A few new upgrades to the old TJ.

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Water Dog

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 27, 2010
Posts
2,487
Location
Sumner, TX
Spent last winter getting the old girl a little spruced up and just a little more trail ready. Installed a high pinion 30 front axle and an ARB locker in the front. Also did a tummy tuck a few months back. What a world of difference having a little extra clearance makes. Just recently made some new flat center caps out of some 16 gauge aluminum sheet metal for my Raceline wheels. I kept breaking the plastic hubs they came with on rocks and got tired of paying for new ones. Got all the original seats rebuilt and reupholstered at a local shop, and installed new flush mount LED tail lights. Here's a few pics.
 

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It looks really good.

I see that you are from Roseville.  Do you by any chance know Joe and Nellie Malloy.  They are in the Sierra Ridge Riders.  Joes Jeep has "Go Jo" on the front.

We all had prospector hood ornaments in the club.  I still have a prospector on the hood of my Jeep Commander.

Been many years since those good times.
 
HueyPilotVN said:
It looks really good.

I see that you are from Roseville.  Do you by any chance know Joe and Nellie Malloy.  They are in the Sierra Ridge Riders.  Joes Jeep has "Go Jo" on the front.

We all had prospector hood ornaments in the club.  I still have a prospector on the hood of my Jeep Commander.

Been many years since those good times.

Can't say I've ever met the Malloy's. I don't belong to a 4 wheel club as such, but am a member of Bayside Adventure Sports, which has a 4 x 4/off road division. http://www.baysideadventuresports.com/

Here's some pics of our last outing at Fordyce Trail if anyone is interested...  http://s1276.photobucket.com/user/oldgeezer4wheeling/library/Fordyce%206-22-14?sort=6&page=1
 
John Canfield said:
Looks good Dennis - I really like how the seats turned out.

Thanks John, yeah, I was really on the fence with the seats. I almost went for a pair of new seats from PRP in So. CA that were highly recommended to me and that I really liked, but I would have lost the reclining function (which I've never used anyway) and I didn't think the flip forward would work as well. I also don't need that function very often, but every once in a while I have the back seat in to haul a grand kid with me. The cost of having mine redone, and new ones were about a wash, so I opted to just have the stock ones done in a pattern similar to the ones I'd seen at PRP.

Betty Brewer said:
Dennis,

What a difference from when  I last saw her!

I know Betty. I think the last time you saw it, I had only owned it for a few months, but you know how that goes...it's never really finished, there's always one more obstacle to try and get over..... ;D
 
Seats look awesome Dennis, and thanks for sharing the pictures of the Fordyce Trail. That is one that I will have to run someday soon before the Lord takes me home!
 
hes4all said:
Seats look awesome Dennis, and thanks for sharing the pictures of the Fordyce Trail. That is one that I will have to run someday soon before the Lord takes me home!

Thanks Terry, there were some of us who thought we were going home that day...! ;) We actually started about 9am, and by about 6pm we were about 7 miles in and wound up taking an exit at Fordyce Lake. We had been looking forward to doing the entire 13 miles, but time didn't allow it. It probably would have been good to either plan for an over-nighter or start a lot earlier. This is probably one of the best trails I've been on. Lots of challenges and technical stuff. Definitely going back, maybe even this year if I can squeeze it in before the bad weather.
 
Let me know if you are going back? Maybe I could join you?
Don't want to invite myself now! LOL

That trail just looks awesome!
 
Water dog.
what lift do you have on your jeep and what tires are you running?

nice looking build!
 
Mickey1 said:
Water dog.
what lift do you have on your jeep and what tires are you running?

nice looking build!

The lift is a little of this and that. Old Man Emu 4" Springs and Nitro Charger Shocks, 8 Currie Control Arms, JKS adjustable rear track bar, Currie Adjustable front track bar, 1" body lift, ZJ steering upgrade, Undercover Fab Works high clearance skid, JB Conversions SYE, and Tom Wood drive shaft, and just recently upgraded to a Dana 44 rear axle with another ARB locker. I'm running 305/70R16 Goodyear MTR's which are basically 33x12, and I'll probably be going to 15" rims and 35's this next year....a little at a time.. ;). I really have had good success with the MTR's. I use my Jeep for a daily driver, and pull it behind the RV to use for sightseeing as well as off-roading, and it really handles all duties pretty well. Here's a little newer picture.
 

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very nice! I like the way it sits. right now im running the 15" wheels on mine with 32" tires looking at going to a 33" and a re gear to gain some of the loss back.  but have heard good things about the Cooper SST so I might try them also.

but at this point I have the Budget boost and think I want to go to a short or a long arm kit just trying to figure out what one and also witch is going to give me no more then a total of 5" total lift.

but it would be for the same thing for me as it is for you. it will be the toad and also the DD. so I need it to do well on the streets and the trails.

I like the stance you have.  also like the armor and plan to do this eventually. at this point it is a bit here a bit there. when I bought this it was pretty much just neglected and I have brought it back from almost death so it has been a long haul but it is getting there.

first one is how it sits now with the new doors on it. eventually I want to find a hard top for winter or at least a new top and the insulation pad for it.

the second is the way I got it. at least from the out side. had no stereo and most of the interior was tore up or tore out
 

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Mickey1 said:
but at this point I have the Budget boost and think I want to go to a short or a long arm kit just trying to figure out what one and also witch is going to give me no more then a total of 5" total lift.

Mine has about 5" of total lift right now, and I think it's just a little high for the 33" tires, but will be just about right for 35's. I added the 1" body lift to give me some extra clearance for the tummy tuck, but before that, it just had 4" of suspension lift with the 33's, and I think it looked more proportionate then. If you replace control arms, just make sure you get ones with johnny joints, or Duroflex joints (Metalcloak). Solid DOM tubing with clevite bushings have a habit of wearing out bushings fast (best case) or tearing off control arm mounts (worst case) if you wheel where there's a lot of flexing going on.

My son found out how hard this is on CA's with his stock control arms this past season...
 

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real good info to know!!
yeah I like the metal cloaks also like their fenders for the flat fenders.  would like to the do the slip join elm. kit when I do my lift and also the tummy tuck just for Clarence as I do plan to take it in to some areas where im sure it will twist up some.

thinking of doing the Rock hard front and rear bars eventually as I have seen them work first hand witch is nice to not have to not need to disconnect things when you want to wheel and then back up when you need to tow.

Please forgive me for picking your brain so much but good to hear info that is not just look at this name brand or that one because they want it to look good at the mall when they go shopping. I have been doing this for years but to us it was just make it work not worry about what name was on it . 

hope your son got his back up. I don't think I would have been to happy about having it tear the CA's off my jeep using their product I think i would have been up their tail on that one to get them to pay for repairs 
 
Mickey1 said:
hope your son got his back up. I don't think I would have been to happy about having it tear the CA's off my jeep using their product I think i would have been up their tail on that one to get them to pay for repairs

It really wasn't anyone's fault he tore his CA's up (except his own). He was just using the stock arms outside the parameters they were designed for. It was kind of interesting getting him out of the rocks and on to level ground with his rear axle tied on with rope though... ;D
 
hes4all said:
Dennis, I have at least 12 stock control arms if you need them? LOL

I have several kicking around now also. Every time my son wants help working on HIS Jeep, I wind up with more used parts... guess it's part of being a dad...! ;)
 

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