BIG mail day today. Finally just ordered a good condition secondhand tailgate vent off of eBay so I could get my brake light and spare tire mounted again. It arrived this morning and I got to work. Cleaned up real nice. Spare tire bracket and brake light went on just fine, though I did end up taking the brake light off again and adding 3/8” nylon spacers to make it sit a little higher. The 31” tire cleared, but visually it looked off. The spacers made it just right.
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Hit one snag when trying to get the tire on. Couldn’t figure out why the threads weren’t reaching through the wheel; there wasn’t enough for the lug thread to catch. Then I smartened up and realized the tailgate bump stops had to come off. So, I took them off and sure enough the tire slid right into place. I put the screws back in to keep a finished look and you’d really never even think twice about them missing. Anyway, my Jeep looks like a Jeep again and I am PUMPED.
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Yesterday I got a cheap set of hinge mirrors from Amazon and I put them on this morning to be street legal with the doors off. They’re junk and they’re going back ASAP. Tomorrow morning I’m going a few towns over to pick up a set of OEM mirrors for $30 and I’ll mount them to the windshield frame for the summer.
Slowly but surely coming together! A few more steps left before it’s complete. Well, “complete.”