Here's the idea for this thread: I'm going to post my 2024 Jeep to-do list and give myself a year to get it all done. I invite others to do the same. In a year we can all come back and post our progress (photo evidence may be demanded) and ridicule each other if we've put projects off until 2025.
Here's what gave me this idea: My Jeep isn't my daily driver and if I'm being honest until recently it hadn't moved much in the last few years. I'd start it up every once in a while, almost always with jumper cables, and drive it for a day or two and then park it again and go back to my DD truck that was just more comfortable. After dual axle swaps aimed at a renewed off-roading hobby that never materialized, the Jeep had more rattles and knocks than I knew what to do with, a stripped down interior, turn signals that worked about 30% of the time, and just wasn't reliable enough to worry about. But I've had it for 20 years, and just couldn't bring myself to sell it. In June I promised myself (and my wife) that if I didn't put 1,000 miles on it in the next 12 months we'd part ways (the Jeep, not the wife). Then I started hunting down every knock in the suspension (new shocks, re-torqued lots of bolts, a few new bushings, etc.), every circuit that wasn't acting right (new tail lights, multi-function switch, replaced frayed wires, etc.), and brought the interior back to a comfortable daily driver (first stereo in the Jeep in years, new speakers, new subwoofer, covered the Raptor liner with a Bedrug, etc.). I also got back onto the forum after a lengthy hiatus, which helped too! Now I drive the Jeep more often than my 2019 Ram 1500 Limited and am thinking seriously about selling the truck instead of the Jeep. It's almost where I want it to be and I'm running out of things to fix/restore (I've got my eye on a Z car as my next project when the Jeep is "done"). I'm positive that I wouldn't have gotten it back to where it is today without giving myself a deadline and a consequence for missing it (a wife nagging me about why I still haven't sold the Jeep), so I'm going to do the same thing here.
Here's my to-do list for 2024, in no particular order:
1) Remove failed vinyl wrap and eithe re-wrap or re-paint the Jeep. The hood looks like trash.
2) Install ARB air compressor for locker that's been in 3 years (just in case I find an off-road trip to join in 2024).
3) Fix parking brake that hasn't worked in 3 years.
4) New door pulls to fill the holes in my door cards.
5) Replace speedo gear, get my speedometer working again.
6) New upper door skins with see-through windows (this one is cheating... I installed them yesterday!)
7) Repaint chipped fender flares (or lose them altogether).
8) Clean up and repaint surface rust on roll cage around door surround bolts.
9) Clean 20 years worth of mud and crud out of engine bay and frame.
10) Give Jeep at least 1200 miles of exercise (current mileage: 124,968).
Here's what gave me this idea: My Jeep isn't my daily driver and if I'm being honest until recently it hadn't moved much in the last few years. I'd start it up every once in a while, almost always with jumper cables, and drive it for a day or two and then park it again and go back to my DD truck that was just more comfortable. After dual axle swaps aimed at a renewed off-roading hobby that never materialized, the Jeep had more rattles and knocks than I knew what to do with, a stripped down interior, turn signals that worked about 30% of the time, and just wasn't reliable enough to worry about. But I've had it for 20 years, and just couldn't bring myself to sell it. In June I promised myself (and my wife) that if I didn't put 1,000 miles on it in the next 12 months we'd part ways (the Jeep, not the wife). Then I started hunting down every knock in the suspension (new shocks, re-torqued lots of bolts, a few new bushings, etc.), every circuit that wasn't acting right (new tail lights, multi-function switch, replaced frayed wires, etc.), and brought the interior back to a comfortable daily driver (first stereo in the Jeep in years, new speakers, new subwoofer, covered the Raptor liner with a Bedrug, etc.). I also got back onto the forum after a lengthy hiatus, which helped too! Now I drive the Jeep more often than my 2019 Ram 1500 Limited and am thinking seriously about selling the truck instead of the Jeep. It's almost where I want it to be and I'm running out of things to fix/restore (I've got my eye on a Z car as my next project when the Jeep is "done"). I'm positive that I wouldn't have gotten it back to where it is today without giving myself a deadline and a consequence for missing it (a wife nagging me about why I still haven't sold the Jeep), so I'm going to do the same thing here.
Here's my to-do list for 2024, in no particular order:
1) Remove failed vinyl wrap and eithe re-wrap or re-paint the Jeep. The hood looks like trash.
2) Install ARB air compressor for locker that's been in 3 years (just in case I find an off-road trip to join in 2024).
3) Fix parking brake that hasn't worked in 3 years.
4) New door pulls to fill the holes in my door cards.
5) Replace speedo gear, get my speedometer working again.
7) Repaint chipped fender flares (or lose them altogether).
8) Clean up and repaint surface rust on roll cage around door surround bolts.
9) Clean 20 years worth of mud and crud out of engine bay and frame.
10) Give Jeep at least 1200 miles of exercise (current mileage: 124,968).
