Assuming you're not a fan of the hood/grill combo? What if I paint it neon green?

 

I don't think even green woudl help. Its pretty much everything done to it from the wheels/tires to the rear end, fenders, chopped bumpers, window air dams and then yes the hood and grill. We have one here in town that is pretty close to as ugly, I will take a photo next time I go by it.

All you need now to complete is to add about 10 off road lights with a double 50" above the windshield and some color changing lights under it.

 

Yor're a smart guy, but damn you make me cringe sometimes.

 

Definitely send me the pic of the other ugly jeep in your area. We may need to start a new section called Dirtman's Ugly Jeeps, so we can keep track of all the jeeps that have modified their bumpers, fenders, wheels and tires.


I haven't even thought about light bars yet, but I appreciate your suggestion here. I could probably even buy non-working ones since I'm only going to use my jeep at the mall during daylight hours. I bet then I could capture some kickass pictures to post on jeep forums and Instagram. Thinking maybe 4 50" bars across the front would really set it off.


In normal update news - Safelite redeemed themselves yesterday and installed my new windshield. Plan is to load up the trailer to have the engine tested this weekend. More to come here.

 

I will post that photo up once I get it

 

I was able to trailer my jeep over to the dealer the other week. Within a few hours, they were able to determine why the engine was running so poorly - bad spark plugs. They swapped in a couple of new plugs on passenger bank and now the motor purrs. Hmm...apparently, the plugs I bought from local parts store were 'not recommended'.

Once that was solved, they put my Jeep on the rack to inspect the exhaust leak noise (recall from previous posts that Jeep ran but was louder than normal). Turns out, there was a solid 1" gash / opening in the catalytic converter on the left side. As much time as I've spent under the Jeep, not sure how I missed it. Honestly, this entire time, I thought it was something more serious and was preparing myself to do the Hemi swap. Pricing was steep at the dealer on the replacement, so I towed it home and pulled out the Miller.





We'll see if this weld holds up or if I'll have to actually swap the entire unit. These converters are several hundred $, so trying to conserve funds to finally buy beadlocks and 37s. On a related note, I'm already over my budget and still need to spend $3k on wheels/tires. Bumpers may have to come later.

Next step is to install converter and then see if I can pass TN emissions so I can finally get a plate.

 

Sounds like it's coming along really nice.

 

Made more progress - I finished replacing the left cat, installed a new clock spring and also a touch screen stereo. Fired her up today and great news - no more warning light issues on the dash! No idea how to use the new stereo, but it looks cool at least.

I followed the very detailed instructions for the clock spring replacement from a user on YouTube. Thanks to that video, replacement only took about an hour (most of the time was spent trying to pull off the steering wheel). A trip to Autozone netted me a rental steering wheel puller, which allowed me to complete the job. I did have to use a couple of sockets to make the puller tight enough to pull off the wheel. Once the wheel came off, part of the clock spring fell into my hands. It was clearly broken. Swapped it out with the new Mopar one and reassembled.


Steering Wheel Puller - added in the sockets to make it work.


Clock spring was two pieces - the outer ring fell right into my hand when the wheel came off.


New clock spring loaded up and ready to re-install the wheel...






While I was there messing with the dash, it was a good time to pull the factory stereo. I replaced it with a 10.5" touch screen from Seicane. Like most Chinese made electronics, there were no installation instructions, but it was relatively simple overall. The final fit of the dash is not perfect, but it's fairly close. This stereo has plug-ins to run multiple cameras, among other external options. I purchased a rear view camera, but thinking about buying another so I can mount one under the front end for trail riding, as the hood makes it very hard to see over the passenger side.


Once the jeep was completely assembled, I took it for a test drive around the neighborhood. It rides so SMOOTH! So, then I drove it a couple of miles down the street to fill it with fresh gas.

Next step - I'm going to see if the TN emissions station and county clerk are open on Monday. Will try to finally get my tags.

 

This has been a lot of work to watch, I went through something similar about 20 years ago with an XJ... it is always good to see light at the end! ! Glad to see it is coming together, Merry Christmas!

 

Update - I passed emissions and was able to finally get my TN tag. Thus, 11 months and over-budget...but I'm finally legal!

In the past few weeks I also picked up a set of beadlocks and 37 Toyos from a local 4x4 shop. I spent a few hours mounting them myself in the garage. This was a first for me, but between all the online videos and forums, it wasn't bad mounting them - just time consuming. Actually, the hardest part of installing this combo was finding a shop that would balance them.

KMC Machete Beadlocks 17"

37x13.5x17 Toyo Open Country MTs




I mounted the set of 5 wheels/tires over the course of two evenings while everyone was asleep. Took me about 30-40 minutes per tire following the torque specs from KMC. I get bored easily, so don't think I'd have the patience do to all 5 in one sitting. Kudos to anyone that can. HA.

Once wheels were mounted and balanced, I was finally able to get them on the Jeep. I like this setup way better than the 20" wheels that came it. I was able to sell those wheels and tires, and that will fund my upcoming upgrades.



I did swap out my factory front bumper, which I had stubby cut, for a basic Rough Country bumper with the low profile winch mount one. Eventually I'll get a winch, but goal here was to keep it low so I retain max airflow

I started on the electrical accessories as well, beginning with the Spod knock-off, headlight/fog light halos (kids love changing the colors) and back up camera. I'm planning to run rock lights, multiple trail cameras and I still need to wire up the rubicon axles to actually use the front and rear factory lockers, so those are next on my build list.

Oh, and I spoke to my painter recently....trying to decide if I want to raptor liner the entire Jeep myself (change colors completely) or have him professionally clean up the white/black combo I have going now (idea is to paint XRC fenders factory white) . More to come here...I'm so torn.