Nice build thread, and nice shop too! The POR15 looks very good, how many hours would you say it took for prep and all?

 

I really like how the grill and lights came out. The hood guard looks great to me.



LED marker lights.



This is the Modular bumper. I think I'm going to add some 7" round lights under the hoop. Shopping for em now.





Some random pictures...









I'm gonna take it out tomorrow for a shake down run and center the wheel. I'll get some good pics outdoors. The paint came out excellent. Not to shabby for a 11 year old Jeep.

 

Thanks bud! I think spent about 6 hours actually prepping it all after it was all apart. But it took the most time waiting for things to dry. So it killed a weekend. I wire brushed and de greased. Then did it a few more times. Then hit the bare steel ares with the metal prep. I coated using two coats of the POR15 on the rusted bare steel areas only. It doesn't stick very good to painted surfaces. The other parts of the frame where there was still some paint of some sort I used the POR15 top coat. Two coats.

 

Took it out today for a trial run and to center the wheel. I started off with it pretty crooked and man did that mess up the computer stuff ! There must be an angle sensor in there or something. Once I got it centered everything was right again. It rides awesome! Better than before actually. Really pleased.


If anyone is interested... For the paint I have a system that works real good. I've been using it for many years. This is my kit.



Wash, clay bar, 3m rubbing compound on a foam pad with the awesome Maguire's DA system in a cordless drill. Then a fresh pad with 3m machine polish. This stuff is the secret ingredient. Follow with some wax. For an 11 year old Jeep the paint sure looks good by using this system.





Some outdoor shots with my good camera.

 

VERY clean bro! Love that murdered out look. Went with that on my last JK Black Sunshine. Also loving the POR15 chassis. Man, that stuff is magic. Those JW Speaker rear lights really add to the vehicle!

Have you tried any of Optimums car cleaning products? I highly recommend Optimums No Rinse car wash. Used that on my BRZ all the time and it was looking factory fresh when I sold it.

 

Thanks for the compliments I never heard of Optimum's. I'll check em out. Always willing to try something new.

 

So after looking at it for a few days I feel the rear is a little to low. At first I thought I just needed to get used to it because of the excessive factory rake. But the rear was in fact too low. Originally I was going to just level the Jeep with a Teraflex puck lift. I had bought it and stashed it in the corner. But I got thinking about it and added the 1" rear pucks. Seems right now.

 

This is an awesome thread! Nice build man!!

 

So now that I was happy with the ride height I needed to center the rear axle as well. I used a ReadyLift adjustable forged rear track bar. The rear axle was about 1.5" out.






With the adjustable front and rear track bars I was able to get everything dead nuts.



One thing that bugged me during the rebuild was the brake lines. They were rusty and felt pretty snug at full droop. Even with the relocation brackets. I replaced the front and rear hoses with some extended braided lines. Feel all warm and fuzzy now.

 

Out with the old...



I installed Mopar plug wires, ignition coil, and plug wire tray. I replaced the plugs with NGK Iridium. I can't believe how much better it runs. Feels much more peppy.



I took some time to clean up the engine bay.



With the new ignition kit it sure runs great. The Royal Purple front and rear axle fluid, Synchromesh manual trans fluid and fresh Mopar +4 fluid in the transfer case it really feels like a new buggy!