'03 Sport—Northern NM (Manhattan Project With No Secrets)

WHBNM

WHBNM

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Joined
Mar 23, 2019
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426
Location
New Mexico
Bought it about a year ago after much searching. After getting tired of chasing down issues with my '79 CJ7 the wife gave the green light so while out in AZ for 2019 Spring Training Baseball I showed up at the dealership with a cashier's check for $11k and have been gitty ever since.
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Admittedly I'm a longtime lurker on this and other forums but love this one. Great group here!
Just the beginning here! This is it on the lot the day my 10 year old and I went to buy. Great day!
 
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Settled in today with our return to winter here and read a ton of @jjvw's thread. Love it and what he's done.

Will never match his documentation and style but share similar philosophies and am inspired.
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I had to arrange for transport as I could see that we would be going through a March storm back from Tempe to NM. I'm not a cheapskate but after just springing for the "new" Jeep I went with a low ball transport from uship (which I have used for work items several times) and didnt sleep much the next few nights.

From the salesman at the dealership as I was stressing about pickup.
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"This is your guy" he tells me. " Am I ok to let it go?"
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Shit.
 
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Got a call at 4 a.m. a few days later. He was in front of my house. Broke down once, shredded a trailer tire. It was only supposed to be an 8hr drive! I took it straight in the garage and vacuumed out rain water and started thinking about the next moves.
 
Part of what made this attractive were the things I saw when I asked the dealer for a few more pictures, especially of the underside. I saw a super clean undercarriage, zero rust, a Dana 44 in the rear and what looked like an arb switch inside. It was true and the carfax showed that it had spent its whole life in AZ. It had 78k miles and only 1 owner.
I have spent the past year checking out exactly what I have, making minor upgrades and coming up with my plan (aka saving $ and trying to justify spending it this way)

That plan is to make it very capable trail machine, highway worthy to get to places like Southern Utah (6-8hrs) and Southern Colorado (3-5 hrs). It will run stock axles with new shafts (eventually) and max at 35" tires (33s currently). I know where I want to get and what it will take to get it there (much from this forum). Now it's all about finding the time and money. Ha. I do know what J.E.E.P. stands for. Thanks for all of the precious info and insight I've received from so many already. More to come.
Cheers.
 
The winch was not connected when it arrived and a new battery was installed recently albeit not what I would have chosen I'll live with it for now.

I put in some battery terminal extensions from Quadratec that I liked.
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Horn sucked so the existing brackets got tweaked and extended with a piece of scrap and threw this one in. For what it is it's pretty loud.
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The stock stereo volume knob didnt adjust, same with several other buttons so next task was upgrading that - goal being modern enough to have bluetooth, USB etc. cheap enough not to hurt my feelings if it was ripped off or drenched by a thunderstorm. While I was at it put in polk audio " marine grade" (aka might be ok if they get a little wet) speakers in dash and overhead and replace factory sub junk with Sound Ordinance powered sub. Still loving this!
Pulled up center console, seats etc to find pristine factory paint on floor boards with sound deadening liner.
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Chris said:
Is that an ultra rare AEV non-highline hood?
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I dont know that that is what it is but have always liked that it is a little unique compared to others that I have seen.
 
WHBNM said:
I dont know that that is what it is but have always liked that it is a little unique compared to others that I have seen.
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Is it metal or fiberglass?

If it's metal, then it's an AEV non-highline hood, and is very, very rare. Probably worth several thousand to the right buyer.
 
Chris said:
Is it metal or fiberglass?

If it's metal, then it's an AEV non-highline hood, and is very, very rare. Probably worth several thousand to the right buyer.
Click to expand...
It is metal. Crazy, I just assumed it was something that the p.o. had done. Didnt know that there was such a thing. AEV supplied to factory?
Thanks for the insight!
 
WHBNM said:
It is metal. Crazy, I just assumed it was something that the p.o. had done. Didnt know that there was such a thing. AEV supplied to factory?
Thanks for the insight!
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AEV was like Dinan was to BMW. At the time of purchase, you could order a bunch of AEV aftermarket options, but they worked with the dealerships so you could roll it into financing and order cool things like that hood, highline fenders, lift kits, etc.

AEV is still around, they just only do stuff for JKs and JLs now.

I have the highline version of that hood (and the entire AEV highline kit) on my TJ:

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Look at my hood and my fenders very closely compared to yours and you'll notice the difference (y)
 
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Chris said:
AEV was like Dinan was to BMW. At the time of purchase, you could order a bunch of AEV aftermarket options, but they worked with the dealerships so you could roll it into financing and order cool things like that hood, highline fenders, lift kits, etc.

AEV is still around, they just only do stuff for JKs and JLs now.

I have the highline version of that hood (and the entire AEV highline kit) on my TJ:

View attachment 158489

Look at my hood and my fenders very closely compared to yours and you'll notice the difference (y)
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I see the difference. Yours is sweet! I know some about AEV but obviously not in details associated with tj's. Thanks again for filling me in. Here's a pic from similar angle .
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WHBNM said:
I see the difference. Yours is sweet! I know some about AEV but obviously not in details associated with tj's. Thanks again for filling me in. Here's a pic from similar angle .View attachment 158497
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Yep, that's very cool!

The majority of those hoods they made in the highline version (like mine) to accommodate the higher fenders.

Yours is meant for the stock fenders, which is much more uncommon. They rarely come up for sale as it appears they didn't make very many.

Either way, definitely cool, I'd hold onto it!
 
The tires that were on it were ok but on their way out. So, that was the next step. I opted for same size but KM2s for combination of past experience, price and tough look. 33/12.50/15 LR C.
Put the old ATs on the cj7!
 
Catching up here fwiw. Factory fog lights were falling apart so new LEDs were put in their place as well as some of the better rated, higher priced headlights from the other side of the world.
Going for next to no chrome on this one so black backed lights, black rings and bezels put in as well. So far I really like the lights for some but not a ton of night driving.

The synthetic winch line was weathered so it was replaced with TRE line in orange (growing up in Northern CA we're big Giants fans so a few pieces of flair felt right). I couldnt wait to ditch the super ugly yellow hook! Probably would have gone with something other than the Factor 55 prolink now but oh well. Dont love the winch but it works for now. Cleaned, sanded, primed and painted the drum prior to new line.
 
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