Picking up where I left off

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Chris said:
The first and most obvious observation is that once you added big, heavy tires and wheels to these things, it seriously robs them of a lot of power. In stock form, the 4.0 is actually great. My stock TJ has no problem getting up and going and actually feels quite peppy.

This khaki one on the other hand isn't too bad off the line, but once you drive them back-to-back, it becomes very apparent just how much power has been lost from the added weight and bigger tires. Of course this is to be expected.

That being said, the 4.0 isn't actually a bad engine, but when it comes to powering a rig like this, you really need to start thinking about a stroker, supercharger, or even an engine swap if you want to make it really livable. Of course I never bought this with the intention of daily driving it or commuting, so it's not so much an issue for me. However, if this was your sole vehicle for commuting or daily driving, you'd probably be miserable.

Also, maybe I'm getting old, but man is it a lot easier to get in-and-out of my stock TJ :LOL:

The two can't really be compared. One feels like a peppy little around town, fun vehicle, while the other feels like a purpose built crawler almost.

In addition, I've commented in another post about how I prefer the NSG370 over the NV3500. The NSG370 has that 6th gear which I like, and it also feels like a more precise transmission from what I can tell.

The NV3500 isn't bad by any means, not even remotely bad. I just think that the NSG370 really feels nice.
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The khaki tj you had before this was setup pretty well the same wasn’t it? 35s and such? If you like the silver one why not sell the khaki one if your driving the other more? You’ve bought and sold so many by now I doubt anybody will bat an eye haha
 
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5632 said:
I should have learned by now but what is a khaki Jeep?
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The color is khaki ;)

Starrs said:
The khaki tj you had before this was setup pretty well the same wasn’t it? 35s and such? If you like the silver one why not sell the khaki one if your driving the other more? You’ve bought and sold so many by now I doubt anybody will bat an eye haha
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Yes, but the last one didn't have the entire Savvy catalog, just the mid-arm and the front bumper. This has the whole nine-yards.

At this point I'm not sure I could surprise anyone :LOL:
 
The 5th in the 5 speed and the 6th in the six speed are almost identical. So, as far as highway goes it shouldn't make any difference. An advantage with the 6 speed is the lower 1st gear.
 
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Alex01 said:
The 5th in the 5 speed and the 6th in the six speed are almost identical. So, as far as highway goes it shouldn't make any difference. An advantage with the 6 speed is the lower 1st gear.
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The 35s versus 265s probably don’t make for the best comparison 🤣
 
psrivats said:
Blaine, out of curiosity, have you ever done a 42RLE to AX-15 swap in an '05-06?
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No, we did an NV3550 which uses the same conversion bellhousing from Advanced Adapters. If you go down that road, you should consider the under dash and engine harnesses as part of the swap or get real good at wiring diagrams. You'll have to add a wire to complete the neutral safety switch circuit in one of the plugs at the PCM otherwise.
 
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I'm mulling over painting the armor (minus the sliders and fender flares) body color (see recent photos in the first post).

I want to leave the fender flares black, but I'd like to paint the rear portion of the front fenders to match the body and the rear tub armor as well.

However, I don't want to remove the armor, nor do I want to pay a body shop to paint the armor all nicely, as it's likely to just get scratched up at some point.

I'm thinking about finding someone to fill rattle cans with the light khaki metallic paint and then prepping and spraying the parts I want to paint with rattle cans.

Will this look ghetto? In my mind it will be easy to touch up and it shouldn't look too bad, but I'm not sure.

Again, my thought behind this is that it would be easy to fix if there is a scratch. As much as I like how MidnightLJR painted his, I can see that starting to look bad in short order with the way he is wheeling it, and touching it up won't be as easy as a spray can.
 
Chris said:
I'm mulling over painting the armor (minus the sliders and fender flares) body color (see recent photos in the first post).

I want to leave the fender flares black, but I'd like to paint the rear portion of the front fenders to match the body and the rear tub armor as well.

However, I don't want to remove the armor, nor do I want to pay a body shop to paint the armor all nicely, as it's likely to just get scratched up at some point.

I'm thinking about finding someone to fill rattle cans with the light khaki metallic paint and then prepping and spraying the parts I want to paint with rattle cans.

Will this look ghetto? In my mind it will be easy to touch up and it shouldn't look too bad, but I'm not sure.

Again, my thought behind this is that it would be easy to fix if there is a scratch. As much as I like how MidnightLJR painted his, I can see that starting to look bad in short order with the way he is wheeling it, and touching it up won't be as easy as a spray can.
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Two spray cans arrived for me from here last week.

https://www.automotivetouchup.com/
 
rasband said:
Did you decide to keep this one?
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Yep, might as well. The kids said they like it more, and after driving it daily now, I'm convinced the power difference between the two isn't as dramatic as I made it out to be. Just took some getting used to.

Besides, the headers and tune ought to free up some HP.
 
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I've had really good luck with ERA paints out of Oregon. The cans typically ship out up the next day. You'd likely be looking at 4 cans of base for the job.

As far as results go, like everything else, it's all about prep. My fenders came out really well and it's hard to tell they aren't factory. My half doors on the other hand look blotchy and could certainly use a respray.

Do you have a Maaco nearby? Maybe you could do all the prep work/tapping and have them paint the corners. Another option would be to go to a powder coater and see if they have any tints that match.

Are the corners painted right now or powder coated? Would they need to be sandblasted?
 
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Alex01 said:
I've had really good luck with ERA paints out of Oregon. The cans typically ship out up the next day. You'd likely be looking at 4 cans of base for the job.

As far as results go, like everything else, it's all about prep. My fenders came out really well and it's hard to tell they aren't factory. My half doors on the other hand look blotchy and could certainly use a respray.

Do you have a Maaco nearby? Maybe you could do all the prep work/tapping and have them paint the corners. Another option would be to go to a powder coater and see if they have any tints that match.

Are the corners painted right now or powder coated? Would they need to be sandblasted?
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Oh, so you rattle canned yours? I didn't realize! I'll check our ERA paints also.

Not sure about a Maaco, but I could look. I might be able to find a powder coat that is reasonably close, but this color is such a difficult one to match I feel like.

The corners and everything are powder coated black. I'm not sure how rattle can paint would adhere to that. My thought was to go over the powder coat with a grey Scotch Brite pad which would be just enough to rough it up for the rattle can. I suspect if I did that I wouldn't need any primer, as the powder coat would serve as a good base.

I just don't really want to remove it all and have it professionally painted. I could do that, but it's likely to just end up getting scratched up anyways, so I don't see spending a lot of time and money for a really good paint job to be worth it in terms of upkeep and maintenance.
 
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