'04 2.4 - learning mechanics and buying tools as I go

Mr. Pink said:
yeah I was a VW mechanic for 10yrs so I understand wiring way more than I did before hand lol. I've also built harnesses for jeeps and race cars now at this point.
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haha I may have questions for you in the near future, then!!

it's all pretty basic conceptually, but putting it all together can be a bit of a hassle sometimes!! I'm sure that must've been a party with VW wiring haha.
 
e1harris said:
Loving the paracord door stop!
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thanks! yeah the kid that had it before me put those on there. It's a small thing, but honestly love them and they're so easy to take on / off. Plus I've got paracord if I ever find myself in a situation where I need it!
 
In the past couple weeks:
-POR15 the frame
-painted some steering/suspension parts
-new front bumper
-winch
-spark plugs
-valve cover / O ring gasket

On order:
-new headlights
-stock air intake
-speakers
-spark plug wires

Planned for the next few months:
-Inner fender liner up front
-2 inch lift
-repainting fenders
-brakes

Tomorrow: heading up to NH to find some class 6 roads.

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Vasq said:
Looking great! what 2" lift are you thinking about going with?
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Most likely OME springs and rancho shocks, seems to be the most popular and well reviewed on this site!

I may also do a 1" savvy body lift, but that might also be next year haha.
 
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Flivver250 said:
I was born in Mass and raised in Vermont. I was also a wrench there. I know a thing or two about rust and seized fasteners. Watch the used market for a good set of oxy/acetylene torches. Sometimes if you ask the gas company if they have any tanks that customers never picked up (they always do), you may be able to get some cheap. It was SOP to heat nuts and metal around bolts cherry red before even trying to loosen them. A little hand held propane job will not do the trick. I do not miss those days. Here in the desert, I don't even use penetrating oil.
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This is absolutely solid advice and it will save you so many broken bolts and swearing once you learn how to use it safely. You cannot wrench on these vehicles in the rust belt without learning how to use the blue wrench!
 
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hardtailpan said:
This is absolutely solid advice and it will save you so many broken bolts and swearing once you learn how to use it safely. You cannot wrench on these vehicles in the rust belt without learning how to use the blue wrench!
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I'm sure! So far I've been pretty lucky, and kroil-ing everything for a week before doing the project has worked wonders. I definitely foresee myself running into needing torches shortly though!!
 
New headlights, gotta angle them still but overall a HUGE upgrade to stock. Not bad for $50 on eBay.
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Also, rented a carpet extractor and cleaned the seats. Holy shit, the water that came out was straight brown... very worth the 20$ at home depot. Pulled the back seat out for the first time as well and ill probably be sanding and painting the at least the back half of the tub this week.
20200907_215145.jpg

(Pictures are taken at different times so its looks a bit more drastic but still.)
Also, don't look too closely at the seat brackets .... those will be cleaned up shortly!


also, came up with a $10 solution to the fog lights needing a bracket. Just gotta spray paint them !
20200907_222141.jpg
 
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Nice solution for the fog lamps!
I’m relatively new to jeeping in MA as well. Which class 6 roads did you get up to in NH? I‘be heard of a few around Pelham and Manchester but don’t know of really any others.
 
Been relatively quiet for the most part aside from the last week:

-finally added the flag stickers
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brakes, hub assemblies, ball joints, calipers (job took about 18 hours total over 2 days. First day was the drivers side, all of which had been taken apart before.. not recently, but there was antisieze so it all worked out pretty well, most of it was figuring out what to do. I had started the passenger side, before I started stripping the bolt heads on the hub. postponed doing that side until this Saturday. Had not been touched (no antisieze anywhere) SO I had to grind the bolt heads for the hub assembly off, I had to grind the lower ball joint in half and use a sledgehammer to get the knuckle off, and we used a hammer drill to get the hub to separate from the knuckle. Glad I did this side second. finished up the brakes on the drivers side yesterday, alignment tomorrow, and i'll be good to go for a while for all this shit.):
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The offending ball joint:
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-got the wiring harness for the fogs, will be wiring those up this week
-got a CB from a friend, finally got all the mounting crap so I'll be adding that this week
-detailing the shit out of the interior this week as well. *maybe* painting the bed part of the floor next week?

for the fun of it, a couple pics from a couple weeks ago up in NH. I high centered on my skid just before this hill haha, but otherwise had no problem keeping up with all the jeeps on 33s and 35s and 37s with lifts.
IMG_1290.jpg

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and a shot my sister got of me when i took her off road to the sand pits near my house for the first time:
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also, for the hell of it, glam shot:
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Long overdue, but finally fixed these spots on the fenders. Rattle can, so we'll see how well it holds up again, but hey for less than $20 for something I can easily touch up, not upset. Looking at that fuse box bracket though, might have to pull that and paint that haha.
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I'm thinking I'm done most of the projects for this year on this, aside from one last one - picking up a steering gearbox on Sunday to drop in since the current one is leaky af, then I'll be pretty much set with maintenance I wanted to hit first thing.

Using the winter to manage my credit card hahaha, then i'll probably finish piecing together the lift and how I want to approach it early next year. So hard to have to wait lol!

Definite Lift plans:
Rancho Shocks (already have)
Procomp 2" springs
Savvy 1.25 BL

Gonna have to get steps so I can climb into the damn thing since my 5'3 self barely can as it is, so need to research that haha, as well as whether I want to go full TT or just get a skid that's slightly more belly up. I'll be ultimately prepping for an engine swap in another couple years so I want to keep that in mind as well.
 
It's been a year, updating more for my own sake:

I pieced together a 2 inch lift, got more than 2 inches, added on in May of this year:

before:
jeep lift.jpg

after:
jeep lift 2.jpg

jeep lifted.jpg


Ended up going through the tub to get to the rear shocks, since they were absolutely nasty and had already been f'ed up by the guy two owners before me.

Due to the lift, ended up putting in a budget TC drop because bad vibes. Also replaced the muffler which was rusted apart, removed the second cat and replaced the first cat (both of which were just about to be completely clogged) - Jeep runs entirely better now.

Enjoyed it for the summer, took it offroad a couple times and did random stuff like buff out some paint imperfections:
scratches.jpg

scratches fixed.jpg


While on one of my offroad trips in NH, I heard a giant loud not so pretty noise, checked underneath and all my driveshafts and everything looked fine. No leaks, so I drove it home. Turns out the transfer case linkage completely shit the bed and I didn't have any 4wd (which I learned another time I went out and couldn't make it up a decently easy trail.)

ordered a savvy TC shifter cable, adjustable rear control arms and the SYE to really make the lift proper, but those are all sitting in boxes right now because I sent it to the body shop to get these spots fixed last week:
rear rust.jpg

ebrake rust.jpg


When he removed the roll bar to fix that first spot, he found this under the front roll bar which we both had NO clue was even there (this tub other than those 2 spots looked pretty clean and the frame is solid):
roll bar rust.jpeg

so yeah these things can hide rust apparently.

After he fixes those, he'll be bedlining the tub and it'll be getting undercoated properly, so i'm hoping to have it back in another couple weeks so I can install the aforementioned SYE/TC cable/Control Arms before it gets too cold.

Basically, this year was another year of maintenance and upgrades and I'm super looking forward to taking it for multi-day trips next year into northern NH/ME/VT (and saving up for the v8 I want to add in haha.)
 
Elyse8743 said:
It's been a year, updating more for my own sake:

I pieced together a 2 inch lift, got more than 2 inches, added on in May of this year:

before:
View attachment 286628
after:
View attachment 286630
View attachment 286631

Ended up going through the tub to get to the rear shocks, since they were absolutely nasty and had already been f'ed up by the guy two owners before me.

Due to the lift, ended up putting in a budget TC drop because bad vibes. Also replaced the muffler which was rusted apart, removed the second cat and replaced the first cat (both of which were just about to be completely clogged) - Jeep runs entirely better now.

Enjoyed it for the summer, took it offroad a couple times and did random stuff like buff out some paint imperfections:
View attachment 286632
View attachment 286633

While on one of my offroad trips in NH, I heard a giant loud not so pretty noise, checked underneath and all my driveshafts and everything looked fine. No leaks, so I drove it home. Turns out the transfer case linkage completely shit the bed and I didn't have any 4wd (which I learned another time I went out and couldn't make it up a decently easy trail.)

ordered a savvy TC shifter cable, adjustable rear control arms and the SYE to really make the lift proper, but those are all sitting in boxes right now because I sent it to the body shop to get these spots fixed last week:
View attachment 286637
View attachment 286638

When he removed the roll bar to fix that first spot, he found this under the front roll bar which we both had NO clue was even there (this tub other than those 2 spots looked pretty clean and the frame is solid):
View attachment 286641
so yeah these things can hide rust apparently.

After he fixes those, he'll be bedlining the tub and it'll be getting undercoated properly, so i'm hoping to have it back in another couple weeks so I can install the aforementioned SYE/TC cable/Control Arms before it gets too cold.

Basically, this year was another year of maintenance and upgrades and I'm super looking forward to taking it for multi-day trips next year into northern NH/ME/VT (and saving up for the v8 I want to add in haha.)
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I have nightmares of bad things happening to my Jeep and one of them is finding rust. You’re being super proactive of stopping PO neglect. I can’t even imagine how people let their vehicles get to that point.
 
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