Ho ho ho...Merry Christmas!!

Happy holidays to all and I hope Santa brought everyone plenty of Jeep toys! I bought myself most of what I wanted during Black Friday and have been furiously installing in and around various snow storms and the constant freezing temperatures. Lots of updates to come between now and the end of the year!

Until then, here are the RR A-Pillar Switch Pods (LH & RH) Santa brought me this morning. I foresee a call to OTRATTW in my near future! Their fit was 'ok' and the fake plastic screws that hold the original parts on are a PITA to get out. I ended up drilling them out Otherwise, I like them...just need the switches now!

(Sorry for the dark photos, even with the flash they weren't turning out very well)





- Costs:
* RR A-Pillar Switch Pods - FREEBIE...HO HO HO!

 

A very nice looking jeep I've been following your build... I also have the RR a pillar switch pod and was wondering if you had any issues with the driver side pod contacting the inside of the door. Mine seems to just barely hit the door when closed and has a discolored spot where it's hitting. I was just curious if you noticed this with yours or not, I cant see a way to shim from behind it to push it away from the door.

Again though nice looking jeep, anxious to see the rest of your build

 

Hi Bob. I literally have driven less than 50 miles since putting them on so no wear marks on the doors yet. Knowing this though, I will keep an eye out as they don't fit great in the door area. Check back in a few weeks!

 

As promised, let the updates roll!

First up, I decided to relocate the license plate to the spare tire. The serves 2 purposes, it looks better and it lessens the chance that a branch on the trail or a car wash takes it off for you (oddly enough, my buddy lost his in the car wash the other day ). I looked around and it seemed to me the relocation kits out there were kind of pricey. Plus, I was trying to integrate with the Teraflex tire carrier kit I already have which moves the CHMSL. You can see how it looked when I started below:



First, I removed the stock plate holder and extended the harness into the tailgate. While I had the tailgate tore apart, I also ran the coax for my new CB setup into the cargo area...that will be in a future update. With the harness extended, I put the new delete plate in place. This easily snaps in.



From there I turned to fabrication. Below is the CHMSL relocation plate that came with the Teraflex kit.



I wanted to use the same premise while supersizing it to hold the license plate too. I went to Lowe's and picked up a .063" thick sheet of aluminum diamond plate. From there I traced and cut out the plate to hold both the plate and the CHMSL. The top 2 holes are for the CHMSL. The next set of holes is how the plate is mounted to the Teraflex Tire Carrier. Finally, you can barely see (4) white inserts, these are part of the license plate mounting kit I picked up from Autozone. It turned out like this:



From there, I tore it down and hit it with some Plastidip!



I wanted to keep the license plate light function and keep it as stock looking as possible. I therefore, took the stock plate holder and threw my cutoff wheel at it...figuratively...not literally. As you can see, when I was done, there wasn't much left to it. It was pretty much the mounting plate and light holder. Since I cut away most of the structure, I used a bit of epoxy to hold it together. Here are a front and rear shot:



Next was the final mockup before mounting to the vehicle, I was pretty happy with the results!



The last bit to take care of was the wiring. As I extended the harness out to the tailgate, I now needed a simple, weathertight way to connect the light. I settled on a 2 way trailer lighting pigtail. These worked perfect for the application and were quite inexpensive!



With all my connections soldered, shrunk wrapped and taped it was time for final assembly! Here it is! Can you tell we've had some snow?



- Costs:
* Diamond Plate - $22
* 2 way Trailer Pigtails - $4
* License Plate Hardware kit - $4
* License Plate Delete Plate - $18

 

So a month or so ago I tried out some LED Fog Light bulbs I had found on eBay. I can come back today and say, "save your money"...they suck.

Not only was the light output suspect but today while washing the Jeep I could see something sitting inside the fog light housing. Upon further inspection, it was the reflector from the bulb. I took the other bulb out to find it had about broken in half.

Summary...save your money for Trucklites or JW's...I am!

 

On a happier note, now that the rig is cleaned up a bit, I can proudly post a couple shots of my new Ace rock sliders!

I had ordered these during Ace's Black Friday sale and since Ace's shop is 4 miles from my house, I opted to pick them up and save the shipping. Even though I ordered Black Friday, it still took 3 weeks to get them as they weren't readily available. AJ kept me updated and I picked them up last week.

Pulling the body mount bolts was a piece of cake. Cutting the giant washers down was more of an inconvenience than anything. They are thick so be sure to have a good cutoff wheel or a bench grinder. I used a cutoff wheel and it probably took me an hour to do all 6 bolts. I'm thinking this would have been a good excuse to buy that bench grinder!

Remounting was simple and I was able to do it unassisted. I put one end on a jackstand while I bolted the other end in place. Torque to 80 lb-ft and you're all set! The fit is great and they go well with my Rubi rail takeoffs. Plus, my short gf can now use them as a step and get in without killing herself!





- Cost:
* Ace 4dr Rock Sliders - $292 (Black Friday sale, no freight, MI state sales tax)

 

Continuing with the Black Friday part installations, next up is the 10,000lb Engo winch! I got this from Krawl Offroad during their BF sale. The part shipped promptly and looked good upon receipt.

I ordered the steel cable version as I wanted a black synthetic line to go along with the blacked out motif of my ride. The Engo synthetic cables are blue and stick out like a sore thumb.

A quick dry fit to the bumper showed the solenoid box does not clear my bumpers bull bar. This was going to get relocated anyway since it just looks out of place sitting up on top of the drum. Relocation has now moved up the priority list, that's all. The winch comes with the mounting hardware and it was a bit of a challenge to get it snugged up without removing the bumper. During dryfit I noticed I wouldn't have been able to get some of the bumper bolts back in had I taken the bumper off to install the winch, so it stayed on.



Once secured, I jiggered up the solenoid box to my battery charger and set it for 100amp. I plugged in the controller and unspooled the steel cable. Once unspooled, I unscrewed it from the drum. After a quick inspection of the drum (burrs, sharp edges, etc) I screwed my new synthetic cable on and proceeded to spool it up!

It fed on easily and looks good. The steel line was 100', the synthetic is only 85' as it is quite a bit thicker in diameter. I don't think a 100' would have fit. So here it is with the new line! (Note, I have a brand new steel winch line for sale, make offer! )



Finally, for good measure I put a cover on to protect the line a bit from UV and the elements...cheap insurance.



- Costs:
* Engo 10,000lb winch - $299
* Synthetic winch line - $187
* Winch cover - $16

 

It's been in the 40's the last couple of days so laying on cold concrete hasn't been quite as bad. Anyway, I tossed in these Teraflex Exhaust Spacers to go along with the lift I did a couple months back. The pieces look real nice and seemed simple enough to install...too simple.



Below is Teraflex's video on the install:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKBlEpMaJC4&feature=player_embedded Seems straightforward. Remove/loosen 5 bolts and cut off a spot weld. Insert spacers, tighten 5 bolts. Celebrate with a beer.

Now for my real world summary! Remove/loosen 5 bolts...check. Whack at spot weld repeatedly with cold chisel and hammer...the spot weld laughs back at you...check. Fire up the compressor and have at the spot weld with the cutoff wheel...the spot weld yields only to the point where you can get it flush with the clamp...check. Switch to the 90 degree grinder with abrasive bit...spot weld is eradicated...check! Insert the spacers and the 4 new bolts/washers supplied...check. Fight with the Y pipe to get it all aligned while tightening...check. Tighten clamp at the crossover...check. Fire up the engine and listen for exhaust leaks...

I let it run for a few minutes and didn't hear any leaks per se. What I did notice though was condensation dripping from each spacer! I crawled back under and double checked everything. alignment of the spacers seems pretty good on both sides. The bolts are tight even though getting at the drivers side bolt is a major challenge with a combo wrench. I then took to the internet and low and behold found this is somewhat common. I found the following thread on another site:

Teraflex Exhaust Spacers

Long story short, seems like this is a fairly common issue and no one seems to have a good fix. Teraflex suggested torqueing to 25 ft-lbs so I crawled back under. Seems that I was already at 25 using my wrench so bolt torque wasn't an issue. I'm at a bit of a loss for now and will see if I can get a better alignment of the spacers but as I mentioned, they aren't bad IMO.

- Cost:
* Teraflex Exhaust Spacers - $45 and a bit of my sanity

 

Now that I have my Teraflex Tire Carrier & Hi-Lift mount installed, I went ahead and installed a CB setup as the antenna mounts to that as well.

When I tore down the tailgate to run the wire for the license plate light I ran the coax at the same time. I kind of forgot to take picture though...oops! What I can do...and it's the same link I used for refrerence, is to send you here:

Coax Routing

jsmoriss posted some good step by step photos there...better than I would have done!

Once the coax was run into the rear of the cabin, I went ahead and routed it under the carpet up along the passengers side. Once it got under the rear seat, I then angled it towards the center console. There I mounted an old Uniden 510XL I had laying around in the console. I'm not sure it will stay there long term but I like it better than any of the other options I've seen thus far. As for the antenna and coax...I used a 3' Firestik 2 and a Firestik 18' coax cable with stud.



The only thing I still need to do is to tune the antenna with an SWR meter. I don't own one and am currently asking around to see if anyone I know has one. If your local and can help...I pay in beer!

- Costs:
* Firestick Antenna - $19
* Firestick Coax and Stud - $22
* Uniden 510XL CB - Freebie!

 

Very nice build thread! Just read through all 9 pages and job well done.

Regarding the SWR, I had a hell of a time finding one in my city. I spoke to a couple truckers at a gas station to see where they get their cb stuff and they pointed me out basically the only cb store in town. It was inside one of the larger truck stops we have in the city. It was actually really cheap though.