First Jeep, long way to go

[Dunkut88TJ]

After reading so many posts I thought it would be solid to have a running history of my Jeep and the years with it. This is my first Jeep and I don’t intend to sell it, hand it down to my boy maybe lol. I bought this at the end of June, 2006 TJ with 127k Miles, I didn’t know enough about Jeep’s in hindsight. All things considered I think I did ok but quickly learned I would spend some time and $$$ undoing a lot of neglect (insert crying face here). I remember being under the Jeep with a pocket full of cash FaceTiming my buddy that has a beautiful LJ saying “ is this too much rust?” Of course he was telling me to bang all over the frame, but he said “looks good!” Trusting someone with that decision was stupid of me, but I did ok.

The next day I took it to a mechanic to check her health, yeah yeah, I did that all wrong. Only issue was a worn out track bar that needed to be replaced, sweet right?

Here is the day I brought her home, sadly I don’t have the picture of the inside before we started cleaning it. It was disgusting And looked like the kid lived in it.

 

[Dunkut88TJ]

After a few days I took it to the local 4x4 shop to get a cost on fixing the trackbar. I am not a handy fellow or mechanically inclined, but I bought this to learn to be that way and to help teach my kids the simple things. Some things I won’t ever touch, due to time and tools, maybe later on I will. Well the young lad at the shop looked at me and said “ you know this isn’t a rubicon right?” Me: ”sure as hell didn’t obviously”

Oh well, price was fair and I don’t plan to rock crawl. While he was under there I asked his opinion on the frame and rust. Like most my TC drop was the worst, but he said the frame looked excellent, phew. I ended up going to another shop to price out the trackbar, they confirmed the rust was minor on the frame, but did tell me this bad boy was running on stock steering. It has a 4 inch touch country lift (boo), sway bar disconnects, adjustable control arms, but we didn’t upgrade the steering??? WTF.

If only I knew better at the time, both shops told me to not remove the transfer skid unless I was willing to do serious work if all the bolts snapped. Here is the steering before and after, went with the curricorrect lync and couldn’t be happier.

PO obviously left it outside and didn’t worry about salt, most of my suspension elements have quite a bit of rust. They all work but my rear lower control arm bushings are wearing good. I will have to replace the entire lift, looking to do that in 2021

 

[Dunkut88TJ]

As you can see from previous pictures I had an oil leak, still do. Replaced the valve cover gasket and nudged oil pan bolts a bit. DIdn’t leak at all for sometime, but when it sits for a few days it is evident there is a RMS leak.

From here I spent some time just loving on Rubi, took the sticker off the hood. When I was a kid people got beat up for being posers, so I couldn’t ride around with RUBICON plastered on my hood when it wasn’t. If you do, don’t take offense, just how I am.

You can see below the flares were faded badly, I liked them at first, but want a slimmer option, hopefully by Christmas. Back to black did good, but doesn’t seem to last long enough (that’s what she said). I painted the Hi-lift Jack, Gerry cans (wife helped), added new shackles, and painted the fog light housing. As well as touching up a nasty rust spot on the winch plate. Plan to remove front and rear bumpers over the winter to repaint.

 

[Dunkut88TJ]

About 1.5 months ago It was time to work on the interior a bit, so I got some small items to work on. Decided to polish up the soft top windows. They were horrible and I can’t believe the difference it made. I installed a phone/cup holder on the passenger bar, but hated it and ended up removing it. The PO put a fancy android double din display that folded away in. I wasn’t a fan being an apple guy and in the off chance I wanted my vents it blocked them. So I installed a Bluetooth Kenwood unit. I also found door guards pretty cheap and slapped them on there as well.

 

[Dunkut88TJ]

Thanks to someone’s fantastic write up I was able to change out all the interior lighting to LED’s, man what a difference. My little lady helped me with this project! I went with cool white and couldn’t be happier, I did put red in the foot wells, which I think looks pretty cool at night!

We also installed the switch for interior lights when the doors are removed. The PO rewired the door diffusers and would rip out the driver side when he removed doors. Figuring that out was a lot of fun!

 

[Dunkut88TJ]

The most recent job was to start working on the rust, I put this job off as long as I could. I opted to not take off the skid plate until I do an SYE and new rear driveshaft. It was primarily surface rust, but a few spots looked a little nasty. The entire family helped for this one, we wire wheeled down the really bad spots and I used some Rustoleum tough stuff paint that my off-road shop swears by. Here are some before and afters, it’s not perfect and I stopped at the front control arms until I do the bumpers. FIgure then I will take the front tires off so I can properly get to that area of the frame. I did hit the front axles and rear with the paint as well, I know it won’t last as long, but my OCD needed it.

 

[Dunkut88TJ]

here she sits as of the other day, lots still to do. I ordered touch up paint yesterday to help with rock chips on the front and doors. Holding to get new flares, ditch the nerf bars, rock sliders, and early next year an entire new lift. Also plan to upgrade some of the front speakers!

Feel like I have accomplished quite a bit in 4 months, and my wallet feels it. Even the small things add up!

 

[Moab]

Looks great man! You've done alot with it. I really like your rear dirtworx? bumper tire carrier.

I agree about removing the sticker. Thats pretty shitty that they led u to believe it was a rubicon. Thats about the shadiest thing u can do in the Jeep world. Next to driving around displaying the false sticker. Lol.

I agree on the flares too. You have good taste.

 

[Dunkut88TJ]

Looks great man! You've done alot with it. I really like your rear dirtworx? bumper tire carrier.

I agree about removing the sticker. Thats pretty shitty that they led u to believe it was a rubicon. Thats about the shadiest thing u can do in the Jeep world. Next to driving around displaying the false sticker. Lol.

I agree on the flares too. You have good taste.

Thanks brother, I believe the rear carrier is Bodyarmor. One of the previous owners painted it while mounted, same with the front. Blows my mind, I love both and want to just get them right. They are solid steel and weigh a ton. Both will require some time, figure when it’s cold that will be the time to do it.

it was definitely a Jeep party foul, although the guy I bought it from claimed he didn’t realize it wasn’t either. Guess we are both idiots

 

[Dunkut88TJ]

Today was my first attempt at touch up paint, they were horrible dings. But I learned I have a long way to go

 

[Modoc Guy]

Nice Jeep! Looks to me like you’re giving it the TLC it deserves.

 

[Dunkut88TJ]

Nice Jeep! Looks to me like you’re giving it the TLC it deserves.

Thanks, slowly but surely! Not looking forward to more touch-up work, but need to do it! It’s a marathon not a sprint right?!

 

[RobertJ]

Definitely great job cleaning it up. I don't usually like seat covers, but those are nice. It's amazing what a little work will do when something was neglected beforehand.

 

[Dunkut88TJ]

Definitely great job cleaning it up. I don't usually like seat covers, but those are nice. It's amazing what a little work will do when something was neglected beforehand.

Thanks, I love the seat covers, whether you love RC or not they look good!

 

[Wildman]

Just a word of caution. The CB box you have can cause a problem if you were in an accident or a roll over. Check that you cant hit your head on it while sitting in the drivers or passenger seat. A while back there was a article done by some emergency responder tech's about Jeep accidents and this was one of the they talked about. That most fatalities were head injuries from things mounted above occupants heads.

Good looking Jeep and you have done some nice work to it. Welcome to the Jeep world. If you haven't heard if before Jeep stand for
Just Empty Every Pocket .

 

[Irun]

Nice job getting the family in on the fun!

 

[Dunkut88TJ]

Just a word of caution. The CB box you have can cause a problem if you were in an accident or a roll over. Check that you cant hit your head on it while sitting in the drivers or passenger seat. A while back there was a article done by some emergency responder tech's about Jeep accidents and this was one of the they talked about. That most fatalities were head injuries from things mounted above occupants heads.

Good looking Jeep and you have done some nice work to it. Welcome to the Jeep world. If you haven't heard if before Jeep stand for
Just Empty Every Pocket .

Thanks I hadn’t really thought about that, it runs between the front seats but could see how it may be a risk. I’ll research some more, that’s why I removed the previous phone holder. It would become a fatal projectile

 

[Dunkut88TJ]

Nice job getting the family in on the fun!

Thanks it’s been a great family thing to work on. My son can have it at 16 if he does the work!

 

[Wildman]

Thanks I hadn’t really thought about that, it runs between the front seats but could see how it may be a risk. I’ll research some more, that’s why I removed the previous phone holder. It would become a fatal projectile

My daughter got a TJ when she turned 16. She'd grown up Jeepin in my TJ. It's a great family fun.

 

[Dunkut88TJ]

Well the last two weeks I have managed to get a few things fixed. I’ve also learned I’m horrible at taking pictures during the process.
Last week I took out the passenger seat to repair a broken seat release cable. Thanks to a nice write-up here I though “.5 hour tops”, all the while knowing things like this eat a day up quick. Got the seat out with no issue, driver side wouldn’t budge so it’s staying put for a while. Got everything disassembled to discover the cables work, but the metal piece with two bends had snapped, yay!! After 2 hours of engineering we ended up securing the cable loop to the same hole the metal piece goes through (sorry no picture). Works like a gem, what we didn’t realize in two hours, was that most of our previous attempts would have also worked. When the seat is sitting it won’t flip forward due to its position on the floor.

This morning I decided to tackle a few small spots with touch up paint. I still need to sand down more before I proceed but am still learning. All of it looks good from far, but up close far from good as they say .

I figure it’s better than the rust that was showing through and can’t look much worse. I never bought a Jeep for it to be flawless!