 19k miles and a manual transmission which checked all the boxes for me. I got it for 35k, which I think is a pretty good deal..

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[Superglue]

First week I had it, I got hit from the side from a girl driving in the bike lane trying to pass me... Im no slow driver by any means, I live about a five minute drive from the border in Brownsville and the drivers here make me think were in Mexico most of the time.

 

[Superglue]

After a week of driving it I found some Rubicon springs locally and ordered a teraflex leveling kit to get me a little more height. Tires are looking pretty small now...

 

[Superglue]

My Comanche is getting neglected like mad, Im just enjoying working on the Gladiator to much!

 

[Superglue]

I found these scratch and dent fenders on eBay and just couldnt pass them up... Got them from the seller UnionStat. He wouldnt tell me what the brand is, but Im not to worried about that... I like them no matter what brand they are. Also came with the light kit which gave me zero error codes on the dash. I bought the kit for a JL which left me with the rears to sell, which is fine as I am wanting to do the MotoBilt bobbed bed eventually. I put the stock front fenders up for sale, LED color matched version, and they sold for 400... I only paid 250 for the flat fenders shipped on eBay. I also decided to post the front bumper as I knew I was going to go aftermarket and it sold next day for 250. Soon as that was done I ordered my MotoBilt front frame chop bumper for 750 shipped. Overall not much money out of pocket to get the front end where I wanted it.

 

[Superglue]

Soon as the bumper showed up I decided to get to cutting the front end. It was a task but not horrible, MotoBilt sends a Jig to mark everything up making the overall process pretty simple. 100% would recommend and am planning on purchasing more from them.

Dropped off the bumper for powder next morning. I am very fortunate to have a powder coater about 10 minutes from my house that is extremely cheap and does great work IMO.

 

[Superglue]

Powder coat shop had my bumper ready 4 hours after I dropped it off.. I mounted it up immediately. Super happy with how it turned out! Its been mounted for about 2 months now and still looks fantastic with zero chips or rust.

If your in south Texas I highly recommend checking out EHP Powder Coating and Aluminum Fabrication. His shop is a little sketchy but now that I have seen his work I wont be going anywhere else.

 

[Superglue]

Had a great 4th, toke some time off. Starting to feel bad for my Comanche, I need to get back to that project... Once I have wheels tires and gears on the Gladiator Ill probably be returning to Comancheclub.com to try to finish up that build... LS is almost done just needs the fuel lines and like four wires hooked up. Just need the clutch line fabbed up beyond that and it should be moveable under its own power. Once It can be moved around I can drop it off to let the painters finish the cab.

 

[Superglue]

Found some 37s on marketplace. Seller was asking 1200 for all five of them but after some negotiations and them sitting for a month or so I was able to pick up all 5 for 800. They are in fantastic shape Im thinking I got a steal.

 

[Superglue]

Ordered some RockTrix wheels off eBay and got the 37s mounted up. For how cheap the wheels are I am really impressed by them. They look fantastic minus the center caps! The guys at the tire shop were super skeptical about the tires fitting, it was actually pretty funny I had to nudge them a bit to get them to do it. Turned out the store manager also had a JT on 37s with a 2.5" lift and brought it out to compare side by side after they got mounted up. I personally like the look I have more, but I really dont like how tall these things get with small lifts... I feel like the Rubicon height is perfect on 37s and anything taller you need 40s to make them look right.. Spare tire fits in the stock location, but does rub on the rear sway bar... I am going to order the MetalCloak rear clearanced sway bar here soon. Other then the spare the 37s fit perfectly with no rubbing at full lock turning. I have had them on for about 3 weeks now and have zero regrets minus the power loss...

 

[Superglue]

Made an appointment with Exodus 4x4 in New Braunfills TX to get my gears done. Ended up going with 5.13s. I am super pleased with how it turned out! Seemed like most were suggesting 4.88s for 37s but stock I found that sixth gear (Manual transmission) seemed super underpowered, almost unusable at any speed. I wanted a setup where sixth gear was usable anywhere above 65 and thats exactly what I got. So far I am getting 17mpg town and 24 highway below 65 and 19 highway above 65, but these Texas highways are super flat... Overall I couldnt be happier with my decision to go with Exodus to get my gear work done, they managed to complete my install before noon and started at 7am. It was a short wait in the lobby and I was on my way in half the quoted time. They were extremely knowledgeable and fun to speak to while I waited. I had found them on youtube and enjoyed their build videos, one day I was scrolling Facebook and found they had a "free" diff cover deal going on with regears. I ended up spending 2500+ tax for 5.13 gears and curry diff covers material and labor. Compared to Oregon where I'm from that is a killer price. With this gear setup I feel like I can go a little bigger without looking at changing my ratio also which is a plus, as I kinda feel like the 37s look a bit small with this setup.. I considered doing a locker while I was there but decided to hold off as I don't think this truck will see a lot of rock time, that's more my Comanches job at this point. If I decided to do lockers in the future, ill definitely be returning to Exodus to have them install Ox E lockers.

 

[Superglue]

Currently have Rock Krawler 1.5" front springs on the way to replace the Rubicon springs with the teraflex leveling kit. Also ordered the Metal Cloak rear sway bar to get me some breathing room between the rear trac bar and the spare tire. I also picked up some Falcon shocks from forum member MaxStrategery. He was a super nice guy, was a pleasure speaking to him while waiting on my gears to be done at Exodus. The shocks I picked up were much longer then was I was expecting, im not 100% sure ill be able to use them as of right now but I am going to try. I know for sure I dont want to go any taller then what I am right now so that will determine if they work out for me or not. If not, then ill be ordering shocks based on measurements this time for sure. Oh well, sometimes you win some and sometimes you lose some but either way it all works out eventually. Also picked up some synthetic winch line for my Harbor Freight winch and a new fairlead and hook combo. Not the fanciest winch by any means but I know a few people that either work or have worked at Warn that all have told me that if they didn't work at Warn they would be running the same Harbor Freight winch that I'm running... I actually did the HVAC for the last buildout Warn did in their office a handful of years back. Was super neat being able to see the factory in and out.

 

[TurboChris]

NIce! I love a good build thread.

 

[Clark]

Nice work,

 

[Stan H]

Made an appointment with Exodus 4x4 in New Braunfills TX to get my gears done. Ended up going with 5.13s. I am super pleased with how it turned out! Seemed like most were suggesting 4.88s for 37s but stock I found that sixth gear (Manual transmission) seemed super underpowered, almost unusable at any speed. I wanted a setup where sixth gear was usable anywhere above 65 and thats exactly what I got. So far I am getting 17mpg town and 24 highway below 65 and 19 highway above 65, but these Texas highways are super flat... Overall I couldnt be happier with my decision to go with Exodus to get my gear work done, they managed to complete my install before noon and started at 7am. It was a short wait in the lobby and I was on my way in half the quoted time. They were extremely knowledgeable and fun to speak to while I waited. I had found them on youtube and enjoyed their build videos, one day I was scrolling Facebook and found they had a "free" diff cover deal going on with regears. I ended up spending 2500+ tax for 5.13 gears and curry diff covers material and labor. Compared to Oregon where I'm from that is a killer price. With this gear setup I feel like I can go a little bigger without looking at changing my ratio also which is a plus, as I kinda feel like the 37s look a bit small with this setup.. I considered doing a locker while I was there but decided to hold off as I don't think this truck will see a lot of rock time, that's more my Comanches job at this point. If I decided to do lockers in the future, ill definitely be returning to Exodus to have them install Ox E lockers.

Good lord that's expensive

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