Billy the Billet build...

MilesNauticus

MilesNauticus

New member
Well I have been spending the money and time for a couple of months now and the more I do the more it's starting to feel like a "build" so I figured I'd start my own thread. For those of you who decide to take the time to follow and or post on this, thank you, but don't get too excited the is probably gonna take awhile. The fact of the matter is I am starting this more for me to just kind of watch the transition, but anybody else who wants to follow along by all means.

Billet Silver Metallic
2013 JKU Sport
Automatic
3.21 gears

Here's a picture the day after I bought it, (which just so happened to be my birthday, so happy birthday to me)

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June 18

With my beautiful wife standing inside it.


While at the beach I found a set of 10th Anniversary Rubicon take-offs, went and bought em and got em put on.


June 21

After I got back the beach I found and picked up a set of MOPAR OEM step rails, the picture is actually a day or so after install after the gym. Obviously, I got caught in the rain. Got the top up in time but you can't exactly throw full doors in the back.


June 25

After the beach I started picking up some of the smaller things that aren't in the pictures or I didn't really take pictures of with the before and after and during the install's (I'm bad about that cause I get wrapped up in the work), but here they are:

Installed (added):
MyGig 430 Radio (non nav/sirius version)
Factory Soft Top (found a killer deal from a local guy who just didn't like the soft top)
Bestop Under Seat Lock Box (for my gat)
Rugged Ridge Tow Hitch
Rugged Ridge floor mats, front and back seats.
AntennaX shorty 5in (sucked, returned) replaced with AntennaX 13in (still not that great)
Rugged Ridge grab handles for front
Smittybilt flashlight holder
Smittybilt quick release mirrors

At the same time I bought my soft top the guy I bought it from wanted to get some stuff out of his garage so he gave me 2 sets of unopened Lange Door Hangers. The soft top was in like new condition with all the hardware, got it all for $250. Guy was pretty awesome and had a pretty awesome jeep, apparently he had more money that he knew what to do with so it paid off for me.



Don't mind the mess. And before you ask, my dad made me the cornhole boards for Christmas this past year. He did it all, the one behind it is an Appalachian State board for my wife,
 
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The next item added, and what I would consider the first item of the "build", were the addition of Truck-Lites. I picked up the set on sale from Northridge and I gotta say, best upgrade I have done so far. As we all know the factory Jeep lights suck, these Truck-Lites are awesome. I have even recommended multiple jeep guys do this ASAP. Got my lights ordered on July 30 and got them in only a few days later. Install was the next day or so, and at the same time I got a new windshield decal and swapped out the silver "JEEP" emblem for a black "JEEP" emblem.

Truck-Lites & emblem Before:


Truck-Lites & emblem After:


New decal:
 
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So one of the ways I justified the purchase of my second JKU was "I'm not gonna lift it and all that this time"...
Well we all know how quickly that went out the window. I started researching lifts and tires pretty early and it took me quite a while to make a decision. To be honest if boiled down to I was tired of waiting.

I decided on the AEV 2.5 Dualsport XT. Now I know not everyone here is the biggest of fans of AEV and I appreciate everyone's input with helping me and adding your 2 cents but I chose the AEV and am so far very happy with it. But of course being that there is not a whole lot weighing down the jeep the 2.5 turned into about a 3.5.
Did the install with a buddy of mine over the course of 2 days. All in all it wasn't too terribly hard just a little time consuming. But like someone else posted in another thread, I really enjoyed it because I got to get to know my jeep a little. Ordered the lift, geo brackets, and pro cal from Northridge on Aug 9, got it put on Aug 20-21. Anyway, on to the pics:

Before Lift:


After Lift:
 
The next headache would prove to be tires. Now I actually had been researching and deciding tires for just as long as I had been researching the lift. I finally got them ordered and put on Aug 22. I went with the Nitto Trail Grapplers in 35x12.5x17. One thing you'll also notice in the pictures: o more Rubi wheels. I decided that eventually I want to upgrade the wheels anyway so I may as well sale the takeoffs and put that money back into something a little more effective on the jeep rather than wheels. Not to mention I had gotten to like the factory wheels and the black Rubi wheels look a lot like the Subaru wheels.

Also I know people are wondering how I'm dealing with 3.21s and 35's and I gotta say. I have been pleasantly surprised at how much power I retained. The last jeep I had was the 3.8 with 35's and it was awful, I don't know what gear ratio I had in that one (I bought it already lifted with tires/wheels) but it sucked so I'm assuming they were 3.21's also but this new Penstar makes up a lot of power. But I'm still saving for an upgrade.

Nitto TGs installed:




Factory Subaru with factory/Rubicon wheels:
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They may not be identical, but its pretty dag on close.
 
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The next issue I ran into was fitting the Nitto TG on the stock tire carrier. Did some reading and thought it may fit if I cut the brake light off, well that didn't work so into the back cargo area it went, with a tie strap. I ended up order the Bestop HighRock spare tire carrier. It states that it can support up to a 40" and 200lb tire. I don't know that it can, it was a tight fit with the 35, and I had to alter the directions slightly but all in all it's doing okay.
It's a temporary fix for sure, until I can get money saved up for a good bumper tire carrier. But for now, as long as it holds up, any extra funds will probably be going to drivetrain fixes.

 
And now we are all caught up. A few weeks ago I picked up a set of ACE Engineering rock sliders and a SpiderWeb Shade (that's been on for a few weeks) and I finally got around to installing the sliders today. Im heading out to do a little offroading this weekend so I wanted to get everything switched out so that I didn't go out there and rip off the OEM sidesteps.




I plan on picking up a set of Rubi Rails to put between the pinch seem and the ACE sliders on Sunday and get them on next week hopefully. So far everything is coming along great. I may be onto a great deal on a set of Rubicon axles with approx 6k on em. So those may be next if I can work out a deal with the guy. We will see, but for now, it's good to be back in a jeep.

Stay tuned....more to come.
 
So I finally got to get Billy out to Uwharrie for some much needed off road time. It's been a couple years since I've been off road so to say I was excited was an understatement. It also completely reinvigorated my love for the jeep lifestyle. I must say though actually getting off road makes me long for the Southern California desert as North Carolina can't hold a candle to the likes of Johnson Valley, Joshua Tree, or Big Bear. But it was fun none the less. Here a few pics of the trip.

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The only downfall was the cleanup. It had been fairly dry and we had to take some pretty dusty roads to get to the trails so I spent about 5 hours the day after trying to get the dust off of everything.
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I also hit 20k miles while on the trail. Gotta say, not a bad place to do it.
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MilesNauticus said:
So I finally got to get Billy out to Uwharrie for some much needed off road time. It's been a couple years since I've been off road so to say I was excited was an understatement. It also completely reinvigorated my love for the jeep lifestyle. I must say though actually getting off road makes me long for the Southern California desert as North Carolina can't hold a candle to the likes of Johnson Valley, Joshua Tree, or Big Bear. But it was fun none the less. Here a few pics of the trip.

The only downfall was the cleanup. It had been fairly dry and we had to take some pretty dusty roads to get to the trails so I spent about 5 hours the day after trying to get the dust off of everything.
Click to expand...

Nice! I just came back from Uwharrie two weekends ago. First time really taking my 14JKUR out. I will say that I hate the speed bumps, as I called them, because I drug my underbelly on every single one lol. Did you do Daniel?
On a side note, I found that all natural baby wipes clean the interior quite nicely. :yup:
 
We should hit up Uwharrie together sometime. I haven't made it out there yet this year. Good to see other NC'ers on here. Not too many of us.
 
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