Hey everyone, new to the forum but not new to the addiction. Figured I'd start my own build thread after looking at so many others. Little background: Bought my wrangler summer of 2013 used withe 92k miles. Luckily it was only 1 previous owner and mostly highway miles. My only requirement was that it had to be a manual. I grew up only knowing manual wranglers (my good friend had one, first time I rode in one it was a manual, etc). I try and do all the mods myself (with a lot of help from the forums) because 1) half the fun is doing it yourself and cursing and bruising yourself along the way 2) I get to slowly learn and build up my knowledge of my wrangler and 3) I can say (for the most part) that I built it. I am limited sometimes due to tools and a college student's budget but luckily I've got a great support group haha The name: So I call my wrangler lady jane because my girlfriend says that my wrangler might as well be my other woman since I spend the same if not more time and money on it than I do her. Luckily for me, she completely understands my obsession and even supports/enjoys it with me So here's Lady Jane the day I brought her home and where she is now:





Now for just everything in between......

 

So back tracking, one of my very first mods was to replace the front bumper. I purchased a 4x4 Body armor high clearance front bumper and a smittybilt 8000lb winch. Very straight forward install. The only problem I ran into was that the bolts that held the original bumper on were a PITA. Most I could get with a breaker bar but the last one I was at for a good 30 mins with a mix of pb blaster, a breaker bar, and even a torch at the end.

 

Next major mod was to cut the fender flares to have flat fenders. I love the look and functionality of flat fenders, but not the price of after market ones. So I decided to cut them myself. Saves money, achieves the same results, and if they end up getting beat up on the trail I won't feel that bad.

Again, this was a very easy and straight forward mod. I bought a dremel from Lowes, taped off the lines I wanted and cut away.

A few words of advice:
1) dont know if it was me using the wrong kind of cutting blade, but as I cut, the dremel was basically melting the plastic. So bits of hot plastic would get flung up at me as I cut
2) As you cut and reinstall the fender liners, you'll have to figure out a new way to completely secure them. At the moment I just have zip ties/let them hang but Im going to eventually look into drilling/screwing them in
3) After you cut, the fender won;t be the most secure to the support. I fixed this by just drilling a hole through the fender and support and then running a longer bolt through both. Painted the top of the bolt black so it would blend in better.

Front:


Rear:

 

Before and after shots of the fender cuts