It's a love / hate relationship

Five

Five

Member
Joined
Jan 21, 2019
Messages
42
Location
North Carolina
So, my daughter said that she wanted a white Jeep for her first car...and it just so happened that a co-worker was selling one for what I thought to be an agreeable price. I brought this home on her birthday, with the thought of making it my own and then giving it to her when she turns 16.

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I began prepping and painting the door panels.

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And center console.

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Then, on the way to work, I smelled anti freeze. No big deal, the dash was coming out for paint anyway.

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So, I got that out of the way and everything painted and reinstalled and put in 2000 WJ seats to replace the trashed stockers.

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Then the gauges and dash lights went nuts...out came the dash again. It turned out to be bad grounds, all fixed up.

More to follow...
 
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The insurance from the wreck turned out to be greater than I ever expected, so I ordered a new top and bumpers, both or which I am waiting to install after replacing the fender and painting the whole thing. But, I did get the wheels on (just mocked up here):

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Put on the new front shocks:

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Added 1.75" coil spring spacers and both jounce bumper cups (or whatever you call them) bolts in the rear looked like this, one broke and I had to drill it out.

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Then I took it to a local shop to have the rears done (rusted and rounded top bolts intimidated me) and a muffler put on...here's where the hate begins; I went to pick it up after hours and it wouldn't start. Had to fight with AAA to get it towed to my house, because it was at a repair shop. I wasn't going to pay them to do a starter swap. Finally got it home and replaced the starter...fired right up. Then I noticed the front speakers weren't working, I figure the amp I just installed has a bad channel. I love the idea of owning a TJ and I love driving it, but damn...it's always something with this thing. As simple as they are, at least I can work on it myself.

Here's how it sits today as I wash and wax my wife's Camry and my F350. Note that I got in on the $300 Bestop slider deal on Amazon before the price went back up.

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Your daughter sure is going to have fun in her new rig! Looks great.

And things do go wrong, but at least with my X, the KISS principle sure makes it easy to do a lot of the work myself.
 
My non jeep friends joke that I've had to have taken every bolt off by this point. They're really only about half right, for better or worse.

Good news is that once lots of these things are done, then that will be the last time you need to do them for a long time. My 03 is 16 years old now, it can drive it's own car. (I also like my scotch to be able to buy it's own scotch)

Looks good. I cringed when I saw the wreck picture.

Originally from NC spent 21 years there, but CO is my home.
 
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