I’m back!!
Since April I have been traveling all over the nation for both work and fun! I’ve been South Dakota, Florida, Utah, Nevada, and Arkansas 3 separate times. Not to mention the various trips I’ve taken in the Jeep around the state of Colorado. In all of this, I’ve driven all of these, and I’m glad things are kinda dying down for a bit.
One of the earliest trips I made this year was very enjoyable and involved going back to my home state of Arkansas with the intention of painting my Jeep and getting some fishing done. I hadn’t planned to paint the whole vehicle, but once I got started, I figured I might as well take it too far. The unfortunate side effect was that I damn near spent the whole time working and hardly got any fishing done.
I thought I’d go ahead and catch up the thread and document my work from April's trip to my dad's shop.
Early breakdown of the rig.
Added some goodies...
Prep begins!
It should be noted here that I bought the jeep with a Bestop Tire Carrier on it. That thing had completely seized to its own bolts in several places, and I decided to remove it entirely, and just go back to a factory tire carrier since this jeep won't be wearing tires above the 31 to 33 inch range in the future. That's why you see a little bit of bondo where I stitched the holes shut, and refinished the corner.
You might be inclined to wonder why I went down to bare metal in the front cap, and not in the rear. At some point or another, the hood and fenders were painted, and it was either not prepped correctly, or something because it was starting to lift in certain areas. You can see in one of the earlier pics where that was occurring above the left blinker where that was happening. for the windshield surround, and the grill, the paint was original, but had its fair share of rock pecks that were starting to develop surface rust so I took them down as well. As for the rear, the doors, and tub had never been bent up, so all of the paint was original and in good shape. Honestly, if the new paint wouldn't have had a different, better texture and shine, I wouldn't have even bothered to paint the rear because it was in great shape for being 15 years old. That said, if I'm going to do the job, I may as well do a good one.
Moving on! Primer time!!
New hinge pins along with bushings !
Took a little time to fish with my dad, brother, and nephew!
Once sanded and painted, I didn't take many pics of the assembly. It all went pretty quick, and I was running out of time before I had to head back to Denver.
She came out slick!
Things that I replaced along the way...
1. Old Xenon fender flares that had seen their better days. I replaced them with factory-esque UV protected ones. I've always kinda liked the factory flares for some reason.
2. Antenna assy.
3. Door rubbers and clips
4. Exterior door handles
5. Hinge pins and bushings
6. Blinker assy for front.
7. Factory tire carrier that I picked up a local salvage yard.
8. That custom cables assy I bought before the trip.
I think that was about it! Took a week of solid work, but it came out shiny and ready for the next 15 years!
While I didn't have my dogs with me, my dad's dog (Sophie) made sure I was working hard.
I've had some other adventures with the Jeep since then too, and I'll try to get that caught up during the course of the long, cold winter.