JTR Spartacus Build Journal

[Bbannongmu]

Soft top installed. A bit of a PIA. YouTube soft top install video coming soon.

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[UglyViking]

Do you know how much taller the soft top is over the hard top?

 

[Bbannongmu]

Do you know how much taller the soft top is over the hard top?

I didn’t measure with the hard top on. However. Here is a pic of what looks to be the hugest point at the back, passenger side door. It’s about 5 inches from the tallest point of the top to the top of the rear door. Hope that helps.

 

[UglyViking]

I didn’t measure with the hard top on. However. Here is a pic of what looks to be the hugest point at the back, passenger side door. It’s about 5 inches from the tallest point of the top to the top of the rear door. Hope that helps.

Perfect! Thanks man, that helps a lot! Working with a small garage height.

 

[Bbannongmu]

Hit the milestone today.

 

[Bbannongmu]

My @ACE Engineering bumper came in today. A little over 11 weeks. Well packed and Looks great - can’t wait to get it installed !!

 

[bobjohnson26]

The new bumper looks great! Cannot wait to see the install.

 

[Bbannongmu]

Posting up Ace JT Expedition Bumper Instructions. Looks like a bit of trimming. I’ll be working on this soon.

 

[Bbannongmu]

Mopar Soft Top Installed Video. Anyone have issues with @Quadratec grab handles not clearing the soft top? Check it out!

 

[Bbannongmu]

Anyone VCS with ideas Or tips for using Quadratec grab handles with soft top?

 

[Bbannongmu]

Ace JT expedition bumper installed. Starting raining so wiring and spooling the winch line will have to wait. Install and review video coming this week.

 

[Bbannongmu]

Bumper all done. Think it came out well. The Zeon 10s is a very tight fit. It’s about 1 foot from the grill to the edge of the bull bar. The bumper is about a inch and a quarter shorter so around 10 3/4”. Install video coming soon.

 

[bobjohnson26]

The bumper and the winch look great - thanks for the detailed measurements. I am looking forward to the install video as I hope to do this in the future.

 

[Bbannongmu]

The bumper and the winch look great - thanks for the detailed measurements. I am looking forward to the install video as I hope to do this in the future.

Thanks! I’ll get the video together soon. This is a fairly involved process involving some light grinding for clearance and drilling 8 - 5/8” holes to enlarge the factory holes in the frame . I’ll try to share the things I learned and hopefully make it a bit easier for folks. Also ended up with washers between the bumper and frame to get just a bit more clearance for the factory fogs.
First thing I’d recommend, knowing what I know now is to just buy LED fog lights and a wiring harness. The stock bumper is a PIA - not really hard just a lot to take apart just to get the factory lights and harness out. Really just a waste of time and effort. Seems like a stock bumper without lights or harness will be tougher to sell on Craigslist/FB marketplace, so it will probably end up getting thrown away. Thinner fog lights would work better for more clearance anyway.
Next will be the factory skid mod to fit with this.

 

[Bbannongmu]

Ace JT Expedition Bumper install video

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