97 Sahara Restoration & Build

MangoTango · Jan 27, 2019

My Jeep was named Death Trap by some of my co-workers who rode in it before I started repairing all the rust and worn out parts. Despite how it looks on the surface, there have been plenty of surprises along the way. In hindsight I probably overpaid for her, but there's something about this Jeep that makes me keep working on it.

Before I put these pics up, I will say the frame still concerns me even though it's been "repaired"and once I have the $$ I will buy a new one.
Just before I took it off the road to fix all the problems I was having.

New wheels, LED Headlights and LED Fog Lamps

Repairing rusted out floor boards, body mount channels and Raptor lining the tub

Prepping for Raptor Liner

MangoTango · Jan 27, 2019

Some of the new parts. (I'm missing a lot of pictures so I'll just list parts off and add the pics when I install them)
4" lift, Novak cable shifter, Currie adjustable upper and lower control arms (not pictured), Tom Woods rear drive shaft, Advanced Adaptors SYE, JKS adjustable front track bar, M.O.R.E 1" body lift with steering bracket. M.O.R.E 1" Bombproof motor mounts, Teraflex 9550 vss steering stabilizer, Safe-T-Cap upper spring buckets, Poison Spyder Ricochet Rockers, and more to come.......

MangoTango · Jan 27, 2019

My biggest PITA right now......... All the RUST!!!!!!
Yes those are my front upper spring mounts, and yes I can put my finger through it. I do have the materials to rebuild these, and after cutting out the rot there's plenty of good material to make the repair.

MangoTango · Jan 27, 2019

Some of the quicker projects. Sway Bar restoration and new bushings.

M.O.R.E. Bombproof 1" lifted motor mounts.

Grabar install.

mots · Jan 27, 2019

Love then green and tan Sahara’s with black wheels. Subbed to follow your progress. Rust sucks!

KimsJeep · Jan 27, 2019

Wow, lots of rust!! I do like that you are rebuilding it though. A lot of people would give up on it. In fact I am one. LOL I have a VW single cab truck that I bought sight unseen and since hubby decided he didn't really want to deal with all the rust, we are going to sell it. It's actually going to help pay my new to me Jeep off though, so it's all good.

Enjoying your thread. Thanks for all the pics. I love looking at what people are doing to their Jeeps. Course, that is how I end up spending more money on mine too though. LOL

Mike_H · Jan 27, 2019

I love to see another TJ getting repaired vs Parted. I have some more rust to clean up on mine too, but spent the better part of last winter cleaning up the axles, frame, suspension, etc. I had some rot in the rockers and floors, but not enough to warrant full replacement. I just cut it out and replaced the metal. The next thing is a new passenger rear corner, fixing the torque boxes and shoring up the rot I have at the front of my passenger side rear wheel well. I don't want to repaint yet, so I'm holding off on that until probably next year.

MangoTango · Feb 22, 2019

I've been slacking on posting updates.

Last week I fabricated some front bump stops and repaired the rusted out spring buckets. They're not perfect but I think they will work just fine. Getting better at hand welding too.

MangoTango · Feb 25, 2019

Travis · Feb 25, 2019

Wow, you have really turned that into a green machine, nice work!

MangoTango · Feb 25, 2019

It's getting there. Now that I'm almost done fabricating parts I can focus on installing all the really cool things like the SYE I've been dying to get at lol.

MangoTango · Mar 17, 2019

SYE and Extended Driveshaft installed. I also changed out the U Joint on the front driveshaft.

I did the SYE install with the transfer case in the jeep. I originally wanted to pull it but I couldn't get at the last two bolts on the passenger side because the exhaust was in the way, and the exhaust is looking sketchy at best but not in the budget.

RobertJ · Jun 21, 2019

Great thread. Thanks for all the work you put into it.

MangoTango · Jun 22, 2019

I finished installing the 4.88's in my Dana 30. Thank you ElectricWizard, Gollywomper and glwood for helping to figure out that my carrier was the wrong one for these new gears.

MangoTango · Jun 22, 2019

Started tearing down the Dana 35. I thought the setup in the Dana 30 was bad, but this puts it to shame!!

Oops, diff cover was stuck and then popped off.