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Yes I agree great work and progress! I imagine its getting to you to get it going and be able to drive it. At least this way you know when finished it will be rock solid and will run for a very long time.
The air bag deployment sensors are behind the headlight buckets. Without an impact to give them a trigger (while meeting other criteria) is why they didn't deploy. I think there are certain speed requirements or other input from the G sensor inside the vehicle, but I'm shaky on that.
That would make sense. The headlight bucket area was not damaged, as the bumper took the brunt of the front end damage.
Ordered a rear driveshaft. Once that's in, I should be able to finally drive it around the neighborhood. Definitely a work in progress..
I'm assuming you want to use the sport cage you have. If you have a high-lift, you can bolt the driver side up to the window frame. Then position the high-lift so that it's pushing on the unbolted passenger bar while it's braced to the bolted driver bar. That may be enough to push the passenger bar into position.
Keep posting about your progress. I really enjoy this thread.
It's been a while since my last update. Honestly, it's been so hot here in TN this summer, hard to find the energy to sweat through wrenching sessions in my garage. Thus, I've spent the past couple of weeks researching body repair/collision companies to repair my rear tub. The tub is pushed in about 1/2" or less on both sides at the rear, just enough to ensure that my new tailgate will not mount properly. My windshield is cracked too, so planning to have a professional shop repair them both at once.
My Adams Driveshaft arrived and I started the install; however, I need to work at getting the old yoke off the transfer case. I'm probably going to buy a yoke puller at Harbor Freight since beating on it with several different hammers has not worked yet. I'll try again tomorrow with the hammer before I hit HF.
Since the last update, I've also installed the rear adjustable track bar bracket and stock track bar. The old Metal Cloak one interfered with the Artec truss so I went with a basic bolt-on one. Easy peasy. I also installed longer rear sway bar links. Thus, the rear suspension is now complete. Yay.
Once I finish up the driveshaft, I should be able to drive her around. I don't have any good pictures to show, as I dropped my phone and cracked the cover to the camera lens and now all my pictures are blurry...and I've spent all my $ on Jeep parts so a new phone is not in the budget.
Long holiday weekend ahead, so hoping I can get the driveshaft in and finally ride her on the road!
Finally got my rear driveshaft installed. I did not need the yoke puller after all, a few light taps and she popped out. It did take me some time to find the 1 5/16" THIN WALL socket needed to install the new yoke. What a PITA. I did find one at AutoZone.
Anyway, once it was together, I finally drove the jeep. Only took me 6 months to get her somewhat drive-able and guess what; she rode like absolute...
CRAP.
So, I did what I was trying to avoid - I loaded it on the trailer and towed it to my local shop. Once there, we discovered a slew of small issues - including my front bearings were shot, the wheels were loose (swear I tightened them, I know i tightened them) and my traction control is not liking my newly installed steering box.
In better news, one of the locals at the shop hooked me up with his super-cheap painting contact and I had my hood and grill painted factory white. Yay!
At the shop, I had my wheel bearings replaced and the wheels tightened. It rides much better but still has some major smoking/exhaust issues. It did finally throw a code, but I haven't checked it yet. I'll get to that next, followed by the massive project I've been dreading - fixing the rear tub and tailgate.
You can see from this picture (below) that the aftermarket tailgate is not level. This is due to the passenger side tub damage (that or a really crappy new tailgate). The local body shop I trust, quoted me at $3k to repair the tub. Ouch. I watched a few youtube videos about fixing tubs, so now I'm basically an expert on body repair...ha. In all seriousness, I am going to try repairing it myself first.
Has anyone ever tubed their tub? Thinking worst case I could cut off the bed, tube the rear and make one crazy cage with a tire carrier where the tailgate goes. Been searching online for ideas, but haven't seen any that cut the tub as much as I'm thinking here.
With the level of detail you're thinking with a tube tub, you can go with a rear end shell (eBay.....or I just saw one locally go for $600) or just turn the back end into a truck and terminate the cab portion early.
It looks like the tailgate just needs to be adjusted a little bit and it would work, but you've got it in front of you so maybe it's different.
Well, I installed the tailgate over the past couple of days. What a PITA. Even without dealing with my body damage, the Smittybilt tailgate is overly complicated to install. The instructions are sub-par, as several of the steps are out of order which caused me to install and then remove several parts multiple times. The routing for the factory wiring harness and the wiring for the included 3rd brake could use some improvement. I thought it had a nice finish to it, but it scratches super easy. On the positive side, the door itself is extremely sturdy and heavy. I've destroyed the camera on my phone, so it'll be a bit before I can upload new pics. I ended up having to slot hinge mounting points by about 1/8" to get my door to open/close and sit properly. Overall, it's going to work great and is beefy, but I won't forgot how much it sucked getting it done.
I've also been working on the JKU rear tub, trying to straighten it a bit and remove the dents. I took some backyard mechanic liberties to my approach on the body work, including using my SxS winch to pull out a few dents. I don't have any professional body tools or a handy frame machine, so I welded tabs (with pull holes) to various dents and then used the front winch on my Polaris to pull them out. It actually worked (kind of)! The hardest lesson I learned is that the tub metal is VERY thin, so you have to weld very carefully. Anyway, the dents aren't as bad now, but I do still need to spend more time touching them up.
My DIY dent pulling tabs...
Still have a TON to do, but making progress here. Maybe I'll have it run by Feb, which would be the 1 YR anniversary of me buying it. Ha.
Picked up a new phone this weekend, so now I'm back to taking some pics. Below are the latest pictures.
The plan for this week...
Tuesday - Hopefully one of the losers from Safelite will actually show up and replace my windshield. I've never been more frustrated and furious with a company - worst customer service ever.
Saturday - assuming windshield is fixed, I'm hauling the Jeep over to the dealer to get it scanned again. Maybe I'll finally figure out what's wrong with the motor. Once I get the diagnosis, I'll know if we're fixing it or pulling the motor. I've had my mind/heart set on the 6.4L conversion...but it's pricey, so we'll see what dealer says first. Just need a little bit of a reason here. Ha....
Meanwhile, my list of repair items is getting smaller. I still need to tidy up a few things here and there, but getting much closer to driving it regularly. Aside from titling the Jeep and paying taxes on it, I still need to buy wheels/tires, fix passenger side doors and the lingering question....should I raptor liner the entire jeep? Was thinking about a grey/blue color. Thoughts on bedliner on exterior? With the exception of two (both faded black), all of the ones I've seen in person have looked great.
Alright, here's how it sits currently (ignore the other black/white vehicles in my drive. ha)
07-17-2018, 05:20 AM
