somewhereinla

Here are some of the latest upgrades installed on my JK over the first 2 weekends on March. First, I bought a used AEV bumper, once I received it I noticed that there were a few scratches and mild rust spots here and there so I decided to sand out the rust and give it a couple of coat of paint. I used a semi-matte finish which pretty much match the original color. Next day I put the bumper together, and this was quite a tedious installed. I wouldn’t say that it was very complicated, but you have to pay close attention to the order everything goes. The AEV instructions are a bit vague at time, so I relied mostly on a write up I found on another forum. It took me a day and 1/2 to install the bumper and winch. I got a Superwinch EP 9.0, but I needed to relocate the solenoid on the center top of the winch as the winch wouldn’t fit the bumper with the solenoid on the side. Superwinch doesn’t make a bracket for it so I had to be creative and found a very good solution for it by using 4 rubber insulated clamps which just happened to perfectly fit 4 pre-drilled hole on the bottom of solenoid box and be the perfect size and width for the tie bars diameter and width. I also added a synthetic line to the winch.
Last weekend, I set up to install the OME lift. I wanted my lift to be under 3” and decided to use the medium/light spring in the rear and the HD spring in the front to compensate for the extra weight ( spring part# 616 & 617 ). I used Way's of life write up, which is excellent, thank you WOL. It did take me an entire day to put it on, I was very careful and didn’t want to rush it. I did need my girlfriend’s help to get the rear track bar to line up with the axle mount hole. It wouldn’t have been possible to do without anyone helping. I am very happy with the lift and especially the ride, everything feels stronger and smoother.
On Sunday I spent the day installing/routing/connecting the winch cables and the switch box which is on the pricey side but worth every penny and more. it is extremely well build and it comes with plenty of spare parts, ties and other little thing you may need for your particular set-up. I only got the circuit breaker box with all the cables and accessories but not the console as I want to built my own. The last thing I did was to install a cb antenna mount with quick disconnect and routed the antenna cable to the front. I haven’t tuned the antenna yet. The only thing left to do is to install the AEV skid plate.

This was my first experience working on a car, I actually was originally contemplating having most of it if not everything done by a shop, but thanks to the encouragements of some of the folks on the South Cal. sub-forum, I decided to do it all. The point being, if I can do it anyone can do it. Another reason for doing so was the choice of going with the AEV bumper... I knew it would have been very expensive to have it installed by a shop, and this was an expense I wasn't willing to make.

Here are some before and after pictures... Enjoy.

m(a)ce

congratulations on all the mods! looking good!

& also big ups on DIY.

bigbluejk

I love that jeep. Looks perfect.

pearl-drum-man

Looks great!