Middle TN 02 build

RHanna

RHanna

TJ Enthusiast
Supporting Member
Joined
Oct 27, 2020
Messages
785
Location
Gallatin, TN
I purchased this Jeep last fall and have been upgrading things here and there and I thought I would start a build thread.

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The listing that came with the Jeep

Currie “Rock Jock” Dana 60 high Pinion rear axle with 4:88 gears and Eaton Electronic Locker
Front Yukon Chromoly shafts and 4:88 Gears
Tom Woods rear drive shaft and slip yoke eliminator
New front drive shaft as of recent months
Rubicon Express 3.5” short arm kit
All adjustable upper and lower control arms, Front and Rear
Adjustable track bars
1” Prothane body lift (for high clearance gas gas-tank skid plate
Currie/Savvy solid chromoly steering Currectlync set up
Fox 2.0 Reservoir shocks, All
Fox 2.0 Steering Stabilizer
Currie Aluminum antirock Front
Poison Spyder Front and Rear Bumpers
XRC 8000lb water proof winch with synthetic line
XRC Front and Rear Fenders/ Rock Sliders
All aluminum three row radiator
New alternator
New water pump, thermostat and housing
New bolt, spark plugs
K and N intake
Die Hard platinum battery
New rear main seal
New luck stock style clutch
Banks exhaust
 
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Things that I'd added so far.

New speedometer gear for the larger tires and 4.88 ratio. I'm surprised I had to do this considering it was so easy to do and it negatively effected the odometer.

Rebuilt the front drive shaft because I thought I had noise coming from the driveshaft. It ended up being something else but at least I have experience replacing the ujoints.

I've replaced the alternator even thought they said it had a new one. It didn't look new but in any case it stopped working.

Smittybilt sport cage. So far so good. I'd rather not test it out.

Bought a bestop backseat since it didn't come with one and we have an 8 year old that was going to ride with us.
Bought used rear seat belts.

UCF transfer case and engine skid plate.

M.O.R.E bomb proof motor mount kit for 1 inch body lift

Morryde tailgate reinforcement kit

Hyline tire mount

New headlights

Thumb throttle

Sunshade

Savvy transfer case cable shifter kit
 
Plans for the future. I'd love to go crazy and replace the front axle, savvy mid-arm lift, run 37 or 40s.... but I also don't want to spend a fortune on it and it seems like going from 35 to 37 is quite the investment.

I'm really thinking about replacing the RE control arms with aluminum Savvy ones. If I don't have a problem with the current length of the RE arms would I just match the length before installing?

I know bedliner exterior is not very popular but I also don't want to spend several thousand on a vinyl wrap or new paint job. So I'm really thinking about either raptor liner or scorpion coatings (Al's). It looks like the scorpion coating allows for metal flakes and the last clear coating which I think would look really good.

I plan on repainting the fenders and armor and since it was powdercoated I'm not sure how I would do that. If it was just regular metal parts I would just sand the rust and prime and paint but with the powdercoating I think if I sanded it, it would look wierd.

Also would like to paint the wheels. Later on replace them with alloy wheels and I'd love to install coyote boltless beadlock.
 
if you don’t mind, can you measure how far off the Jeep the hyline tire mount protruded? I’m having trouble finding something for my 15x10 with low backspace.
 
Midtenn said:
if you don’t mind, can you measure how far off the Jeep the hyline tire mount protruded? I’m having trouble finding something for my 15x10 with low backspace.
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It looks like it's about 7 1/4". Not exact but I didn't feel like removing the spare.

I have the morryde tailgate reinforcement kit so I had to cut into that bracket for the hyline mount to fit. I had it mounted to the extra brackets before but I had to use an extra bumpstop and like 10 washers on each one for it to touch the tire. I didn't like it sticking out so far so I decided to cut. I'm sure it weakens it but in the end I didn't think it would weaken it so much that it couldn't reinforce the tailgate.


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It hits 4 of the 5 bumpstops but it doesn't touch the bottom one, which is probably the most important one. I guess this happens because the mount is angled up so the tire rides higher
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Midtenn said:
Thanks for that. Super helpful. I was just going to upgrade the hinges vs the full kit.
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If you have the torx heads you would be better off just drilling them out. I don’t remember the size bit but the head will pop right off when you get deep enough. Then you can screw them out real easy with a wrench after you take the hinge off.
Basically do the opposite of what I did, no heat and tried a torx bit. Stripped the heads and tried using a extractor only to break that off. That led to 2 hours drilling around the screw enough to get the hinge off.
 
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Picked up a Viair 400p for $80 off of facebook this morning. It was listed as new but I'm sure it was a return or something like that.
 
Looking forward to following a mid-tenn build.

Are you still running the 30 in the front? Was the PO half way through a build when he added the 60 In the back?

Jeff
 
NashvilleTJ said:
Looking forward to following a mid-tenn build.

Are you still running the 30 in the front? Was the PO half way through a build when he added the 60 In the back?

Jeff
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It still has the dana 30 with yukon shafts. I added a torq locker and it's worked great. I would like to upgrade the front axel but I'm sort of stuck with a HP44 from currie if I want to keep the rear dana 60 just because of the width and bolt pattern on the wheels.
I never talked to the PO, I bought it out of Montana and he was using a dealer to sell it. I think he had just moved there from California.
There was a LJ dana 44 front axle for sale in Louisville I was very tempted to purchase, it even had the same 4.88 gears but I didn't feel like it was that much of an upgrade if it had the stock shafts and the seller said he thought they were still stock.

I'd like to clean up the frame and underside but I know thats a lot of work. I think the next big project will be to bedline the exterior. The paint on it right now is completely shot. There's a company out of Mount Juliet that does some amazing things with bedliner, Extreme off road coatings. I don't remember what brand they use but I'll probably do something similar. Here is some of the jeeps they've done.

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Well I finally did it yesterday. I bedlined the exterior of my jeep. I know it isn't a preferred option for many but the paint on my jeep was failing badly and I didn't want to sink a ton of money into painting it just to scratch the crap out of it again.

This was a lot more work than I expected but worth it. I removed a ton of parts and will start restoring those later, I was going to bedline them black but reconsidered. I need to find some rollbar pads so I can cover up the original paint.

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rhanna said:
Well I finally did it yesterday. I bedlined the exterior of my jeep. I know it isn't a preferred option for many but the paint on my jeep was failing badly and I didn't want to sink a ton of money into painting it just to scratch the crap out of it again.

This was a lot more work than I expected but worth it. I removed a ton of parts and will start restoring those later, I was going to bedline them black but reconsidered. I need to find some rollbar pads so I can cover up the original paint.

View attachment 373773
Click to expand...

Any more pics of the process or more after photos?
 
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Bad ass Jeep man! I’m usually not a fan of the Bed liner look but since your paint was bad that is a good choice. I remember when I was quite a bit younger there was a Jeep in a magazine that was about the same color as yours. They add black tiger stripes all over it. I thought is was cool as anything I’d ever seen!
 
Finally have everything put together enough to drive it around. I didn't install my smittybilt winch back on because I'm hoping to grab a warn zeon Friday or Saturday.

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One final piece not on the jeep is the rear fender liners. What are the pieces called that hold the liners in place, is it push pins?

Will these work or do you recommend something else?
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09SD7KJXP/?tag=wranglerorg-20

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Shipment came in from Blaine and I can't wait to install it on a new synthetic line. Almost trashed the sticker because I didn't see it at first.

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Added a jeep name today
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Bought a warn zeon 10 from someone that never brings his jeep off-road and never used the winch.

Just need to buy synthetic rope and I’m good to go.
 
NashvilleTJ said:
Wheredja go?
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West Tuskessee offroad
Near Waverly, TN

Not bad, first time I’ve been. Not a ton of rock crawling spots but it was still fun.

YJ that rode with us flipped the day or week before, with his hard top on.
I didn’t really notice the damage until they said something. Bend part of the roll cage and dented in his half door
 
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