TJ: Skwakes 97 Wrangler (rescue) and build up

[skwake]

Ok so I thought it was time I did a build thread on my Jeep as it has turned from a simple 'get it roadworthy and have some fun' to 'what else can I do to my jeep today!

So here goes...
I got Jeep crazy after returning home from another trip to the states back in September and decided it was time I got myself one! after 3 days looking I bought this 97 TJ from Ebay. Seemed like a reasonable deal, 6k for a lifted TJ with 33inch muddies and a few problems...

It had gearbox troubles and no rego cos the guy was broke and couldnt afford to fix it up. Looked it over on arrival and it had definitely had a hard life and the guy had done no maintenance on it for over a year (he swapped it for his WRX from a guy in Sydney...) I decided to take it and use it as a project car if nothing else.

Here she is on the Spirit of Tasmania heading back to Tassie -


I ended up towing it back to my home town from the Spirit because of the amount of oil being thrown out of the rear pinion seal and the fact that I only had 3 gears

Home -




So begins the battle of getting the girl registered.

First stop is the Mechanics - New Transfer case (old one had a fist sized hole in it) rebuilt gearbox, new pinion and axle seals and its driveable!)
(someone failed to mention to the previous owners that you remove the old pinion seal before fitting a new one in there. There was 2 seals jammed together in it!

Then I started doing other little things to it before I even registered it -
Removed all the carpet and dyed it from the poo brown to a charcoal colour
Removed all the Dash and Vinyl dyed it from poo yellow to black.
Installed a new stereo
Bought Some wetsuit Seat covers
Fixed the wiring in the Indicator stem
Replaced the front wheel bearing assemblies
Replaced the suspension bushings
blah blah lol.

In the end I took it in to get registered. Had a few problems but only things that I could easily fix myself, new brake pads, few broken bulbs etc.
They tried to tell me the standard tyres i put on it were worn out so i rocked back in with my 33 muddies on and there was no problems lol.

Hooray a registered Car finally!

Now the fun really began!...

[skwake]

First stop was installing a 1 inch body lift that I purchased from Ebay. It was only about $100 and included radiator drop linkages, transfer case linkages and steering column extension bracket.
It was pretty easy to install, took me a day by myself.

Heres an after pic compared to the above ones


Then I went ahead and bought a set of 5 Mickey Thompson Classic Lock II rims and wrapped them in 35x12.5 MTZ! ..super stoked to get them on. The alloys were a few KG's lighter each than the 7inch wide steelies with 33x10.5 KM2's on. I was pretty happy about that, less rolling weight with more rubber

http://i388.photobucket.com/albums/oo330/skwake/jeep/35s.jpg

standard and 35's haha

After the Wheels were fitted my Xenon flares arrived from JeepKonnection so I whacked them on (my bushwhackers were all cracked)I love the look of them,
It makes it look lifted higher but mostly it made the fact that my tyres came out of the guards less obvious
only pic i really have is from the first time I took her out -

[skwake]

I didnt do much more over the summer just gone - Heres some pics from down the East Coast of Tassie. Not a bad spot







and one lined up with the Tassie Jeep owners Club. Nice!

[skwake]

So after the bulk of summer was done I Started to do a little more work to the Jeep, I ordered a full set of Smittybilt XRC barwork From Jeepkonnection and It had slowly been arriving through summer as their shipments came in. So it was time to start putting it on!

I got a spraypainter buddy to spray all the barwork gloss black instead of the Smittybilt matt textured black, just made it look heaps better IMO... First I put on the rear bar and tyre carrier, it was a days job, (under a tarp in the rain at a mates place with no garage) Few little tricky things like lowering out the fuel tank and such but pretty happy with the product, strong as hell and no real issues. Can finally install my spare!






Then for the front bar along with winch and Ebay elcheapo HID driving lights. The front bar took all of 10 minutes to install and cant fault it (except make sure you bolt the winch on first if you are installing one of these )
Also these HID driving lights are bloody bright and awesome, cant fault them and only $150 on ebay from china, get amongst them!





Then only the other week I installed my XRC rock sliders, pretty nice but they arent designed to mount on with a bodylift, so I had to cut the lift pucks almost in half and take out the thikness of the steel slider for a correct fit (luckily I had the services of a mate with a lathe in his shed which made it easy!) they look the goods and finish off the jeeps look

[Tassie Jeeper]

coming along well mate well done

[skwake]

A month or so ago My power steering bit the dust, I sent the box and pump off to a company in NSW to recondition them, just installed them today and its good to go. They sent me back the contents of the steering pump because it was the worst they had seen lol,

haha well it was a disc at some stage...




Also I have been buying up on parts for one of my first Major mods, Bought a HP dana 30 from a guy in Melbourne some brand spanker Hub bearing assemblies for $35 each from Ebay (my friend) 4.88 gear ratios, Arb lockers, diff covers, heavy duty steering package, adjustable front uppers etc - Lots of shed time coming up!!!

Behold!! Great pile of shiny stuff!!!




One other Mod I have done is my switches setup. I bought one of the moulded center console pods (Ebay) and a set of switches from an american website (cant think of it right now sorry) but they are awesome ARB type switches but in anything you want and also cheap. all these cost me $80 with postage or something. I also Bought 2 more of the HID spotties for my windscreen cos I was so impressed with the others, and wired it all together, something a bit different and quite functional I thought - -

[skwake]

So after I get the front axle built up and installed, Im pretty sure there will be an LS1 coming into the picture but for now I have lots of things to keep me busy!!! ...Guess it's a Jeep thing.

[carlosprite]

Nice looking rug mate, like those flares too; might look into them.