05 Wrangler penny pincher build

Will try to get some picks in the daylight this week. Still have to get the small fender pieces on behind the front flares and if all goes well some new hinges. Also suffered a few battle scars this weekend.
Z for zoro?? Lol

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There is a Jeep engineer laughing at me somewhere. I hate these windshield torx bolts. They are super easy to strip. I still can’t get the passenger side off. I drilled a hole deep enough in the screw that I was able to get another torx bolt hammered in and ended up snapping it when I tried to turn it. It now makes it near impossible to to drill out the screw any further.

Wish I knew about the speed out tools (or easy out) before I started and this would have been much easier. Now I can’t get the hole deep enough for them to grab. Think I’ll go get a really nice drill bit tomorrow and a fresh battery in my drill and just sit there for an hour until I can get it all the way through unless someone else has any better ideas??

Try not to laugh at me to hard haha. This is why we can’t have nice things!
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It’s just one screw too! All of the others I was able to get out with ease! I think I’m going to return the hinges I bought and exchange them for a nice set of lights for the bumper. I think I’m going to take the factory hinges and get them powder coated and just order a new set of black torx bolts to finish the job.

In other news you can see just how well the paint cleaned up in the garage lighting. I’m pretty pleased. Some might say we have a Jeep problem. My wife’s Renegade, our LJ, our Jeepster, and my uncles Jeep. Wish our driveway could look like this everyday!
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There was a thread somewhere about those bolts having thread locker from the factory. You have to heat em up first or they are a beeotch to remove.
Hey, I have some lightly used Moog coils, spec'd for Rubicon with ac and auto. (3226/3227) They gave my SE with winch and bumper about .5" of lift. Heavier spring rate so they don't sag out when I would load it up. Maybe 2500 ish miles on them. They ride very nice with Rancho 5000X shocks. You can have them for shipping cost. I will see if I can get an estimate and get back to you if interested.
 
There was a thread somewhere about those bolts having thread locker from the factory. You have to heat em up first or they are a beeotch to remove.
Hey, I have some lightly used Moog coils, spec'd for Rubicon with ac and auto. (3226/3227) They gave my SE with winch and bumper about .5" of lift. Heavier spring rate so they don't sag out when I would load it up. Maybe 2500 ish miles on them. They ride very nice with Rancho 5000X shocks. You can have them for shipping cost. I will see if I can get an estimate and get back to you if interested.

I may be interested depending on the shipping cost! My zip code is 76244. Shoot me a PM.

Yeah the bolts have thread locker on them. I might have to try heating it up this week and see if I can break it loose. Not to concerned about the paint anymore lol. Those rugged ridge hinges were so thin that they were practically worthless. Must be similar to the radiators. OEM only because the rest is junk lol.
 
Broke my rule on the penny pincher and splurged a little bit.

Exchanged those junk hinges on these PIAA 5 inch LED driving lights. Will be putting them in the factory fog light location and will be selling the factory fog lights to recoup some of the cash I just dropped on these. They are only $120 with the exchange of those hinges. I’ll hook them up to the factory fog light switch which will be really nice to avoid doing any extra kind of wiring.
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Longest day ever but I got a lot accomplished. Buffed out the paint, painted some parts of the fame (will probably do the rest on another day), bumpers, steps, and fenders. After that I had to assemble everything together which always takes more time then it ever should. It’s all the little things that take up the most time.

I have Kentrol hinges on our LJ and we love them. This being the penny pincher build I decided to try some of the cheaper ones out there to see if there is a difference or not.

Bottom line... there is. I went with he Rugged Ridge upper hinges and the smittybilt lower hinges. Total was $160 for the set. The rugged ridge hinges are thinner than the factory hinges and wouldn’t line up right at all. The smittybilt ones are alright but the kentrol powder coat is much better. I’ll be returning them and buying new kentrol. One of those “you get what you pay for” things on this one. View attachment 36902View attachment 36903View attachment 36904View attachment 36905View attachment 36906View attachment 36907View attachment 36908View attachment 36909View attachment 36910View attachment 36911View attachment 36912View attachment 36913View attachment 36914View attachment 36915View attachment 36916View attachment 36917View attachment 36918View attachment 36919View attachment 36920
You SO need to let the guy who sold this to your uncle see it before it gets handed off to your cousin! :D
 
Haven’t posted in a while. Will be doing more to the penny pincher this weekend. Got the upper hinges back from powder coat today and they turned out great! Ordered a set of replacement bolts from Amazon and got them back installed tonight. Also got the street legal PIAA’s installed tonight to the factory fog light switch!

Will be cleaning up the carpet and interior this weekend. Just have to take the hard top off to put the windshield back up. So far so good! I think the black hinges on the white paint will look great!
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Haven’t posted in a while. Will be doing more to the penny pincher this weekend. Got the upper hinges back from powder coat today and they turned out great! Ordered a set of replacement bolts from Amazon and got them back installed tonight. Also got the street legal PIAA’s installed tonight to the factory fog light switch!

Will be cleaning up the carpet and interior this weekend. Just have to take the hard top off to put the windshield back up. So far so good! I think the black hinges on the white paint will look great!View attachment 38021View attachment 38022View attachment 38023 View attachment 38024View attachment 38025
I like the white one, but quit teasing us with the jeepster. We need a full breakdown of that one ;)