Bertha the shoebox's build thread (the story of an aerodynamically challenged Jeep and her 3rd life as a first car)

[KingCarGuyZ]

I have decided to start a build thread for the Shoebox, i've had her for about 6 months now, so the first page of this thread was me catching up. she's a 2001 4.0 5spd, silverstone metallic no frame rust or other significant rust 250,000 miles when purchased. came with a soft top and 2 inch spacer lift, aftermarket radio head. rolling on 31's and canyon wheels.

Tentative build plan is 2.5 OME, 1.25 body, 33's, AR767 style wheels, bumpers, winch, lockers, maybe a tummy tuck.




Ok, so his is her the day I brought her home, wonderful base but entirely to bland, someone has to do something about that monotone color scheme.

I am her 3rd owner bought buy a guy in Vermont who moved down here andowned her until 2016ish then a ex-marine bought her Form his friend after the first owner died. he drive her as a second car for afew years and then sold her to me valintines weekend, feb 2020. 4K out the door. (She was missing a sway bar link so she drove like junk, threw a pin in and drove her home.)

 

[KingCarGuyZ]

One of my buddy’s hooked me up with an old cobra classic and a 4ft fire stick 2 wired it in to keyed power and ran the coax down the left side of the body to a pre the existing mount.

 

[KingCarGuyZ]

After driving the jeep for about a week she threw a persistent P0420 code, and so i changed out all 4 O2's unfortunately the first time i changed them with Bosch units, which did absolutely nothing. i then went back after doing some reading here and swapped out for NTK's. which solved my problem and let me get the jeep inspected.

 

[KingCarGuyZ]

broke the headlight buckets trying to adjust the headlights so i could see down the road, so here is Zombie Jeep while she waits for new buckets.

 

[KingCarGuyZ]

finally decided to take that darned Wind deflector off, possibly one of the best things i've done to the jeep.

oh and the license plates came in.

 

[KingCarGuyZ]

Hood lettering and tire cover, starting to make her mine a little bit, and do something about that color scheme.

 

[KingCarGuyZ]

Next order of business, getting rid of the GD throttle body spacer, the cold air I can live with. I don’t like it. But it would cost $$ to change (anyone want to swap me a stock intake for a cold air? I’ll throw in the stuff to clean it, hell you can have the spacer if you want)

finnaly I can cruise at part throttle without the “whistle of death”

 

[KingCarGuyZ]

Alright, we finnaly got around to painting those fenders. I used a duplicolor bedliner, I love the look. And you can read up on it below.

REALLY happy with how these came out, cost me not much, and totally revived the Jeep. I decided not to go with the side steps, (see deliberations below) so I have a set of rust free pair of bedlined steps if anyone wants to work something out.
https://wranglertjforum.com/threads/best-paint-for-fender-flares.34122/https://wranglertjforum.com/threads/side-step-or-no-side-step.35436/

 

[Chris]

No one is going to miss you with that decal, that's for sure!

Throttle body spacers... I can't believe some people still buy into that these days

 

[KingCarGuyZ]

No one is going to miss you with that decal, that's for sure!

Throttle body spacers... I can't believe some people still buy into that these days

decal has been pretty useful for all the curbside pickups in these trying times, i just put "bertha the shoebox" as my license plate, they haven't missed me yet.

 

[Chris]

decal has been pretty useful for all the curbside pickups in these trying times, i just put "bertha the shoebox" as my license plate, they haven't missed me yet.

Oh yeah, I can see how that would be an easy identifier

 

[KingCarGuyZ]

Next in order was a hard top and some LED headlights, picked up the top for 1k and the lights for 50, JW speaker knock-offs form amazon called Sunpie LED's. worked great so far.

 

[Mr. Pink]

love the name lol

 

[KingCarGuyZ]

Latest mod was swapping LED pods for the stock fog lights, got the pods for 25+20 for the wiring harness and sold the stock fogs for 100, made about 40 with an upgrade, there aimed as gutter spots and Throw crazy light.

 

[KingCarGuyZ]

Latest ordeal was a cooling system over hall, everything but the Rad is new.

 

[KingCarGuyZ]

Other upgrades include
Home made sway bar discos
Flipped sun visors
Cutting relay to allow for fogs and highs on at same time
Adding clutch switch bypass.
Grab handles, both rope and solid mount
Rear roll bar mounted cup holders
Replaced body to trans shift boot
Added Roll bar mount sunglasses bag
Replaced spark plugs
Replaced TPS with MOPAR
Replaced coolant temp sensor
(Hopefully) fixed passenger floorboard leak.
replaced tensioner and idler pulley
Charged ac a few times now.
Weather Tech floor mats.

I think that brings us up to date. I have a valve cover gasket that I’m doing tomorrow and I’ve got some red line waiting for A change.

 

[AMS417]

Pull the upper radiator hose, and heater hose before you open the valve cover. Tough to get it off without doing this, and it you don't do it first, all the coolant runs into the engine. Kind of a pain in the ass job, there is a valve cover bolt hiding under the wiring harness in the very back.

 

[KingCarGuyZ]

Pull the upper radiator hose, and heater hose before you open the valve cover. Tough to get it off without doing this, and it you don't do it first, all the coolant runs into the engine. Kind of a pain in the ass job, there is a valve cover bolt hiding under the wiring harness in the very back.

I heard that or the rear ground might get it off to, kinda trying to avoid opening the coolant system if I can.

 

[AMS417]

I heard that or the rear ground might get it off to, kinda trying to avoid opening the coolant system if I can.

You won't lose much out of the top hose, the heater hose you can clamp shut. I could not get mine out without doing it. Leading to an early oil change, since I spilled several ounces of coolant into the engine. Good luck either way.

 

[KingCarGuyZ]

You won't lose much out of the top hose, the heater hose you can clamp shut. I could not get mine out without doing it. Leading to an early oil change, since I spilled several ounces of coolant into the engine. Good luck either way.

Oils already winging its way here for a change with the valve cover gasket, so we’ll get her off no matter what