My ‘06 TJ “Lil’ Miss Hindsight”

Don Ashcraft

TJ Enthusiast
Joined
Nov 13, 2018
Messages
280
Location
Kalamazoo, MI
I kept playing with the idea of making a build thread on my TJ but it just slips my mind when I start working on her. So I figured I would at least throw a couple pics up and note what I’ve done so far and my plans from here.

When I bought her she had right under 100,000 miles. The previous owner had installed a 2” RE BB lift and 31” tires but other than that it was pretty much stock. The dealership had installed a new soft top and “repaired” the rusted front fenders (shoddy work that was really just a cover up).
At the time I hadn’t planned on buying a new vehicle exactly but I saw this on the ride home and had to stop. I always wanted a TJ and this was almost exactly what I had been wanting. So after thinking it over for a night I signed the papers the next morning. I was a proud owner of a 2006 TJ, 2.4l with a 6 speed manual trans.
I’m not sure if I wanted to laugh or cry when I picked her up. I was ecstatic lol.

I wasn’t sure about the 4 cylinder at first, especially since I’ve had two 4.0 Cherokees that lasted to nearly 300,000 miles each. But the 2.4 surprised me with its gas mileage. It really grew on me and I’m really happy with it…overall lol.

Like everyone I started dreaming and planning what I would do first but it took awhile before I would finally stop him-hawing and started putting in the work. The first thing I did was switch out the wheels and tires. I stayed on with 31s after the deflating realization that 33s aren’t the most realistic choice for the 2.4.

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I drove it like that for quite a while before I finally started checking off repairs and stuff from my to-do list.

The steering was pretty shot with wear causing death wobble so I replaced tie rod ends, sway bar links, stabilizer, track bars and control arms. No more death wobble issue. Everything was replaced with stock replacement parts from moog. I probably should have upgraded to adjustable TBs and beefier CAs but at the time cost and functionality was my main concern because my TJ is my DD.
After that was done I was more comfortable driving on longer trips and rougher terrain so we took it up north for a couple camping trips in the U.P.

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There was a couple major repairs that came up like a 1-2 punch to the nuts. I was hearing a noise that I thought was just road and tires until it started to cause growling from the rear diff. Turned out the PO ignored the vibes he got after the lift and over time the gears were just wobbled out.
In a perfect world I would have found a rear axle with better gearing but I had paid for that extended warranty when I bought her so I was getting a used axle with under 60,000 miles on it for nothing out of pocket basically. 3.73 gears but the right price lol.

The other big repair came maybe a month later. I keep the doors and windows off through summer until the weather turns to fall. This allowed me to smell a slight hint of coolant when I’d back up. My gut said blown head gasket. My gut is a jerk that should keep its mouth shut lol.
it turned out to have a pin hole leak but I caught it before it caused any damage so I bit the bullet and had the head gasket replaced.
This was a major job and not one I felt comfortable doing. And certainly not one I could do on a weekend in my garage. The good side to this was that I got the timing belt, water pump, serpentine belt, idler pulley, and exhaust manifold all replaced at the same time so there was that.

Then Rona happened. And suddenly I was lucky(?) enough to be working from home with a lot of time to work on the TJ. Being that it’s my daily I’ve had to plan my repairs/upgrades around the weekends.

I had been putting off replacing the clutch and throw bearing and now I was able to do it without rushing spread over a few days.

Then in February some D-bag clipped me at an intersection.
 
I was running errands one morning after a night of heavy snow. They still hadn’t cleared the streets and it was pretty slick. Someone must not have seen I was turning left and clipped my rear corner. It dented the panel pretty bad but thankfully it wasn’t worse.
The guy drove off so I was going to get stuck with the $1000 deductible. I decided to order some armor and fix it myself the best I could. $200 was much easier to swallow at the time. I wish I would have just sucked it up and coughed up for aluminum but I have a habit of trying to save a buck just to regret it later.
That’s why I lovingly call my TJ Miss Hindsight (Hiney) lol.
 
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I installed the corner armor and a set of Smittybilt 3” rear fender flares and then decided to attack the front fenders since the shoddy repair was bubbling up and rusting again.
This was when I decided to just get the parts I wanted instead of making more compromises I wouldn’t really be happy with.

I new that I wanted to swap out the stock fenders for a flat style but I don’t care for most out there. MetalCloak was the one real exception so I pulled the trigger and ordered a pair of overline fenders with 4” flares. The quality is fantastic and the look is so badass.
They have a larger wheel well so the rock sliders that were on the Jeep when I bought it were now too long. Extending past fender. Instead of replacing them I just cut the overhang off with grinder and made it work.
I thought it would suck but it looks good IMO.

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It was around this point that the itch to keep building was really starting up for me.
With the new fenders on I now couldn’t stop thinking about finally replacing my front bumper. I’d been looking and most were far too heavy an bulky for my Jeep.
Again I kept coming back to MetalCloak. I really like their designs and they offer a bumper system that can be built in sections overtime or changed if needs changes come up down the road. So I ordered my new bumper and immediately began searching for a good deal on a winch. Most times it’s just me and the family when we are out in the woods so I was pressing my luck by not having recovery gear.

I was assuming that in a few weeks I’d find something at a decent price that would work well and not break the bank. Turned out that the very next week I found a new Warn VR EVO 8s on eBay for $600 after tax and shipping. I couldn’t pass that up so I decided to eat PB&Js for a couple weeks and pulled the trigger.

That’s where I sit now. There’s a couple things I forgot to mention I’m sure.

I’ve just ordered 2” BDS coils springs to replace the BB and they’re coming Monday. After that I’m thinking an antirock sway bar will be next, and then an aluminum UCF skid.
im also wanting to replace my Rancho shocks with Bilstien or Fox but that will probably be farther down the road since the Ranchos are only 6 months old.

Funny thing is that after adding the armor and winch etc. I actually like how she handles with the extra weight.

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