2003 Texas Sahara Build

I bought my 2003 Sahara on July 16th 2019 and initially focused on steering and suspension to give it some decent road manners and keep it from acting like an idiot on the highway. From there I started in on some of the other stuff I wanted to do.

It isn't really a daily driver or a trail vehicle, but sort of in the middle as an occasional fire road/camp/explore vehicle that I can take off the beaten path a bit and enjoy with my wife and my dog, so it will probably be a pretty tame build in the end.

My starting point was a mostly stock 5 speed / 4.0 liter I6 Sahara in Shale Green Metallic and somehow I managed not to take any pictures of it until recently (fail). It was a Texas Jeep with two previous owners and 141341 miles when I got it. The only things really done to it were that the PO replaced the factory Canyons that were on it with some American Racing AR62 Outlaws and fitted it with a cold air intake. I removed the CAI and replaced it with a factory air box and tube from a salvage yard pretty quickly and I like the AR62's so no plan to change them in the near future.

I had new tires installed on my way home from purchasing it, and overall it was in pretty good cosmetic and mechanical condition without any noteworthy rust, though it definitely needed the steering and suspension freshened up since it was all still original.

Regarding the build and maintenance I plan to do everything I can myself as I am a bit of a control freak and don't like people working on my stuff when I can do it myself. I even plan to have a very hands on experience in an eventual rebuild of the engine when the time comes (something I have NEVER done). For me I probably enjoy the wrenching almost as much as driving it.

Here is what I have done so far...

07/16/2019 - Tires (BFG KO2 31x10.50)
07/17/2019 - Oil and filter change, grease all zerks on front end
07/19/2019 - Coolant drain and refill, new radiator cap
07/23/2019 - Transmission shifter bezel replacement (Omix-Ada 18886.94)
08/04/2019 - Front sway bar bushings (Moog K7352) and sway bar links (Moog K3197)
08/04/2019 - Rear sway bar bushings (Moog K3160) and sway bar links (Moog K80244)
08/07/2019 - Track bar (Moog DS1235), problem solver tie rod (Moog DS1326S), tie rod ends (Moog ES3094L, ES3095R, ES3096L) tie rod adjusting sleeve (ES2079S) drag link (Moog DS1430), steering damper (Monroe SC928)
08/11/2019 - Front and rear shocks (Bilstein 5100), front and rear springs (Moog 3226/3227)
08/13/2019 - Bump stops replaced (Crown 52087636AC)
08/25/2019 - Factory air box (to replace CAI that PO installed), air filter, PVC elbows (Dorman 47079, 47057), PVC gromets (Dorman 42344)
08/28/2019 - Tuffy glove box, deluxe center console, rear lock boxes
08/31/2019 - Kenwood BT325U stereo, Kicker fronts/rears/sub, Rockford Fosgate 5 channel amp
09/08/2019 - President McKinley CB/SSB radio, Firestik 3 ft antenna
09/14/2019 - New battery (Duralast Gold)
09/22/2019 - Front upper and lower control arms and axle bushings (Moog RK640331, RK640734, K3128)
09/29/2019 - Raptor Liner applied to hard top
10/05/2019 - ARB front bumper, Warn M8000 winch, El Jefe winch cover
10/09/2019 - Rear lower control arms (RK640734)

Upcoming...
Front upper and lower ball joints (Moog K3161T, K3134T) (sitting on my kitchen table)
Rear upper control arms (Moog RK620246) (sitting on my kitchen table)
0.75" front coil spacers (Daystar KJ09108BK) (sitting on my kitchen table)
Universal joints - front axle (Spicer 5-760x)
Universal joints - drive shafts (Spicer 5-1310x)


Current State as of 10/07/2019

08/13/2019

Well, I guess my front end is pretty much refreshed now. I spent the last few days knocking this out in the driveway and it drives so much better and no wobble on the highway either.

I still have a fair amount of things to tidy up however like my ball joints and all my control arms, but this is a start!









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09/08/2019

Installed my CB this afternoon, a President McKinley / 3ft Firestik combo.

Since I have the locking Tuffy console I wanted to be able to shut it and lock it without having to undo the mic cable each time so I got myself a 6 pin extension with a right angle at the CB and routed it underneath and out to the front of the console. Now the mic can stay plugged in at all times and the top can still close down and lock.





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09/22/2019

Got my front upper and lower control arms installed this morning. As expected those axle bushings kicked my butt for a while but I eventually got em out of there and got the new ones pressed in.


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09/29/2019

My hard top was looking pretty old and faded from the Texas sun beating down on it for years, so I decided I would go the DIY route and use the UPOL Raptor kit.

I did it in my driveway and took around half a day with minimal prep since I rolled it instead of spraying it. I chose this method because my compressor doesn't really meet the requirements to spray it and while I would like to have a reason to get a bigger one, I just haven't had the need for one until this project.

Basically I propped the top up an inch or two right on the Jeep, scuffed it, degreased it, rolled a layer and let it flash, rolled a second, and I was done. However the next morning after running my hands on it I decided that I didn't quite like the texture of the supplied rollers, it was a bit too rough.

I took 80 grit and went around the whole thing and knocked off all the peaks to where a cloth wouldn't snag on anything when wiping it, degreased it again, and rolled a final layer on with a smooth roller like you might use on a cabinet or something to help smooth out the overall finish a bit.

Now it has a texture similar to what it had previously.

The only issue I can really see is where I re-rolled some areas while my roller wasn't fully saturated and it kinda gave it a bit more of a matte finish there than the parts where I didn't. You kinda have to see it at the right angle to notice though and I figure after it gets a nice layer of Texas dust on it it won't matter anyway.

Compared to what I started with, I like it much better and I still have an unused bottle for future needs.

Here are a few pics...









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10/05/2019

I installed my ARB front bumper and a Warn M8000 winch over the weekend.

Overall front height loss was around 1/2 - 5/8 inches on my two month old Moog 3226 / Bilstein 5100 setup.

To compensate I picked up the Daystar 0.75 coil spacers for the front to hopefully install this weekend and as an added bonus they are Made in the USA.

Regarding lights, I am still relatively early in this build and don't currently have a need for high intensity lights just yet so I mounted the factory Hella lamps that were on my stock bumper to the ARB.

Finally to top it off I added a winch cover so the Warn doesn't end up looking like the rust buckets I kept finding on Craigslist when I was initially trying to find one used.





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sa1126 said:

Nice work. I need to look into a total bushing refresh as well.

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Thanks!

I chose not to mess around with bushing replacements on the control arms (except for the axle bushing on the front) and just bought new ones. I don't recall the price difference but after considering the time and effort required it made sense for me.

coastalcop said:

great start!! The bug will bite harder though. I thought I was "done" until... a re-gear to 5.13 for the 42 tranny in my 03 rubicon.

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Thanks! Keeping my cart behind my horse is something I haven't always been good at in other life adventures so I'm "trying" to think things through, go slow, and appreciate the build after each little checkbox. Sometimes the big weekend accomplishment is just a little thing like new bump stops, but I still try to appreciate their role in the big picture.

Sometimes just when I think I've got my brain wrapped around how everything works and interacts with other things in the drive line, suspension, etc., I realize that I was mostly wrong and have to go back and start emptying out shopping carts all over the internet.

These forums have helped my understanding immensely though, I learn new things daily from the posts here.