"The DADIATOR" Overland JT

[Lush]

I finally did it. Ever since about 2017 or so I have day dreamed of getting into a Wrangler. But there was always something in the way, and I really struggled to find a JK that checked all of my boxes.

Another year down the road and the JL comes along and solves lots of my issues, and I thought it was finally time. But early 2018, we decided to start a family and I got rid of my Ram for a '17 Nissan Titan. Later that year, the JT was finally announced and I thought, "This is SURELY it this time!" After all, it had a truck bed, which was one of the main factors that kept us away from Jeep ownership! But they were obviously impossible to find anywhere, and after considering a wrangler again the idea was shelved because they just seemed to small. By the time gladiators were more readily available, my wife had decided she absolutely despised how they look so that ship had sailed.

But finally, after years of trying I have done it. This past week I picked up my new to me 2021 JT Overland, only 1600 miles on the clock and all of the features I was looking for. It feels amazing after all of this time to have finally done it, and it has already been a blast. I look forward to being a part of the jeep family and the journey ahead!

Already in the install pile/to-do list:

-oedro roll up tonneau cover
-spray in bedliner
-smartliner floor liners

Future near term:

-Tires, possibly wheels
-Interior organizational mods (coming from a full size truck I will have to get creative, I see lots of products on the market that look like they would help)
-various minor aesthetic mods
-Bikini top or sun shades

Future mid term:

-Suspension mods
-keyless proximity doors retrofit
-soft top
-bed rack
-LED headlights

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[mdyucca]

Congratulations on the new Gladiator! On the way home tonight I told my wife how much I am enjoying the Gladiator with it’s versatility. This week I used it to haul furniture, did some serious off-roading (got my first first scars on the underside) then tonight took her out to dinner in the comfort of the nice riding Gladiator. What’s not to like? A few words of warning; take your time with the mods it is easy to get thousands of dollars in mods. Think things through and buy once. Have fun with your new truck.?

 

[Lush]

Got my bed liner done today, bed cover and floor liners should be going on today or tomorrow.

 

[4x4ready]

I

looks outstanding!

 

[Lush]

Got my bed cover and floor liners on today! With that, I have my main QOL modifications completed and I am ready to just enjoy the truck as it sits for a while...other mod ideas will come to me in time, I am sure

 

[Lush]

Had to return the floor liners and order a different set, the open box ones I got clearly had some damage on the drivers side.

Got brand new this time and they turned out great!

 

[Lush]

Nothing new done still aside from nearly installing some alien shades only to just return them, but I have really been stewing on this....

So at this point I am primed for my next major mod, which will likely be wheels, tires and lift. But in the interim I would love to start doing some low cost, relatively easy mods to personalize her. However, I am totally stumped on what accent color to run with.

Option 1: Lime green accents. I really like lime green and it pairs well with black, but I also see plenty of black and green jeeps and it makes me think of a buddy of mine did their JK up in black and green as well so I don't want to be some sort of copycat.

Option 2: all blacked out. If I go this route I would need to decide between gloss black or matte black for my accents, but this would be an easy route to go and would match my saddle brown seats well.

Option 3: Bronze accents. Would also match my seats well, but not sure how much bronze I would do. Perhaps just the wheels and maybe the badge?

Option 4: Yellow accents. Yellow is by far my favorite color, my last truck was even yellow and I built my gaming PC up to match it. But I also feel a bit fatigued with so much yellow, so I feel like this is my chance to try something new.

No matter what, the silver accents have to go, they just aren't working for me. It's just a question of what direction I want to go.

For fun, heres my gaming PC and old truck I traded in....

 

[Sarge502]

Nice truck. Your story was actually pretty similar to mine as far as getting it.

But Bro don’t do any accent colors. Black it all out if anything. Or don’t, but I wouldn’t ruin it with some weird accent color. Especially those choices. Only one even half way sounds good would be the bronze but I still wouldn’t do any. That’s just me. I basically have your same truck minus your tan interior. My goal is simple and sleek and not overly done.

check out my showcase for any ideas but I’m blacking mine all out except the Overland logo which I love. Already done everything except the key holes which I have Threedom caps on order. And the stock Overland wheels which I will finally get rid of soon. Although I’ve liked thus far.

Any questions hit me up. Enjoy the truck

https://www.jeepgladiatorforum.com/forum/threads/sarge502-progress-thread.46242/

 

[Lush]

Nice truck. Your story was actually pretty similar to mine as far as getting it.

But Bro don’t do any accent colors. Black it all out if anything. Or don’t, but I wouldn’t ruin it with some weird accent color. Especially those choices. Only one even half way sounds good would be the bronze but I still wouldn’t do any. That’s just me. I basically have your same truck minus your tan interior. My goal is simple and sleek and not overly done.

check out my showcase for any ideas but I’m blacking mine all out except the Overland logo which I love. Already done everything except the key holes which I have Threedom caps on order. And the stock Overland wheels which I will finally get rid of soon. Although I’ve liked thus far.

Any questions hit me up. Enjoy the truck

https://www.jeepgladiatorforum.com/forum/threads/sarge502-progress-thread.46242/

Really like how your rig has turned out, that's the exact direction I want to go as well, generally. After talking with some other people I do think I will be going with bronze for my accent color, but bear in mind it will be very, very minimal amounts of it. Likely just the wheels, when the time comes, as well as a couple of decals I have in mind.

My question for you is what did you do for blacking out your grill, fog surrounds, and badges? I was guessing perhaps plastidip, but I wasn't sure how you blacked out the gladiator decals on the side.

 

[Sarge502]

Really like how your rig has turned out, that's the exact direction I want to go as well, generally. After talking with some other people I do think I will be going with bronze for my accent color, but bear in mind it will be very, very minimal amounts of it. Likely just the wheels, when the time comes, as well as a couple of decals I have in mind.

My question for you is what did you do for blacking out your grill, fog surrounds, and badges? I was guessing perhaps plastidip, but I wasn't sure how you blacked out the gladiator decals on the side.

So for the grill and fog housing surrounds they are factory replacement Mopar pieces that I ordered from Quadratec. I don’t have the specific part numbers at the moment but they are pretty easy to look up. As far as the rest of the badging since it’s a smaller area for coverage I just plasty dip those and they have held up very well

 

[Lush]

So after nearly two months of not doing anything, I finally decided where to start.

First, I finally landed on red as my accent color, though I plan to keep it fairly minimal and limit it to small accents such as the tow hooks, some interior touches, and engine bay touches. Beyond that everything is going to get blacked out. I toyed around with the idea of doing a bit of red plastidip speckling in all of the badging, but after testing it on the fusebox cover I decided against that route.

For starters, the silver gladiator stickers needed to go. Was a super easy job, thankfully

Next, I decided to try out my red plastidip on something discrete, so I decided to do the fusebox cover. Honestly, I love the color but not incredibly happy with how the dip came out. Will either reapply or perhaps just stack on a couple more coats. I have been considering dipping the badging on the engine cover red (but leaving it mostly black) but I suspect down the road I will ditch the cover in favor of an ARB on board air mount, so that has yet to be decided.

Then all I really had the motivation to do tonight was my overland badge and trail rated badges blacked out. Partly because I started late, and partly because I wanted to get a feel for how it looked blacked out. Really happy with the trail rated badge, not sure if I will end up keeping the overland badge at all, considering just removing it entirely.

Next project on my list is to finish blacking out all of the Jeep badging, black out the grill (haven't decided on doing the entire grill in satin black or just the inserts) and dipping the tow hooks red. Also looking to get some red grab handles and a stubby antenna to round things out for now.

Nothing too exciting, unfortunately. The Jeep is still a secondary hobby, in the limited time I have I am still mostly focused on my PC gaming hobby, but as these little touches start rolling in I am sure I will get more motivated to really start the build properly.

 

[Lush]

Finally had time to finish everything. No more silver anywhere, except for the antenna, keyholes, and that silly silver lip on the wheels. Got the tow hooks done while I was at it! All she needs now is a wash, then I can move on to whatever I come up with next.

 

[Lush]

It was a slow finish to last year, so I didn't really do much in the way of modifications/upgrades and instead was spending money on my other hobbies (PC gaming mainly)

Now with the new year rolling in, I decided I wanted to get back to the mods. First, I wanted to add some personal touches; my wife printed me a custom "DADIATOR" decal for the hood, the name that has kinda stuck to it since we got it. There are some bubbles left but I expect the sun/some heat will help work those out. Also not pictured is the updated O, we ended up taking the center out and doing something different with it instead.

Then, after debating and wondering for months, and especially stressing out over the decision for the past couple weeks, I finally went for my first "large" purchase, some excellent condition Mojave take-offs! I was torn between this and 35s, but right now I am not really looking to do a lift, and the costs of going with 35s were starting to approach 37 territory anyway. This was a relatively inexpensive way to update the look and tire performance without having to do a bunch of supporting mods. I also vastly prefer the look of the mojave wheels over basically any other stock option, so it was an easy choice for me. Don't have them mounted yet, but I should have them done in the next couple of days!

I know 33s are still considered relatively small on the gladiator, and I DO love 35s and especially 37s, but my plan moving forward is to get out and wheel it with the 33s and wear them out while I piece by piece assemble everything needed to go 35s or 37s.

 

[dmwphoto]

love following this thread. Looking good

 

[mdyucca]

It was a slow finish to last year, so I didn't really do much in the way of modifications/upgrades and instead was spending money on my other hobbies (PC gaming mainly)

Now with the new year rolling in, I decided I wanted to get back to the mods. First, I wanted to add some personal touches; my wife printed me a custom "DADIATOR" decal for the hood, the name that has kinda stuck to it since we got it. There are some bubbles left but I expect the sun/some heat will help work those out. Also not pictured is the updated O, we ended up taking the center out and doing something different with it instead.

Then, after debating and wondering for months, and especially stressing out over the decision for the past couple weeks, I finally went for my first "large" purchase, some excellent condition Mojave take-offs! I was torn between this and 35s, but right now I am not really looking to do a lift, and the costs of going with 35s were starting to approach 37 territory anyway. This was a relatively inexpensive way to update the look and tire performance without having to do a bunch of supporting mods. I also vastly prefer the look of the mojave wheels over basically any other stock option, so it was an easy choice for me. Don't have them mounted yet, but I should have them done in the next couple of days!

I know 33s are still considered relatively small on the gladiator, and I DO love 35s and especially 37s, but my plan moving forward is to get out and wheel it with the 33s and wear them out while I piece by piece assemble everything needed to go 35s or 37s.

The red contrast color is a good choice! Looks good with the blacked out badging and grill. I sense a lift coming. Keep up the good work!

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