A Jurassic Overland Dream

[DustyRhodes03]

Lots of little stuff getting done. I replaced a few annoying things like my blower motor resistor, finally fixed my cigarette lighter that wasn't working, and put in some Seafoam and ran it for a day or two and then did another oil change and that seemed to take care of my high oil pressure issue.

This is what the broken control arm mount looked like. I cheaped out and ordered a cheap set off of eBay. They were pretty easy to install and considering how close it is to Christmas ($$$) they'll do for now.

I really only have good things to say about these tires so far.
I'm really impressed with how they ride and how much noise was reduced just by putting and it hits the smaller bumps and cracks in the road amazing. We have't gotten much for snow yet so we'll see how they do then, but for now I'm happy I went with them.

 

[derekmac]

Can't go wrong with either Cooper or General in my opinion. Hell, I have both for my TJ. A set of Grabber X3's, and a set of Cooper winter tires.

 

[DustyRhodes03]

Can't go wrong with either Cooper or General in my opinion. Hell, I have both for my TJ. A set of Grabber X3's, and a set of Cooper winter tires.

I'm really pleased with them!

Got to deal with our first real amount of snow here today.....Yay

But it did give me a chance to test out the Coopers in some real weather and so far no complaints whatsoever.

They'll do a fine job of helping me not die this winter

 

[DustyRhodes03]

This might be my last "update" for a little bit at least.
The holidays are a chaotic mess as is, and I'm finishing up my chemo, my brother is in palliative care himself right now and wont be with us much longer, and I'm freshly adjusting to the single life and being a parent, so lol Priorities are just being shifted for the next little bit.

But that of course wont stop things from breaking! lol

Ive had an intermittent squeak on cold starts for a month or so now
and yesterday it culminated in a serpentine belt breaking, luckily I was 5 minutes from home
and managed to make it in the driveway without it dying.

In hindsight this never needed to happen. I replaced the belt a few months ago now and didn't think much into it, just swapped on the new belt and away I went. Well I should've checked the idler pulley at the same time because that's what decided to start squeaking and then seize on me yesterday.

Really for the price ($33) and how long it takes to change (5 minutes), it should have just been preventative maintenance when I did the belt the first time. But oh well, lesson learned.

And just incase anyone finds it handy to have here's the routing diagram I used for the
belt.

I'll see y'all in the new year!!

 

[DustyRhodes03]

Breaking the silence with a short quick post just to let people know this project isn't given up on and is still trucking along after a long hiatus.

The green Jeep threw a couple more surprises at me, 2 of my control arm brackets snapped and the passenger side marker lights shorted out and almost burned it to the ground.

I picked up this yellow 04 TJ with the idea of using it for parts, but it's turned into the new base for this project, the frame and running gear is in amazing shape, the P/O put all new brakes and exhaust on it 2 months ago, hard top and an extra soft top, all the missing trim pieces and other little things I was missing, and it just goes down the road so quiet and smooth.

A lot of stuff has been swapped over so far but I'm still in the process of stripping the yellow Jeep down and replacing parts and pieces with ones from the green Jeep.

My spare room is slowly being over loaded with parts waiting to be put on, I've got new fenders, a lift kit, light bar, drivers side floor pan, new fogs, and new roll bar padding.

I'm working without a garage so now that the nicer weather is starting to peak out I'll be a little more adventurous and motivated to pick up the pace.

I'm still aiming for a JP Jeep and am going to pick up the paint and primer today so hopefully within a month or so she'll be getting taped and prepped for paint.

 

[DustyRhodes03]

Can anyone help with what type of soft top I have here?

It's the spare soft top that came with the yellow Jeep but it's quite a bit different than the one I already own. I have no idea what it's suppose to look like or if I even have all the hardware pieces for it.

Also just for reference I'll throw up a few more pictures of the yellow beast to show what I'm working with.

I now have the added bonus of a factory subwoofer in the center console and all the missing interior trim pieces.

I like the dark interior quite a bit, but I also really like the tan, so I'm thinking about swapping/mixing and matching some of the interior to give it a 2-tone look kinda in line with the YJ Sahara look that I'm after.

Other than that the biggest issue to address is the passenger side floor, which is by far the worst spot on the entire Jeep....BUT, luckily I know a handsome fella who just happens to have an extra floor pan already in his possession (It's me).

Once I get the floor pan in this week I'll be sanding and grinding and wire wheeling the frame and underneath and then hit it with some paint to bring it back to life and take some steps to make it last as long as possible.

Then within the next couple weeks I should be on to the daunting task of stripping the Jeep and prepping for paint.

 

[reddvltj]

Can anyone help with what type of soft top I have here?

It's the spare soft top that came with the yellow Jeep but it's quite a bit different than the one I already own. I have no idea what it's suppose to look like or if I even have all the hardware pieces for it.
View attachment 162642

Also just for reference I'll throw up a few more pictures of the yellow beast to show what I'm working with.

I now have the added bonus of a factory subwoofer in the center console and all the missing interior trim pieces.
View attachment 162645

I like the dark interior quite a bit, but I also really like the tan, so I'm thinking about swapping/mixing and matching some of the interior to give it a 2-tone look kinda in line with the YJ Sahara look that I'm after.
View attachment 162646

Other than that the biggest issue to address is the passenger side floor, which is by far the worst spot on the entire Jeep....BUT, luckily I know a handsome fella who just happens to have an extra floor pan already in his possession (It's me).
View attachment 162647

Once I get the floor pan in this week I'll be sanding and grinding and wire wheeling the frame and underneath and then hit it with some paint to bring it back to life and take some steps to make it last as long as possible.

Then within the next couple weeks I should be on to the daunting task of stripping the Jeep and prepping for paint.

It resembles one of the frameless soft tops. There's a couple different manufactures, hard to say which one from the pic.

 

[DustyRhodes03]

It resembles one of the frameless soft tops. There's a couple different manufactures, hard to say which one from the pic.

Ahhh ok, up for sale it goes! haha

 

[reddvltj]

Ahhh ok, up for sale it goes! haha

The next top I get will probably be one like that, but that's WAY down the road.

 

[DustyRhodes03]

The Jeep is almost prepped and ready for some surgery.

And the timing is good because stuff keeps coming in! lol

I'm 50/50 on the Noico I went with.
I bought this stuff:
https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B07TKXMPH7/?tag=tjforum-20
And I don't think I've seen anyone on here go with this yet, and most people go for the 80 mil. But I think for what I'm needing/wanting, this stuff SHOULD do the trick...I hope....Maybe....lol

Kinda pleasantly surprised with this little guy tbh. It was a cheap impulse buy on sale for like 25 bucks, and it looks to be pretty decent quality. It'll definitely hold up to any abuse it'll see with my driving anyway.
https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B00Z3NH7BO/?tag=tjforum-20

 

[DustyRhodes03]

Yellow Jeep is dropped off to have the floor and bodywork done on it.
The prep work revealed a lot that that I would've rather not see lol But Everything is done and prepped to go, it's as stripped as it's getting for what needs to be done.

The worst spots I circled here in this picture, I got KINDA lucky that it's a lot of surface rust, and since I'm gearing up for a full paint job, it's not too devastating to the project, and if things take a turn for the worse, I still have the green Jeep use for replacement panels if need be, which I don't think there will be.

The next time I see this horrid beast it will have about $600 worth of new panels and metal into it.

While I wait for Yellow to come back fresh and new, I'm going to start prepping some parts from Green to be swapped over to the Yellow.

- I'm going to TRY to use the seats out of Green, but they're different brackets and type of seat so I'm not 100% sure what's going to be involved but it should be fairly simple just by glancing. They're also going to get re-dyed.

- The black carpet is going to be re-dyed as well.

- The soundbar from the Green is going to replace the one in Yellow.

- I have to take the stereo and speakers out of Green for the Yellow.

- Center console needs to be restored

- Front bumper and fogs from the Green need to be redone and prepped to go on the Yellow, same with the passenger side fender.

- The Green doors are going to be swapped onto Yellow so I'll be re-doing the outside skin and the panels this week as well.

- And the tires from Green need to be swapped over onto the rims that are on Yellow rn to be put on.

I'm sure there are about 100 more things that will pop up along the way or that I'm forgetting but for now this is all the major stuff.

I'm looking at paint options now but I'm really undecided on that. I want a good quality finish, but I don't want to spend an arm and a leg on painting something that is going to get scratched and dinged in the trails. So I'm looking for something durable, cost effective, but doesn't look like a $30 rattle can job.

 

[grumblebee]

I was a replica prop nerd before I was a Jeep nerd, and I am loving this! JP Jeep is the dream. Keep at it!

 

[BigWheel88]

Can anyone help with what type of soft top I have here?

It's the spare soft top that came with the yellow Jeep but it's quite a bit different than the one I already own. I have no idea what it's suppose to look like or if I even have all the hardware pieces for it.

Looks like a Bestop Trektop. https://www.bestop.com/jeep/2003/wrangler/trektop-soft-top/sub-model/exc-unlimited/. There is an install instruction manual PDF link on the page

 

[DustyRhodes03]

I was a replica prop nerd before I was a Jeep nerd, and I am loving this! JP Jeep is the dream. Keep at it!

RPF member by chance? lol Thanks!!

Looks like a Bestop Trektop. https://www.bestop.com/jeep/2003/wrangler/trektop-soft-top/sub-model/exc-unlimited/. There is an install instruction manual PDF link on the page

This is super helpful thanks! I'm going to try to figure out if I'm missing any hardware today and I might end up using the top instead of selling it.

 

[DustyRhodes03]

The heat wins today.
Did some touch ups on the interior pieces and then gave up sweating in defeat lol

It's definitely quite a different shade of tan, but overall I'm pretty happy with it.

The center console was horrid. I'm a smoker myself and even I found the amount of ashes appalling. This took an insane amount of cleaning before I could even consider painting it.

I really like the way this paint covers, it doesn't go on thick and tacky, and it really helps maintain all the little details and grooves. It's the same stuff I used last summer to touch up my roll bar padding. I'll be using it to redo the carpets and seats as well.

 

[grumblebee]

RPF member by chance? lol Thanks!!

You know it! I haven't been active on the forum in probably seven years though, I just look at the RPF FB page now.

I really like the way this paint covers, it doesn't go on thick and tacky, and it really helps maintain all the little details and grooves. It's the same stuff I used last summer to touch up my roll bar padding. I'll be using it to redo the carpets and seats as well.

What an improvement! I'm going to use this stuff to paint my roll bar padding as well. It's faded up to gray where the PO's bikini top didn't cover it, so he took them off to show the paint, but included them with it. Now the trick is finding where I put them...

 

[DustyRhodes03]

You know it! I haven't been active on the forum in probably seven years though, I just look at the RPF FB page now.

Too funny, I haven't been active on there in about the same amount of time, and also just look at the FB page now haha

 

[DustyRhodes03]

It's been WAAAY too hot the last couple weeks so things have been moving fairly slowly, but! The gross work is finally done.

Passenger side wasn't as bad.

The floor is probably my favorite part tho when looking at a before and after lol

All in all besides the obvious floor pans and outside panels, the rocker sills were rebuilt, both passenger and drivers side body mount rails were replaced, and nearly everything around the bottom of the driver's side wheel well.

It was a TONNE of work, I can guarantee 99% of the members on here wouldn't have even considered touching this, but for me it's been completely worth it, I have a lot of sentimental value tied into these two Jeeps with my late brother and my son and I knew it was something I wasn't going to give up on.

So over the next week it'll be a lot of putting the Jeep back together and stealing parts from the green meanie. I have 2 small 3-4 inch holes I need to fix on the back my the tail lights, and then it's on to paint!

 

[DustyRhodes03]

Today was a light easy day.

I got the fog lights installed and all the wiring sorted out. Swapped the doors, and got my tires put on.

 

[DustyRhodes03]

Interior day!!

I got the Noico installed, no progress pictures because that stuff is beyond tedious and frustrating to lay! But it's down lol

I cleaned and re-dyed my carpets today.

Can you tell which piece hasn't been done yet? lol

And even managed to get everything put back together including the console and door panels.

I'm pretty happy with the 2-tone black and tan.
Interior wise I'm pretty much done for now, I'd like to steam clean and dye my seats, but that's not a priority right now.

The back seats haven't be swapped yet just because I need to swap the brackets over as well and again, not a priority just yet lol