W.T.F.D.I.G.M.I - Turning my daily drive into a trail rig.

[drewcnit]

Spent the last couple weeks, just recovering and getting parts in and ready for the bed rack, bed rails, inner fenders, and tiding up the wiring.
Got it cleaned up mostly from Windrock (4 washes) -

Then started to spend time in the garage doing some paint work -
Tire carrier rack, primer stage -

Finished in Satin Black -

Bed rails are drying now, Inner fenders are also finished just no pictures yet on those. Bed rails either need a good smoothing out or I may have to re-do them, I'm not loving the finish from my first pass. The rack in contrast looks 10x better, thinking of stripping and re-doing the rails/rack in VHT Roll Bar and Chassis. Trying to stay cheap for now on coatings, I just got hit with helping my daughter replace the rear main seal on her Mini Cooper and that ate my fun money for the next few months.
If I can stomach the garage paint jobs for now, it will all go together this weekend. I'll just pull it off later on and have it powdered correctly I guess.

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[drewcnit]

Been dying to get in the garage and get things started but I'm forcing myself to let all the paint cure as long as possible.
Tonight I went over the bolts in the side panels, just to ease my mind that nothing loosened up at Windrock a few weeks ago. I had found some bumper bolts loose this past week and made myself paranoid. I think that was just user error and I never went back over and tightened that side after re-attaching the bumper when building the bed.
Yeah that means it went to Windrock not all the way tightened down. ??
Anyways tonight, every bolt I touched was tight, except for one bolt that basically fell apart in my hand when I tried to put a wrench to it.

I'm guessing shear from panels shifting a little but that freaks me out. Luckily I have plenty of extra bolts, I never mentioned that but through out the build process almost every hardware package had 2 or more extra bolts in it. Much joy was had because I didn't have to chase that last bolt I needed but couldn't find.

Also added the bed rails, better pics this weekend in the sunshine.

 

[Hootbro]

I am kind of wondering how that exposed bed hardware will age over time? Usually on a normal vehicle build, that hardware would be assembled prior to paint and painted over.

 

[drewcnit]

I am kind of wondering how that exposed bed hardware will age over time? Usually on a normal vehicle build, that hardware would be assembled prior to paint and painted over.

Excellent question and one that I've wondered about as I've seen other builds where it is painted over, I'm guessing time will let me know but there's always the option of new hardware in a couple years if it becomes an issue.

 

[Blade1668]

Dang great write up and job done. Unfortunately I procrastinated or we might have crossed paths at Stony Lonesome, I was thinking about heading there to ride a few trails... but my JT would be my tow vehicle not trail vehicle. Breaking it isn't in my budget.

 

[drewcnit]

A couple extra pictures here, I didn't put in the What did I do to my Gladiator.. thread.
Started off the day installing the KC HiLites C2's in the bed rails, the slots are actually made for Baja Designs S2's but the two lights have virtually the same footprint and I got these on a smashing deal at about 50% off. Ran the wiring down the rails to the cab, brought the driver over to the passenger side and down along the frame to the fender well, tucked back behind the front fender and running to my switch.

Seems I have an issue with the driver side, probably where I spliced the two together, will check that in the morning but the passenger side is friggin bright and I'll do better shots of what it illuminates when it's not 10pm and I'm not accidently lighting up the neighbors house too.

Also added the Baja Designs Squadron Sports to the bottom of the rear tail lights, they are my tailgater lights now.

This one I need to readjust the bracket tomorrow it seems. It's not as centered as the other one is.

Got the side lights wired and the extra rear lights wired to individual switches, was toying with doing passenger/driver side separate anyway, so maybe the driver side not working tonight was just confirmation I need to do that.

Tomorrow is adding the tire carrier rack, trying to move the spare up ?. Hopefully will get done earlier and can get some decent shots in the daylight.

I'm really dreading trying to bounce that tire up top tomorrow LOL.

 

[drewcnit]

Started off the morning, finishing up the Inner Fenders and then jumped on the tire carrier rack.
Inner fenders -
I didn't drill and mount them to the bed, undecided if I will. They each mount with two bolts to the bumper then for 3 of them you drill and bolt to the bed. I'm fairly confident they will do just fine mounted to the fenders, time will tell if I need to add that support on the bed side.

After the fenders, I moved to the tire carrier rack -

In Progress, but part of me would love a rally style tire mount..
Finished up -

And some sunshine glamour shots of it -

 

[40x40]

great work, i'm really liking your build. i don't know if i missed it but are you running a 3rd brake light?

 

[drewcnit]

great work, i'm really liking your build. i don't know if i missed it but are you running a 3rd brake light?

It's a combination license plate light/third brake light by Off Road Only they include in the bobbed bed kit. I'll take some up close pics in the next couple days, I'm at an event this weekend.

 

[drewcnit]

Been taking it easy and letting my bank account recover, but I did get the Preece Precision Source CO2 setup mounted. Can't fill the tires from this position but that was never the plan, it just uses up less real estate mounted this way than anywhere else in the bed.

Been out in it a few times, everything is working like a champ and I've yet to find anything I dislike about the setup.

Still debating the end placement for the spare, may buy the cargo rack that mounts on that tire rack and move the spare into the bed, with my gear above it on the rack. But that's a later issue to tackle. Not happy with the wiring for the bed lights, so bought new wire and harness wraps and will be re-wiring those in the coming weeks.

Next up - I've got a front Adams Driveshaft coming this Tuesday and a RockKrawler 4-link (Adventure Pro) upgrade on order (not sure on ETA yet).
RCVs in August, because I get a 3rd payday that month and I have to use up this $250 gift card before it expires otherwise, I would probably wait a bit on these.
Working on all things drive line that either have never been replaced or need improved. I bought a very basic lift the first time through before the off-roading bug officially bit me and it's been 'ok' so far, but I want more flex out of it and a better ride quality so replacing components. Original lift still uses OEM control arms, so the RockKrawler upgrade should be huge.

 

[drewcnit]

I had the first parts of my new lift put on, I say first parts, because I decided to quickly follow this up with the rest of the kit.
Rear Track Bar Delete with the addition of the RockKrawler Adventure Pro-X 4 link upper arms in the rear -

Also did the front lowers at this time, the rest of the arms, the coils, shocks, and miscellaneous components for the 4.5" kit are on the way and will be installed in the coming weeks.
Took a run at the flex ramp now at this stage to see what improvement we get when we add the rest.

Work done by Wreckless 4x4, they specialize in AMW Hemi swaps and have both a Demon and a 426 sitting in the shop being installed now. The owner offered me a ride in the demon next week as he's testing and tuning it.

He's also got one of the first Motobilt JLU cages being fabbed up in the shop on a friend's rig, the JLU is getting a major facelift before Jeep Invasion. -

It's pretty bad @$$ and makes me look forward to them hopefully making a JT cage at some point.
Look in the background and you can see the JT that is getting the demon with it's body off.

 

[RockJeep98]

I had the first parts of my new lift put on, I say first parts, because I decided to quickly follow this up with the rest of the kit.
Rear Track Bar Delete with the addition of the RockKrawler Adventure Pro-X 4 link upper arms in the rear -

Also did the front lowers at this time, the rest of the arms, the coils, shocks, and miscellaneous components for the 4.5" kit are on the way and will be installed in the coming weeks.
Took a run at the flex ramp now at this stage to see what improvement we get when we add the rest.

Work done by Wreckless 4x4, they specialize in AMW Hemi swaps and have both a Demon and a 426 sitting in the shop being installed now. The owner offered me a ride in the demon next week as he's testing and tuning it.

He's also got one of the first Motobilt JLU cages being fabbed up in the shop on a friend's rig, the JLU is getting a major facelift before Jeep Invasion. -

It's pretty bad @$$ and makes me look forward to them hopefully making a JT cage at some point.
Look in the background and you can see the JT that is getting the demon with it's body off.

That is looking killer!

 

[drewcnit]

Picked it up tonight after having the rest of the lift installed. It is SCREAMING for some 40s now. Oh and I've got to start working on my running jump skills to get into it.

 

[Janster]

I literally scrolled thru all the pages in this post ….. and I’m drooling….

 

[TheSolarWizard]

This was a fun thread. Bobbed doesn’t fit my use case but I definitely understand it.

Also amazing choice on the Rockkrawler lift.
There isn’t a better brand out there, even before factoring in the people behind the brand. I’m in the middle of joining that cool kids club at the moment… after spending who knows how many hours independently examining and researching every well know manufacturers parts, riding in most of them on other jeeps and taking a bunch of them apart.

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