iloozealot

I bought this new to me Jeep about 2 weeks ago. I found it using Auto Tempest at an Audi Dealer in Indianapolis; I live in Kansas City area so I booked a flight for the next morning and resolved myself to buying it if everything checked out okay. I woke up at 3:00am to drive to MCI for my flight with a small layover at Ohare in Chicago and the plan to drive the Jeep back to KC after signing the papers (8ish hours). This is about the time I realized that I had somehow booked the flight for the wrong day. At this point I'm committed as I had already put down a deposit for the Jeep to hold it. So I rented a car at the airport and drove to Indianapolis leaving my company car in the economy parking. Upon arrival at the dealership I did a quick walk around, looked underneath, made sure everything was functional, and signed the papers. I then drove it back to Kansas City. All told I drove about 18 hours and it rained the entire time.

First mod I decided on was wrapping the slick steering wheel in Titan Survivorcord Paracord.

iloozealot

The slick steering wheel needed some grip. So I originally thought I would buy a steering wheel cover and call it a day until I came across this mod somewhere. I decided to pick up some paracord. I found some black 550 @ Wally World but decided I'd hold off and check Amazon when I got home, I am glad I did. I found Titan Survivorcord which is sweet albeit pricey. It has fishing line, snare wire, and tinder woven in to it. I originally had my wife wrap it, she got through one of the smaller sections when I saw that it was going to be way too loose for driving. That night after she went in to put our toddlers down I snuck down to the garage and unwrapped the portion she did to start over. There are plenty of youtube video tutorials out there on doing this mod. It took me 5.5 hours of pure hand and finger agony to wrap this tight enough to where it wouldn't move/twist while steering or possibly offroading (never been). I got some nasty blisters on my index fingers from pulling the cord tight enough and my hands hurt for 3 days. However it came out pretty BA and I like it. Just an FYI if your master bedroom is above your garage don't do this project at night when normal people sleep. I must have hit the horn 5 times on accident while my wife was sleeping. I got several angry texts throughout the process.

iloozealot

I've always de-badged my vehicles, especially dark colored ones so why would the Jeep be any different? I ordered the necessary tools online and dove in. I applied heat to the stickers and badges as I worked the plastic razor blades around the edges and peeled at a 90 degree angle. This worked pretty well but you have to be careful with the amount of heat you are directing at the stickers because they become soft, stretch, and tear as you are pulling. After I got the stickers off the residue left behind was a tough cookie. I ended up soaking all of the affected areas with goo gone and let sit for about 10 minutes at a time; I did this 3 or 4 times while I performed an oil change/ tune up on my pressure washer and got ready to wash the exterior. I then went at the residue with goo gone as a lubricant and a plastic razor blade without the handle. I was able to get it all off without a ton of effort. It did leave behind a field of clear coat scratches though. Nothing through to the paint.

iloozealot

The Jeep had this Tuffy Lock Box installed in the center console when I got it, although I found a key ring with a bunch of keys in the glove box the keys for this were not in there and there were no other locks anywhere I could find in or on the Jeep. Thankfully it was unlocked which gave me access to the back of the lock. I ordered a replacement on the Tuffy website and swapped it out so I can have a working lock box. It was pretty easy you just had to make sure you kept everything in order while pulling the lock apart to install. I had to re-use the old cam bar because the new one was catching on the latch. The old one had a little bend to it which I'm guessing was for the same reason.

jedg

Looking good.

iloozealot

The Rugged Ridge Phone Mount that was in the Jeep when I bought it looked great, in fact it looked like a factory piece; however it vibrated like crazy and the build quality on the connection appendage was garbage My phone fell off into the bin several times and when I took it apart I realized that it was falling apart. I also did not like the gouge marks it left on the dash. So I opted for something of a higher build quality and functionality even if it was 3 times the price. There are plenty of youtube videos out there on this install.

iloozealot

I don't know why the previous owner spent so much money buying a Rigid Light bar and Spotters before upgrading the terrible stock headlights. I picked up the last generation? JW Speaker Headlights today at 4WP for a $100 off; I went with these instead of the carbon fiber/ red text ones because they were $200 cheaper with the discount. The difference is huge but I wasn't thrilled that there was a nice scrape on the lens over the high beam section where the reflection of my right arm is.. You can see it in the bottom two pictures but it's hard to pick out from the reflections, it's very noticeable to the naked eye though.

iloozealot

iloozealot

Two 5lb ABC Fire Extinguishers mounted with the mount that came with them and hose clamps. Everything was purchased at Home Depot for less than what a 1.5lb ABC Fire Extinguisher from an off-road distributor costs.