05 Sport build (Mid Life Crisis)

First weld in about 5 years. I’ve never really been able to see good when welding. I also found the hole in the spare tire and plugged it and stopped the leak. I will carry it until I get a new spare in case of emergencies. It was in the thick tread on the side wall. Here it is on the back. And where I’m mounting my jack later.

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I made a new Jeep decal and sport decal for the Jeep today. They don’t match perfect but I’ll redo them all later.One side was missing Jeep and the other side was missing Sport.

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I coulda of swore I read that dropped pitman arms weren’t tapered and would just pop off. Nope I broke a puller and went and rented a pitman arm puller. I also ordered a 1 5/16 6 point socket so I can cinch the factory one down. I will try this another day. You can see where the dropped bracket is hitting the G2 cover.I will grind that ribbed fin off too. Hopefully the new bar clears.

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When the rear fenders come in and are installed, I want to paint the armor and fenders flame red to match. I see they sell it in rattle cans but I'm afraid it will look awful in a year or two. My father in law owns a body shop so I wonder if it would be better to spend more for him to spray it. The hood needs sprayed too from the clear coat peeling.
 
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When the rear fenders come in and are installed, I want to paint the armor and fenders flame red to match. I see they sell it in rattle cans but I'm afraid it will look awful in a year or two. My father in law owns a body shop so I wonder if it would be better to spend more for him to spray it. The hood needs sprayed too from the clear coat peeling.
Yes, have him do both, along with the cowl cover. Money well spent.
 
I was able to work on the Jeep last night. First I got the fenders mounted, I wish the fronts had a 3” flare too.

Then I used pitman arm puller I bought from auto zone and popped off that stupid dropped arm that has been bothering me since day one. It came off extremely easy with this method.
Pb blaster
Tighten puller
Tap puller and arm with hammer
And repeat.
Remove bracket and bar and then centered the axle with ratchet strap.

Drilled out the chassis mount with 9/16 bit and installed JKS bar. Aligned to 1/8 tie in. Centerd steering wheel last. It was too late to take it for a test drive.

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Test drive: No bump steer or wandering.
I’ve got vibes though. Plan to check rear pinion/driveshaft angles Next. Also I’m going to remove front drive shaft to see if any thing changes.

Driving the Jeep is a totally different experience then when I first got it. Got a few more tweaks to work out.

And I’m getting water in rear floor boards with hard top. Carpet is getting wet. This is my first hard top so anybody know of common leak spots I should look for.