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On Sunday morning, we decided to get a much earlier start, knowing just how deep we were into this project, but having the scrapes and bruises from rolling around on the pavement to remind us just how much work was ahead of us. Grace did an excellent job at filming, so I'm excited to get the footage put together, but there were times that I got pretty crabby because I wanted to move faster than video recording would allow. That was the sacrifice that had to be made to get our lift kit video together though. The one thing we really didn't have... Time. Around 5pm on Sunday, our friends decided to swing by to see the lift progress, with no notice. I'd just finished the drag link flip and was working on installing the tie rod. I'm sure they were as disappointed with my progress as I was with their arrival, because I knew I'd be getting dropped off at work by Grace every day until the lift was finished, so wasting time wasn't really something I was interested in doing. Our progress stopped at getting the front steering linkage done for the weekend. The optimism that was once there was gone.

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From that day on, the real fun began. I worked as the manager of an auto shop from 7-6, sometimes 6:30, Mon-Tues and Thurs-Sat as a normal schedule. We put in as much time as we could before it got dark every single day until the sun set, trying to get the front end done. Grace took Wednesday off so that we could put some more time into the lift, and by the end of Wednesday, the front end of the Jeep was FINALLY sitting under it's own weight. We'd successfully installed the:

Tie Rod
Drag Link Flip Kit
Upper Control Arms
Lower Control Arms
Track Bar
Track Bar Relocation Bracket
Lower Bump Stops
Swaybar Link Relocation Brackets
Swaybar Links
Lower Shock Mounts
Coil Springs
Shocks
Brake Lines

In addition, we'd removed the front driveshaft and had planned on replacing it with the Tom Woods 1310 front, but that was when we ran into problems. After pulling it out of the box, I noticed that the U-Joint cap was coming out of it. Without looking closely, I thought that the clip had just come off and I would be able to push the cap back in and clip it into place. No problem, right? Well, as it turned out, the driveshaft had actually been broken during shipping, and there was nowhere to clip it once the cap was pushed back in! We were going to have to wait for a new one to get sent out while we continued on to the rear end...

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Thursday through Saturday were not as productive. I took Grace's 2011 WK2 to work Saturday morning, and she stayed home to set up a yard sale that we had going on. We decided to get back into it first thing on Sunday, while also doing the yard sale. The problem was, without my camera woman, I wasn't allowed to work on the Jeep, so that unfortunately, also turned out to be a not-so-productive day. We were able to get the upper control arms installed in the rear, as well as the raised bump stops and track bar relocation bracket. We decided that we'd just hit it hard again through the next week to get it wrapped up. We had an event planned for the following Saturday that I'd already requested time off of work for, so that was our no BS, get it done by date.

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After work on Monday, I was very pleased to see that the replacement driveshaft had shown up from Quadratec, only to be immediately disappointed to figure out that they'd sent a rear, rather than a front. Tuesday was yet another day spent on hold waiting for their customer service line to answer to get that sorted out. I actually made better contact with them through Facebook, where I was able to reach the CS manager, who had the correct driveshaft sent out next day air, to arrive Thursday. The deadline was now going to be very close... After sorting that debacle, we just kept working on the rear end through Wednesday night to at least get that finished up. We got the upper control arms adjusted, tightened, and installed, Threw the rear could in, replaced the rear brake lines, and put the rear track bar in. The rear end was now also finally sitting under it's own weight. It was very satisfying to see the Jee at what would be it's new stance. A full 4.5" lift with an additional 0.75" coil spacer in the front makes for a pretty tall jeep - even only on 35s!

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After work on Thursday, we were both very relieved to see that the correct front driveshaft had arrived, so we started installing that, right off the bat. We knew that the Jeep had to be done by the end of the night so that I could take it into work the next day to get all the aligning and fine-tubing done, so it actually turned into a pretty late night. We got the driveshaft in, and then still had to bleed the brakes and adjust the front and rear track bars, and double check that we didn't leave anything loose. Like I said, it was a very late night, but we got it all done. Driving the jeep to the shop the next day was... Fun. As expected, the ESP was kicking on, the steering wheel was nearly upside-down, and I didn't want to drive faster than 20 mph. That Friday would also be the last day at that job. The regional manager who I was working for decided at some point that he was going to cancel my day off for his own personal reasons, without letting me know. The event that we'd worked so hard to make was also something that we had paid to sponsor as Crawl TV, so we were Very set on going at that point. I'd had plenty of issues with that regional manager in the past, mostly due to his lack or ethics, harassing my technicians, and never sticking to his word, so I decided that the job wasn't worth it, and we'd be going to the event, without the job. The alignment was a breeze to knock out that day though, so at that point, there was really nothing stopping me.

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After work on Friday, we greased all of the tie-rod ends and control arms, and then decided that the jeep looked too good to still have stock rear fenders uncut, so we decided to knock that out as well. Our friend met us early Saturday to follow us out the the 4X4s Rockin' The Park event in Tamaroa, IL, and we were on the road at 7... The time that I should've been opening the shop. We made a quick stop into the shop around 7:15 so that I could call the integrity-lacking, expletive, expletive, expletive, dirt bag, regional manager to let him know that "I QUIT!" and say goodbye to my techs, and then we were on the road to Tamaroa! The event went great, and the lift held up wonderfully, aside from an ABS light kicking on from the U-Joint in the front left rubbing through that line. We made a video replacing that a couple of days afterward. We still have yet to install the AFE crossover pipe with loop-delete, and the Tom Woods 1350 rear driveshaft is still in the garage, so we'll get to that as soon as we can. We're also waiting on a fox steering stabilizer and tie rod clamp to show up to give us just a little bit more peace of mind while highway driving. If you've read this far, I'm sure you'll agree that it's time for some pictures, so here ya go:

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Fully finished:

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Rear shot:

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On the RTI

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Teeter totter ramp