05 Rubicon DD build - The Jeep

Bofa-Deez

TJ Enthusiast
Joined
Jul 19, 2019
Messages
500
Location
Deauville, LA
Recently when the Mini Cooper became more maintenance than I was comfortable with, my love/hate relationship with European sports cars leaned more to the "hate" side and I needed a new daily driver, enter "the jeep." I am a mechanical guy and never named any vehicle I have had, and even though the wife currently has a Grand Cherokee in the driveway, this is "the jeep" as I bought it. It's a fairly unmolested 2005 Rubicon with a manual 6 speed and some crappy aftermarket stereo and speakers. I was on this forum a week before I bought it, and although it was nice, I knew I could do better.
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Here I'm trying to fuel up at a free gas pump at the hotel near Memphis, but I couldn't for the life of me figure out how to get it to work
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It had some sagging springs with ACOS spacers set to nearly minimum lift and descent tread left on the 285/70/17s. The shocks were Rancho R5000x (good) but they were seriously worn out (bad.) So in went new Ranchos all the way around and some 2.5" Rough Country (I know) progressive springs. I know RC doesn't have the best rep here, but I wanted to try progressive springs and when they sag in a year or so, I'll order the OME springs and try them. I kept the ACOS spacers in the front so I could easily adjust the rake with the heavy front bumper and Harbor Freight winch (it was on there when I bought the jeep and it works so it's cool for now.) After the adjustable front track bar and rear track bar relocation bracket from JKS, it looked like this.

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Now, it's time to address the anemic aftermarket stereo...
 
After finding this thread on the forum, I decided to follow most of ScottB's choices except I went with the component speakers for the sound pod and dash. I also used a Memphis amp I had laying around waiting for a project to push the components. It works extremely well despite being larger than some of the newer compact choices and it was free so no worries if it gets damaged or stolen. I want to mention here that the Sound Ordinance powered sub kicks ass for the rock music I listen to and the ease of install only made it a better choice.

For the deck, I went with this Android single din head unit as the jeep already had a single din install kit for the crappy radio the PO installed. So now I am left with this and quite happy

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But still, I could do better...
 
So after a trip to Memphis and back for work, I realized that the position of the screen was bad for glare and also I had to look too far away from the road while accessing some functions and selecting music. I went about designing a custom mount to get the screen a little higher in the cab.

The screen is made to detach from the head unit and is connected by a ribbon wire. A quick search on Amazon brought up this extended ribbon cable, so I ordered it to replace the short stock cable that came with the head unit while I figured out the mount.

I decided to use metal for the mount for ease of fabrication, so off to my scrap pile I went. All of the steel and aluminum plate I had was either too thick and bulky or too thin. I scratched my head a bit and then I saw it. A large drywall hawk that I used years ago while renovating the house. The aluminum plate was the perfect size to easily cut and shape without using special tools. I knew I wouldn't miss it because screw drywall mud. I hate that shit. So I began making the template to mount the screen.

This is what the back of the screen looks like and the little white pieces were screwed into the head unit to accept the yellow pieces on the back of the screen. The black piece on the back of the screen is where the ribbon cable connects. The plastic rectangle thingy just takes up the gap between the head unit and screen when the screen is connected, but I will use it to make a template with accurate spacing of mounting points because they have to be nearly spot on.
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Because of the screen-to-head unit fit, I really needed my template to be spot on. I tried tracing and that didn't work, but then it hit me. I grabbed a blue sharpie and colored the edges of the head unit mounting pieces, put them on the screen mount pieces and headed over to the copy machine and printed out a perfect, full size template that was glued to a piece of cardboard (cut out of the material from a 12 pack or something.) A little work with the x-acto knife and voila.
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Next, I used some duct tape to attach it to my repurposed drywall tool and began laying out the cut locations. I used a red paint marker to mark the location of the cuts then removed the template and went to cutting with a jig saw and cleaning up with needle files.
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Then I started making slight bends by hand and test fit the mount to the dash tray that sits above the vents. I marked some cut lines to follow the contour of the dash. I used the angle iron as backing when I made the bends so the aluminum would bend exactly where I wanted. I left the tab on the upper right for a magnetic cell plone mount.
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Then work called and said I had to make a 5 hour trip and be in Houston at 7am the next morning, so the pictures start to get a little scarce at this point. I hit it with a coat of black spray paint I had on the shelf, attached the plastic pieces from the head unit onto the mount, and secured it to the tray with 3 self tapping screws. Profit!
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I set the head unit back under the dash to keep it out of site and possibly deter would be thieves. I secured it with zip ties and cut a plate to cover the opening. I ran the ribbon cable up the back of the dash following the vent ducts and up through the dash tray for a clean look. The plate that covers the opening will be used to mount switches for the locker override and possibly a psi gauge for a future on board air install. For now, I just left it blank and uncoated.
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Overall I am way happier with this location compared to where it was. From the pictures, it looks like it blocks visibility, but isn't really noticeable while driving. Total out of pocket cost was less than 10 bucks for some small screws, washers and lock nuts from the hardware section. Well worth it. As a bonus, I didn't even have to use the welding machine.

Winning!
 
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