Stock back to life

Rubbertoe100

Member
Joined
Jan 1, 2023
Messages
37
Location
Los Angeles
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Around the holidays I purchased this stock 2003 Sahara. Although it doesn’t look like mutch, the guts of this was nearly perfect.
90K miles , no rust inside or out.
Has either a a RMS or valve leak. (Going to replace both anyways)
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Internals have never been touched. Shocks, springs, sway links, all OE and 20 years old. Tires 11 years old. DIY paint job gone back too. So off to work I went.

First weekend with it: GUT the interior, what a mess.
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Did I mention no rust ?!

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No idea on the PO history with these seats. But these are getting reupholstered. No turning back.

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Once sanitized and throughly cleaned inside , took it from SoCal to SF Bay Area (might as well be a mechanical longevity check)
It made it. But I found this had next to no absorption in shocks/springs. And bottomed out easily on bumps.


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So I changed out the springs, for Moog stock height (3227 in rear) and shocks for ranchos (since this forum highly recommends them) even changed out the steering stabilizer.

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New tires as well. I looked at this and decided, screw it, time for paint rehab .
But I wasn’t going to start that until after the holidays.
 
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Picking out ACC carpet (since mine has none) — still deciding on this one. My seats are currently getting reupholstered so I’ll wait for those to come back before I decide on carpet. Don’t want conflicting colors.

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So while the seats are out, might as well paint it. I did all the surface prep trim/piece removals then drove it to my friends shop where he’ll finish painting it as he has time.

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Most update pic: 01/20/2023 almost time for some color. Getting back to OEM black color. This is truly a back to stock build.(we’ll see how long that lasts)
 
Wow, what a transformation. Looking good! You’re not wanna take that off the pavement.

I’m thinking once the paint cures (30-90 days) depending on weather, I’ll PPF the critical parts .
Jeep’s are meant for off-road :)
My friend just gave me some Rancho 9000 adjustable series shocks so I’m thinking of pairing with H&R coils
 
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Never mind the clutter. Back in the garage , still trying to source a couple of parts like an oem foglight . I changed the side markers/turn signals to white ones for a better contrast and threw in some LED headlights that I got for $25, much brighter .

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Swapped the Rancho 5000X for some 9000X (got them at an absolute steal $120 for the pair from someone local—new too)
Put in H&R springs (front and rear)
I went ahead and purchased Rancho 9000X for the rear as well (pricey, but I wanted to match 😢)
If anyone wants to purchase my relatively new Rear 5000X .

Next steps are interior work, lighting upgrades, sub/speakers cameras. Tedious but will add quality of life improvements
 
I might have some OEM fog lights in that vintage. I’ll check in a bit.