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A newbie’s gladiator build :)

ATLthrashers

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Just thought i would do a thread on my journey in working on my Gladiator. I’ve never really been into working on vehicles and I previously owned a 2000 TJ but all the aftermarket stuff was already done. So with my sport s i decided i was going to do everything myself and save some $$$ and also learn a little bit. You guys feel free to post your own pics and also any constructive criticism or tips or ideas!
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ATLthrashers

ATLthrashers

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The first small thing i did was removed these 2 plastic parts from the fender. Turns out that I had some issues with the tires rubbing so removing that gave some extra room and i thought it looked better :rock:. After this i bought and added some wheel spacers to finally fix the issues with the tires rubbing when i turned the steering wheel completely. Still…these things were done by someone with basically zero experience doing anything to a vehicle :)

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ATLthrashers

ATLthrashers

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After adding in some cool little things like a shorter antenna and interior nic nacks I decided it was time to tackle something larger in scale. I watched youtube video after youtube video and scoured these forums to build my confidence to where i felt i could do a lift and larger tires in my drive way with just a friend to help with any “heavy lifting”. Well of course once the tires and lift came in and the day to start working was planned it came up a storm in south carolina but here is a look into the action that happened that day :LOL:

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ATLthrashers

ATLthrashers

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Now the next day the rain stopped and it was time…so with all of my youtube and forum knowledge we started tearing everything apart. Everything went well no major roadblocks aside from me not having certain tools that we needed…oops. But within the forst day my buddy and I had the front half of the 3.5” skyjacker suspension lift installed. Before we ended the day we went ahead and threw the tires on cause i was getting anxious and wanted to take a peek at them. Plus I knew the rear would get done the next day…or so I thought

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ATLthrashers

ATLthrashers

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I unfortunately don’t have any pictures of the process for the rear but the worst part was getting the coil springs installed. We finally got them in and went to bolt on the shocks and skyjacker didn’t include the hardware for one of the rear shocks. Now that isn’t me bad mouthing them as they were fantastic about getting me the hardware very quickly but it was def a set back. But in the end it all worked out and here I am with a Gladiator that I can say I installed the lift in my driveway with mostly basic tools nothing too fancy. I was pretty proud. The kids also loved it too! Also the tires are cooper discoverer stt pro 37x13.5x17 and the wheels are black rhino sprockets in the gunmetal color

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cdyoung9799

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Now the next day the rain stopped and it was time…so with all of my youtube and forum knowledge we started tearing everything apart. Everything went well no major roadblocks aside from me not having certain tools that we needed…oops. But within the forst day my buddy and I had the front half of the 3.5” skyjacker suspension lift installed. Before we ended the day we went ahead and threw the tires on cause i was getting anxious and wanted to take a peek at them. Plus I knew the rear would get done the next day…or so I thought

Jeep Gladiator A newbie’s gladiator build :) 972C2884-890A-444F-AED8-F1FEDBA8D8CE


Jeep Gladiator A newbie’s gladiator build :) 972C2884-890A-444F-AED8-F1FEDBA8D8CE


Jeep Gladiator A newbie’s gladiator build :) 972C2884-890A-444F-AED8-F1FEDBA8D8CE
Looks great man!
 

JTDay

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Love it. Nice job man!
 
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ATLthrashers

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the lift was done around August of this year. Now fast forward to the present and my next task was to add some auxiliary lighting and switches. I wanted rigid cubes but i decided to stay somewhat budget friendly and went with Quadratec’s 3” cubes. I found a nice looking dual cube light mount on amazon and decided to do 2 spot beams and 2 floods. For the switches I decided to use rough country’s mlc-6 kit. The switch kit has a relay box that should make wiring anything up a little easier. And the switches look pretty close to factory so I’m very happy with how it turned out plus installation of all this was fairly easy. Now i dont want you guys to judge the neatness of my wiring :p

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ATLthrashers

ATLthrashers

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Now for the last update that i did this past weekend. I ordered a Fab Fours stubby bumper off of Amazon and it came in a little scratched up so luckily have a friend that owns a powder coating business in Atlanta that was able to hook me up with a new paint job for it for only the cost of materials! He did a fantastic job plus the amazon seler refunded me that $$$ too so it worked out. My buddy also hooked me up with a red plate that i was able to get mounted behind the fab fours logo on the center of the bumper to give it a pretty awesome look! Once the bumper was installed I added some D rings from gearamerica that were red (of course i gotta stick with the red/black theme). Now that the thread is all caught up my next objective is going to be adding LED fogs and headlights (hopefully from Oracle as long as my wife doesn’t beat with a toaster for all the money going into the Gladiator) :CWL:

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River2016

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Now the next day the rain stopped and it was time…so with all of my youtube and forum knowledge we started tearing everything apart. Everything went well no major roadblocks aside from me not having certain tools that we needed…oops. But within the forst day my buddy and I had the front half of the 3.5” skyjacker suspension lift installed. Before we ended the day we went ahead and threw the tires on cause i was getting anxious and wanted to take a peek at them. Plus I knew the rear would get done the next day…or so I thought

Jeep Gladiator A newbie’s gladiator build :) 600BF886-4454-48BA-B403-ED65829B065D


Jeep Gladiator A newbie’s gladiator build :) 600BF886-4454-48BA-B403-ED65829B065D


Jeep Gladiator A newbie’s gladiator build :) 600BF886-4454-48BA-B403-ED65829B065D
What kind of dogs you got in the back of the pink mini van??
 

cuellar13

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Good for you, bud, but I do have a few "criticisms":
  1. You're gonna need a bigger umbrella
  2. If you're gonna let the kiddos ride on the nerf bars/running boards/side steps, you're gonna need to configure some sort of safety harness
  3. I'm not sure that floor jack was made to withstand the weight of the pink car full of puppies...
Looks like you had a blast!
 
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ATLthrashers

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Good for you, bud, but I do have a few "criticisms":
  1. You're gonna need a bigger umbrella
  2. If you're gonna let the kiddos ride on the nerf bars/running boards/side steps, you're gonna need to configure some sort of safety harness
  3. I'm not sure that floor jack was made to withstand the weight of the pink car full of puppies...
Looks like you had a blast!
Yeeaa when you don’t know exactly what you’re doing you just gotta make the best of it sometimes😂
 
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ATLthrashers

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I’m getting the itch to add more lights (yes, I like lights) what would the options be as far as wiring goes putting a small light bar on the center of the bull bar on my bumper? Would the only option be to drill a hole in the bar for it to look nice and purdy?
 

cuellar13

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I’m getting the itch to add more lights (yes, I like lights) what would the options be as far as wiring goes putting a small light bar on the center of the bull bar on my bumper? Would the only option be to drill a hole in the bar for it to look nice and purdy?
I personally wouldn't go that route because of the potential of rain getting inside and rusting the thing from the inside out. Unless you can prime, paint, and completely seal the drilled out area, use black zip ties and wrap the wiring in black. No one will notice. If you're planning on adding a winch to that bumper, you could always do a fairlead mounted light bar. I had that on my JKU, and really liked the location of it. If not, maybe use the winch mount bolt holes to put a bracket on, and you can run the wiring right behind the bumper. Just my $.02
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