Backstory
I'm a little late making my build thread but oh well. I bought this jeep a little over 4 years ago in my sophomore year of HS to replace a beat-up pos 99 Tj with a 4 cyl and rotted body mounts that I had for just a year beforehand. It's a 2002 Sport with a 5-speed and a 4.0L. I bought it completely stock except for what I can assume after some research is a 2.5in RC suspension lift that just included the coils and shocks (that are still installed currently). It had around 150k miles and I bought it for around 8k. Here are some pics of what it looked like on the lot (don't have any pics of the frame but it was almost spotless at the time of purchase). It is my DD and I try to take it offroad as often as I can (being in pre-med at college is making that very difficult sadly).
Currently
Now 4 years later I've put about 25k miles on it and added on:
Right now I am doing some work in the rocker guard rear bumper area. The powder coating on them was not done very well and the rust between the two was beginning to become a real eye-sore. So I removed the rocker guards and they are currently getting sandblasted. I made the decision not to put the bumper/tire carrier back on for weight savings (I'm going to grind/sand off the rust and repaint them and sell them on here once I'm done). I am no longer going to carry a spare unless I go offroad where I will just throw it in the backseat area. I ordered a rear bumper plate (https://www.barnes4wd.com/TJ-LJ-Rear-Tail-Plate-Bumper_p_308.html) that only weighs 15lbs and costs just $130. Once I get that and my rocker guards back from the shop I will paint them and reinstall.
Future Plans
As of right now, I would like to keep my jeep forever and turn this into a trail-only vehicle once I can afford to buy another vehicle to be my DD (which might be a while as a broke college student). Here is the order of things I would like to do to slowly turn it into the trail rig that I plan for it to be.
I'm a little late making my build thread but oh well. I bought this jeep a little over 4 years ago in my sophomore year of HS to replace a beat-up pos 99 Tj with a 4 cyl and rotted body mounts that I had for just a year beforehand. It's a 2002 Sport with a 5-speed and a 4.0L. I bought it completely stock except for what I can assume after some research is a 2.5in RC suspension lift that just included the coils and shocks (that are still installed currently). It had around 150k miles and I bought it for around 8k. Here are some pics of what it looked like on the lot (don't have any pics of the frame but it was almost spotless at the time of purchase). It is my DD and I try to take it offroad as often as I can (being in pre-med at college is making that very difficult sadly).
Currently
Now 4 years later I've put about 25k miles on it and added on:
- RC 2.5in suspension lift that was already on it.
- Savvy 1.25in BL (thanks to you guys for convincing me to do this instead of getting a different set of springs)
- JKS Quick Disconnects
- Dick Cepek Extreme Country 33x12.5 Tires
- 15in Pacer Steel Wheels
- Smittybilt XRC 9500 winch
- Barricade Rocker Guard (wish I would've saved up and bought something better but sticking with it for now)
- Barricade Rear Bumper/Tire Carrier
- MBRP Exhaust
- Quadratec 28in Light bar on the hood (love the amber halos that come on with the parking lights)
- Quadratec 3in Cubes
- Quadratec LED Headlights
- BedRug Carpet
- Water Resistant Speakers/Stereo (after my previous ones got rained on cause I left the top off during a storm)
- Rugged Ridge Hood Latches
Right now I am doing some work in the rocker guard rear bumper area. The powder coating on them was not done very well and the rust between the two was beginning to become a real eye-sore. So I removed the rocker guards and they are currently getting sandblasted. I made the decision not to put the bumper/tire carrier back on for weight savings (I'm going to grind/sand off the rust and repaint them and sell them on here once I'm done). I am no longer going to carry a spare unless I go offroad where I will just throw it in the backseat area. I ordered a rear bumper plate (https://www.barnes4wd.com/TJ-LJ-Rear-Tail-Plate-Bumper_p_308.html) that only weighs 15lbs and costs just $130. Once I get that and my rocker guards back from the shop I will paint them and reinstall.
Future Plans
As of right now, I would like to keep my jeep forever and turn this into a trail-only vehicle once I can afford to buy another vehicle to be my DD (which might be a while as a broke college student). Here is the order of things I would like to do to slowly turn it into the trail rig that I plan for it to be.
- Regear to 5.13s and add E-Lockers to both front and rear (from what I've read on here the dana 44 can handle locked 33's on stock axle shafts, but not the dana 30. So I would just lock the rear until I can buy chromoly shafts for the front. I was thinking of doing this entire step all at once so I don't have to pay for the labor twice to mess with the gearing. Correct me if I'm wrong with any this)
- Chromoly axle shafts
- Tummy Tuck Prep
- CV Driveshaft/SYE
- MML
- Adj Control Arms
- etc.
- The actual TT
- Steering and other strength/suspension upgrades to prep for 35s
- Then I have two options for actually making the clearance for moving up 35s
- More Suspension Lift
- Do some cutting/hi-line fenders (and maybe some coil spacers if still necessary)
