Ole Rusty's 05 Unlimited Grocery Getter and Summertime Convertible

Spending the winter months getting the rig ready for better weather. Jeep still has the original springs and shocks at 198k which means they're shot. I decided to put together my own small lift based on recommendations from this forum. Went with OME 2" springs (2933 front and 2949 rear) and Rancho 5000x shocks. Rear upper shock mount bolts, at least what was left of them, were so rusted the heads were almost gone. So I decided to drop the fuel tank to give myself room to work and cut the bolts heads off, removed the shocks, the cut the weld nuts off as well. I knew it was gonna suck and I was right.

Old rear springs and shocks next to the new rear OME for reference.
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New rear setup.
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I was fortunate enough to to have room with the tank out to install new upper bolts and nuts.
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Installed new bump stop cups and squishies and set the bump stop extension height per the excellent write up on this forum.

My OCD got to me and I took a wire brush to the bottom of the tub area above the fuel tank while it was out. Now I'll sit here and twitch knowing the rest of the underside needs it.
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Drag car stance with rear springs in and stock front.
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Front went pretty smooth. Old vs new setup.
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Struggled with removing the old bump stop cups which had some weird extension on it. Heat and patience prevailed.
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Other side was missing the bump stop cups altogether and the only thing remaining was a whittled down pointy nub of the cup bolt. I had zero faith I would get it out but once again heat did the job. Also feel I had some good karma built up from the shit show that was the rear shock install.
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Shot of some of the bolts that got cut off for good measure.

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Mixed feelings on the final result. Front came out almost exactly 2" higher. Rear ended up almost 3" higher. I'm fine with the factory rake, I'm not looking for level. But now that rake is slightly increased due to the variation between lift height front to back. I may go with a space up front but for now I am to leave it and see if it settles.
 
Noticed the sweet smell of coolant and the window fogging up when I ran the heater or defrost. Replaced the heater core. Not a bad job. Just tedious and time consuming.
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No leads on a Mopar replacement, and honestly don't think the $300+ price tag is justified there anyways, so I used an OSC brand. We'll see how it holds up.
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As usual this forum is super helpful when I feel a need to spend money on the Jeep. Pulled the center console and swapped out the OEM sub for a 6.75" Kicker.

OEM sub was shot

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Minimal trimming of the inside of the housing PXL_20230325_144712899.jpg

Disassembled the factory amp, filled the empty screw holes, with some rivets, and reinstalled the amp mounting plate to seal the box back up.
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New sub installed. Mounted the new amp under the steering column using a similar method to what I found on the forum. Didn't take any pics.
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Turn up the jams
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Replaced all the dash lights with LEDs when I did the heater core replacement. Cause why not. Went with green and happy with how they turned out.

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Repaired some wiring to get the fog lights and headlights going. Not a big fan of the halos but they were in there when I bought it so I'm running them for now. Plan to replace the fog light bulbs with amber ones simply cause I like the look.

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Replaced the multifunction switch due to the fog lights staying in or coming in randomly. Saw this broken wire when I took out the old switch. Not sure if that is the culprit. Everything works as advertised with the new switch.
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As usual this forum is super helpful when I feel a need to spend money on the Jeep. Pulled the center console and swapped out the OEM sub for a 6.75" Kicker.

OEM sub was shot

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Minimal trimming of the inside of the housing

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Disassembled the factory amp, filled the empty screw holes, with some rivets, and reinstalled the amp mounting plate to seal the box back up.
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New sub installed. Mounted the new amp under the steering column using a similar method to what I found on the forum. Didn't take any pics.
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Turn up the jams
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Nice work. But aren’t you supposed to ”Pump up da jams?”

🙂
 
Scrounged up this old pic of my last Jeep. I painted the inside of these fog lenses yellow/amber using duplicolor metalcast spray paint. Worked pretty well actually. Thought I'd share since you mentioned you wanted amber fog lights.

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I think the lenses were sealed so I had to pry them apart and re-assemble with rtv.
 
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Since I don't drive the Jeep in the winter I'm using the down time to deal with some leaks. Front right axle seal has been making a mess all summer so that's first in the list. Took the opportunity while the axles were out to replace u-joints and ball joints. U-joint replacement went off without a hitch but ran into a situation where the ball joints had been replaced prior with oversized splined units so I had to dimple the new Spicer ones.

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Picked up a used NP 231 and swapped that out to eliminate the leak from the cracked case.

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Also took the opportunity to clean the grime from underneath the tub while the case was out. On the plus side the leaks really preserve the underside of the tub.