2006 Jeep LJ build thread

Jeepersteve71

TJ Enthusiast
Joined
Jan 25, 2017
Messages
548
Location
Fort Worth, TX, United States
We are new to the TJ/LJ scene and new to this forum! Always had friends with with ones but never one of our own. We currently own a fully restored 1971 Jeepster Commando. Over the years we have owned many heels from the Jeepster, to full size Cherokee, a J10, libertys, 4 door Rubicon, and etc. I bought sometime last year our first 2002 Jeep Wrangler 4 cylinder. We modified a little bit and got some enjoyment out of it and then sold it. Sold to get a better commuter car with better gas mileage as I travel 20 miles one way for work.

We now have a 2006 Jeep LJ 6 cylinder 6 speed. Weren't planning on buying it but the deal was so good we couldn't refuse. Had 68,000 original miles on it and paid $13,500 for it. Since then we have sold some Jeep parts to fund our project and thus far we have only invested $5,000 +/-. I will post photos of the first day we bought it to where it is today. We have installed everything on our own. Purchased anything on Craigslist that we can and don't pay the sticker price for the rest :).

Current list of mods since purchased:
2 inch pro comp lift (coils and shocks)
33x10.50 BFG KO2's
Daystar bump stops
Rubicon express shock relocation brackets
Smittybilt spare tire bracket
New slotted and drilled rotors with pads and new emergency brakes all the way around
Borla cat back exhaust
Smittybilt front and rear rock crawler bumpers
Smittybilt 9.5 inch cable winch and mount
10 inch KC light bar
Rubicon rockers
N-Fab rails
Rubicon fender flares
Bestop trek top
Spider web shades bikini top
Trek armor front seat covers
New kicker speakers all the way around
12 inch alpine sub and Sony head deck
Daystar upper dash tray
Rugged ridge console lid cover
Replaced interior lights with LEDs
Tinted front windows
New windsheild
Factory red half doors
Smittybilt upper door windows
Hi lift jack
Hi lift rear roll bar mount

Mods to come:
1 inch body lift
1 inch motor mount lift
Rokmen transmission skid
Rokmen high clearance gas tank skid
Rokmen engine skid
Currie steering upgrade
Currie upper and lower arms
KC gravity LED headlights
KC LED tailights
KC HID lights and winshied mount
Bed rug kit
Trek armor/bartact matching rear seat cover
And as always I'm sure there is more..

I will be posting the new mods on here as I get around to buying them and installing them. If you have any questions let me know! Would love to help and learn more on here!

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Welcome aboard. That is an awesome deal and I love the pic of your LJ and Jeepster together. It's like a grandson and grandpa hanging out. But it looks like grandpa can still kick some butt.
 
Welcome aboard. That is an awesome deal and I love the pic of your LJ and Jeepster together. It's like a grandson and grandpa hanging out. But it looks like grandpa can still kick some butt.

Thanks!

The Jeepster was a father son project for my dad and I. It took around 3 years to get it where it is today. We finished it the week before I got married so my wife and I could drive it away. The goal was to make the LJ look similar to the Jeepster without taking away from the cool looks of the LJ. I guess you could say we have a thing for the color red, somewhat rare, and extended Jeeps!
 
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Awesome LJ, my favorite color too!

That Jeepster is awesome. Hell, I didn't even know such a thing ever existed until just now!

I see you have a lot of nice mods planned for that LJ!
 
T


That's the plan at least! Not looking to go to extreme. Just enough for some over landing!

I hear ya, that's what I do as well, mostly just overlanding stuff, I'm not really into rock crawling or those sorts of things, just exploring.
 
Welcome to the "club" and that's a great pair of Jeeps. Have you ever considered combining the front of your Jeepster with your LJ? ;-)

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I've seen this before! Unfortunately the parts are not interchangeable lol.The guy that makes these uses fiberglass to get the same shape/style out of them. I have thought long and hard about putting our Jeepster on an LG frame with the straight six feel injected six speed as well Lol.
 
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That's jscherb who is active on another forum and he's the one who built a CJ front clip to go on the same LJ. He designed the safari top for the LJ and GR8TOPS now manufactures them as well as his heavy duty tailgate hinge kit.

That's very cool, I like it a lot!
 
That's jscherb who is active on another forum and he's the one who built a CJ front clip to go on the same LJ. He designed the safari top for the LJ and GR8TOPS now manufactures them as well as his heavy duty tailgate hinge kit.
Yup! He has been on our Jeepster Facebook page and forum too. It does peak a lot of interest lol.
 
So far so good on the 1 inch body lift. Looks like I'll have to modify a few things to make it just right. The washers that were included are the wrong size hold so I'll either have to drill out the hol a little bit or buy new washers. One two of the frame mounts will need to be opened up a bit and I still need to reinstall the shifter linkage. Other than that it hasn't been to bad. Hopefully I can be 100% finished with the body lift tomorrow so I can start on the motor lift. the goal is to have both of those done by Sunday and then I'll have to start looking into what skid plates I want to order.

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Got the body lift installed tonight! Starting tomorrow night or Saturday I'm going to knock the motor mount lift. I must say I'm impressed even though it is only 1 inch. Was a pain but over all not to bad. I did notice the body moved forward a tad but I'm sure after 50 miles it will reset and I can retorque all of the bolts down. I also found it much easier to remove the spare to get to the rear a little easier. Can't wait to get this thing outside to compare the before and after pics!

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That's a tiny garage! Hopefully you're not trying to do all of that work in such a tight space, that would make it all that much more difficult.
 
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