The Silver Fox LJ Build
- Thread starter JMT
- Start date
I forgot my son asked me to go skiing on Saturday. Maybe there will be snow. He went today and it was suck!
I agree. I’ve been around this forum just long enough to be very impressed. I’ve seen some cool builds on here.
There are a lot of big builds going on in build threads and some with good clean work. The forum has definitely grown. Hopefully there will be some better built TJ's out there as a result. A lot from the past look like crap, ride like crap, and are crap!
I'm glad I caught this before you made your Ninja Edit, Jeremy...
Nice catch! LOL
Hey! How are you guys holding up in TN with all the ice and fallen trees?
Doing well. Not too much damage here, and we've not lost power. We lost a lot of big branches, and there are quite a few big trees down in the neighborhood.
But, a bunch of places in TN did not fare so well:
That looks terrible Jeff. Prayers for folks out there and the rescue and support personnel managing the disaster.
I've seen some sketchy builds and yours doesn't fall into that category. Frugal maybe, but not sketchy!
I've seen some sketchy builds and yours doesn't fall into that category. Frugal maybe, but not sketchy!
Just the driver
The outboard is pretty much done. If you can midarm ahead of time that’s good because you don’t have to mess with the rear trackbar. You should also re-position your upper perches. You need to do a rear caliper flip. All this is important and if you’re not OCD become OCD.
The outboard is a big job, so accept that. It took me awihle to accept it Load up your rig with everything you want in it for a ride height and shock travel bias. Consider your gas tank, passengers, shock towers, shocks, tools, everything. Make sure your axle is centered and the pinion is set. and set the axle at that height for this procedure. Then measure everything at that ride height. I measured my axle height, the frame rail aft of the lower ca bracket at the rail, the rear corners, the lift amount. You need to duplicate the ride height while you outboard with jackstands at the frame wrail aft of the rear ca bracket and at the rear bumper. That’s why you are doing this so you don’t screw it up. Basically do exactly what @hosejockey61 says to do in his ouboard video on BFH Garage.
Follow everything there.
I had to do some special things in the process to get to my goals. I wanted to drop 1” because it was already 5.25” SL: + 1.25” bl and I wanted to go to 4” SL + 1.25” BL. The highline and rear armor cut will accommodate the 37’s. My gas tank skid was already raised 1” and when I did the rear frame tuck I didn’t want to drop my 1” raised tank back to the stock position, so after all was said and done with the outboard I massaged the front gas tank crossmember and drilled out (Hi Blaine) some of the holes for the gas tank bolts to fit through so it would fit. It’s tight, but I didn’t lose any gas tank clearance relative to what I had before. I bought new Rock Jock RH1 springs to replace the RH3 springs. Those are going to someone else. Everything worked out numbers-wise. I am right where I want to be except about 3/8” on the passenger side. I need to add a spacer. It’s literally just lower, always has been on all my rigs, and I couldn’t figure out why. It’s easy enough to correct.
I cut the armor to match the angles of the front GR fender. I painted everything including the edges of the tub I cut. I ditched the evap canister and re-routed the hoses. I was going to keep it, but then I couldn’t sneak it in with the PolyPerformance tower. I’m sure there’s a way, but I needed to get it done today and haven’t thought through that yet. My shock angle is about 88* to the lower control arm. I have 6.25” uptravel and 5.75 downtravel with the current weight in the rear, and gas tank re-installed which is a midway point between fully loaded with passengers and fully loaded without passengers for trips. I paint matched the wheel wells. I’m pretty happy. My back hurts, there was metal everywhere from cutting and grinding, it’s all worth it, I think. LOL. I’m sure I could improve somewhere.
I will move to the front next. I need to drop it 1.25”. Not a problem since there’s a 1.25” spacer. This was all part of my plan. I will do Blaine’s 17” BBK next along with the TR flip.
The outboard is a big job, so accept that. It took me awihle to accept it Load up your rig with everything you want in it for a ride height and shock travel bias. Consider your gas tank, passengers, shock towers, shocks, tools, everything. Make sure your axle is centered and the pinion is set. and set the axle at that height for this procedure. Then measure everything at that ride height. I measured my axle height, the frame rail aft of the lower ca bracket at the rail, the rear corners, the lift amount. You need to duplicate the ride height while you outboard with jackstands at the frame wrail aft of the rear ca bracket and at the rear bumper. That’s why you are doing this so you don’t screw it up. Basically do exactly what @hosejockey61 says to do in his ouboard video on BFH Garage.
Follow everything there.
I had to do some special things in the process to get to my goals. I wanted to drop 1” because it was already 5.25” SL: + 1.25” bl and I wanted to go to 4” SL + 1.25” BL. The highline and rear armor cut will accommodate the 37’s. My gas tank skid was already raised 1” and when I did the rear frame tuck I didn’t want to drop my 1” raised tank back to the stock position, so after all was said and done with the outboard I massaged the front gas tank crossmember and drilled out (Hi Blaine) some of the holes for the gas tank bolts to fit through so it would fit. It’s tight, but I didn’t lose any gas tank clearance relative to what I had before. I bought new Rock Jock RH1 springs to replace the RH3 springs. Those are going to someone else. Everything worked out numbers-wise. I am right where I want to be except about 3/8” on the passenger side. I need to add a spacer. It’s literally just lower, always has been on all my rigs, and I couldn’t figure out why. It’s easy enough to correct.
I cut the armor to match the angles of the front GR fender. I painted everything including the edges of the tub I cut. I ditched the evap canister and re-routed the hoses. I was going to keep it, but then I couldn’t sneak it in with the PolyPerformance tower. I’m sure there’s a way, but I needed to get it done today and haven’t thought through that yet. My shock angle is about 88* to the lower control arm. I have 6.25” uptravel and 5.75 downtravel with the current weight in the rear, and gas tank re-installed which is a midway point between fully loaded with passengers and fully loaded without passengers for trips. I paint matched the wheel wells. I’m pretty happy. My back hurts, there was metal everywhere from cutting and grinding, it’s all worth it, I think. LOL. I’m sure I could improve somewhere.
I will move to the front next. I need to drop it 1.25”. Not a problem since there’s a 1.25” spacer. This was all part of my plan. I will do Blaine’s 17” BBK next along with the TR flip.
Sanity! I love cheese
. I should’ve been a mouse 
.Thanks for your help and vid Mike. Thanks especially to @mrblaine since all this traces back to him whether I followed it correctly or not.
looks great Jeremy! just missing a couple things that shall not be named!
