A rebuild of #miRustyJeep...

I wrapped my armor tonight. I don’t know if I’d do the whole vehicle with a wrap, but it was very satisfying and easy to get a nice, shiny surface on my new armor.




The most challenging part of this was wrapping the vinyl around the back. I wanted to give it a good margin to hopefully prevent pulling up. This stuff is pretty easy to work with and I was able to fully wrap the whole gas filler hole as well as all the other curves. Little heat and stretch, stick it down, little more heat, rinse, repeat.





Finally, I had to install the armor to locate that missing hole in the steel I welded in yesterday.

Looks good, exactly what I am going for…

Jamison C said:

Really good idea Mike. I was planning on leaving mine raw when I install it but might go this route instead.

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We’ll see how long it lasts. We get a lot of overhanging branches and trees on our trails. I’d like to do a color change in this Jeep, but don’t want to put the time and effort into a paint job to let it get all scratched up again. If this stuff is durable against pin stripping, I may wrap the whole thing, instead of painting. That’s the background behind the experiment.

Armor is installed!









Still have some work to do. I don’t think the holes for the taillight connectors are big enough. I’ll have to get a burr out and open them up.

I also have a “new” tailgate to install. Mine has rusted and cracked.



The one I have to replace it is from an older model, so no vent. It’s also chili pepper red, so I’m going to use some left over wrap to make it black. It’s better than mine, but not perfect.

It’s ready to get stripped down and cleaned up.

JMT said:

Why wrap it if your putting a beauty panel over it?

I’m glad someone finally wrapped something. It looks cherry.

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cuz the Al skin isn't ready to go yet...and I'm running out of time to do it.

Well, wrapping the tailgate didn’t work out. I didn’t have quite a big enough piece, and tried to seam it. That didn't work well (as evidenced by the red line in my picture) . The little indentations are a real bugger to get the vinyl stretched into as well. Lots of wrinkles here. My trimming was terrible around the handle and lock cylinder too. Scratch that plan.


So for lack of time and the desire to get this thing in the road again, I put my old tailgate back on.


First time install, I forgot to add the spacer plates under the hinges. Not sure if it’s gen rights design, or my aftermarket hinges, but they fit like poo-poo. The holes are about a 1/4” offset from where they should be to hide behind the hinge. Tried flipping them over, but they are symmetrically bad!






Anyway, I should be able to get the rest of the stuff installed on the Jeep tomorrow and wrap this project up. I would be done, but the tailgate took me two days to get to where I can wrap it. Nice thing is that I can pretty much peel the vinyl back off, and its about ready for paint. So, I'll get the gun out and shoot the tailgate black. I have (for about 4 years now, lol) a Khaki full door sitting in my barn that needs to go on as well, since my driver's door has a bunch of rust in the bottom seam. I'll get that ready too and paint them both.

Woodrow said:

Looks good, Mike. I’m working on installing GR corners now. I’m too lazy to learn how to paint or wrap plus while not rusty, my TJ’s body has never been pristine, so raw it is. I wondered what those plates were for. Maybe if I had read the instructions I skimmed them but found some issues so I abandoned them. I have the MorRyde hinges and tailgait stiffener anyhow. I noticed you did 3 extra holes over the wheel well plus the lower rear corner? I just did one at the back/bottom of the wheel well. I wonder if I need more…

I tried to upload a pic but not working today for whatever reason.

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I actually did 5 extra holes. Who knows if it’s necessary, but it made me feel better.

The extra plates aren’t really to stiffen anything as much as to correct for the extra thickness of the armor. The hinges install on top of the armor, so the spaces are to make them level on the tailgate.

Project corner armor is complete. I do have a little trouble shooting to do on my plate light and third brake lite, as they currently are not functional. I suspect it’s a bad ground.

There is more to do on my tailgate and lower valence, but for now, I’m done working on the Jeep. I also have a relay center and lighting to add (Rock lights, more forward lighting, and some reverse lights).

Did a little maintenance over the last couple days, oil change and replaced the boots on my steering tre’s. Some of them were not rock jock replacements (I bought the steering used) and a couple were torn. Also have issues with the one non-replaceable TRE (Pass left wheel) not taking grease. I got it on the bench, moved it all around, and just couldn’t get it. For now, I squeezed what I could into the back of the joint and packed the boot full.

I also picked up some new seat foam from summit. In the words of Borat, “It’s very nice”

I believe it’s slightly firmer than the original (definitely firmer than the worn out stuff that was there). Pretty comfortable, in the short amount of time I’ve driven it. Boosted me up enough that I need to adjust my mirrors!

The real test is coming soon, as we will be driving it to my in laws, about 500 miles. Then next Wednesday, I’m heading to Drummond from there (300 miles back). Normally, I’d trailer it for that kind of distance, but the trailer will be full of other stuff.

Another minor bit of maintenance tonight. My steering wheel has been off center for a while. I adjust it, then bent the track bar, adjust, rinse, repeat. I finally put a rock jock track bar on, so I quit bending the JKS one and got the steering “close.“

I’ve been lazy and just dealing it out being about 30 degrees from dead true. Since my wife isn’t comfortable pulling the trailer, she’s driving the jeep ~500 miles tomorrow and I wanted to make her drive the most enjoyable it could be…so I spent the time to get it dead nuts.

After that adjustment, my advice is to make sure you get the steering wheel centered. That little tight spot in the box when it’s in the center of its travel is pretty important to the feedback and the road feel in the steering wheel. I can’t believe how much more stable the steering feels. It was really surprising to me.


Go play with your drag links to get your steering wheels centered, Jeeples!

FarFire70 said:

I ran about 15* off for years because the drag link adjuster was rusted and I was just used to it. I agree with you - Get it right. It's so much better to have it right the soonest. I still get confused on finding right because of how long I ran it off center.

As you're asserting, I'm sure there is a 'natural' position for the steering box that would be best to drive at normally.

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There is. I know that, but ignored it. They tighten bore for a very small area of piston movement on center to help with “on-center” feel. That is what wears out on a loose box and makes it feel loose. If you tighten it with the adjuster, it gets tight every where else too, and you wear the rest of the bore out.

Made it 500 miles today with the Jeep. My wife is a trooper and drove it the whole way. I was pulling the trailer, which she wasn’t comfortable doing. Had a small scare about an hour and a half into our drive. Stopped to check my load in the trailer and smelled something sweet burning. Looked over and there was a fair amount of smoke or steam coming out of the hood!

Looked everything over really well and didn’t see anything other than a minor leak on one of transmission cooling lines (the return I think). I think with the rain we were driving through, it watered down the fluid and it got on the down pipe. No more smoke through the drive.

Will have to get into that…got another 300 miles to drive before my weekend in Drummond.

Rickyd said:

That's exactly how i wound up with a rockjock bar. I got tired of my second rough country

Good to know the jks also suffers from that.Makes me feel better about the rockjock price

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To be fair, the problems with the JKS may have been of my own doing. I was running their “small” lift bar on 4” of lift, plus I tried to emulate the rock jock bar and offset the frame side joint. I had quite a bit of the axle side joint threads hanging out. Their piece is just bent mild steel, and with the extra leverage, it just wasn’t up to the task.

Rock Jock’s axle side is forged, so it should be stronger.
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And in other news, I think I got my cooler leak taken care of (at least slowed down). When I installed my transmission, it came from an 05, and the guy gave me a radiator to go with it. When I was buying parts, I bought a replacement line kit for an 04. Another one of those weird differences between 03/04 and 05/06 is the cooling lines and their fittings. Anyway, the leak was in one of my adapter hose clamps. I used an oetiker, but it must not be quite tight enough. Screwed another worm screw style clamp on and it’s as good as it’s doing to buy until I tear it apart and fix it correctly. I needed to tear it apart anyway, so I can install my oil thermostat.

Holy cow, what a week! Made it back home after putting over 1000 miles on the Jeep. As a recap, my wife drove it 500 miles to Painsdale, MI where we celebrated mother's day with my In-laws and I did double duty working on the old family farm in the evenings and worked from home in the morning. Wednesday, I worked a half day, then left from Painsdale to drive to Drummond Island (just over 300 miles). Had the dog, a suitcase, and a box full of spare parts and tools. That was a long day. Spent Thusday, Friday, and Saturday wheelin all day long. Finally drove home today, got an early start and hit the 8:10 ferry off the island. Another 300 miles and 5.5 hours in the jeep. I'm whipped. Lots of time in a small vehicle. Plus, I think I lost another weight or a tire spun on the rim. I didn't have a perfect balance to start, but it was worse on the way home. That constant shake is fatiguing. I've had such an issue getting these tires to balance, I think its time to sell them to someone less picky. I'm kinda leaning toward some Baja Boss A/Ts. Going to start watching the sales.

We had four rigs, an XJ on 35's, another TJ on 33's, and an LJ on 35's. We swapped out vehicles a bit more this trip and I rode in a TJ and LJ a bit (I've been a passenger in the XJ a lot). I can really see the difference in builds going back to back like I did. Not so much in capability, but more about smoothness and ease of the driving expereince. My jeep is a FAR nicer place to be wheeling in than the others in the group. Enough so that the Wife of the owner of the LJ asked him how come his jeep didn't ride like mine? That was a fun discussion. Both the other wranglers have bedlined interiors and the resonance of the tub is drastically different than mine too. It was like sports arena to library difference in overall noise. Things like where the exhaust exits, how tools are carried, etc, is all important to your fatigue level at the end of the day. Lastly, both Wranglers were manuals. The amount of work that goes into wheeling a manual in technical sections is crazy. I knew it, but after a couple years with the auto and having done a lot of the same trails with both now, I will never build a manual jeep again. My Jeep is getting to be a point and shoot machine (In Michigan, anyway) and its very satisfing to have built it myself with help from my forum friends. This trip also makes me want to get my Foxes installed but I need a new frame first.

Overall the Jeep performed very well. My transmission leak was solved with the extra clamp, so I'll have to rebuid those lines. It needs to be done anyway, since I want to install an oil thermostat in the system. I wheeled pretty hard for three days and only saw the transmission temp tick up to 160. Never got any hotter. I think I'm going to run the oil through the radiator first, then let the thermostat decide when to start flowing through my aux cooler. Right now, its plumbed aux cooler, then radiator.

I had to pull cable once, when my tires just wouldn't grab and the front and back were trying to climb at the same time. I was climbing a cliff face and didn't really have enough room to reposition, the face was at an angle that kept pushing my rear pass tire toward a drop off, so I swallowed my pride and tied off. Climbed right up then. I had one other climb that I just couldn't get traction on, but I was able to reposition and get up without assistance. General Grabbers just don't seem to be a good rock tire...but maybe it was just the spot. The LJ struggled in the same place and he is running MT/R's.

I'll post some more trip recap stuff in another thread over in the regional forum (including some carnage!), but for the build thread, here are a couple pics...

Need to do some cleaning...



This is a feature called Connor's Hole Its about 300 yards long and the water was up to my sliders/floorboard. Nice rocky bottom though, so as features go, its pretty easy, just required a bit of a steel spine to actually drive into that water.



This was my wheelin buddy for the week. She was pretty anxious at first, but she started to get used to it after a couple days. She still doesn't like the really bumpy, rocky stuff, but at least she doesn't pant and drool down dirt roads anymore!



And I saw a big stump, so obviously, I needed to "check for clearance issues" on it. Note: That is actually where I found the pulled locker sensor wires, LOL!