rubiRI77
Member
Hey everybody! So proud, so I wanted to share it here. Hope you don't mind.
My wife and I used to have an 07 JK 2 door Rubicon with 33's, etc. etc. Hence the screen name. We had to sell it because I needed a truck for work and at home. Some time went by, (not much because we could not be Jeep-less for very long) when we found a craigslist add for this TJ. I had already owned a 98 and missed it like crazy, so TJ it is. The price was right. And here's the big part - It had spent most of it's life in California! Maybe not a big deal to some, but those of us in the northeast and other similar places know it can be almost impossible to find an older Jeep that is not a total rust bucket. It was a little tired with 158,000 miles. I saw the potential though, so we bargained down a bit more, and brought her home! Here it is when we got it (this is the actual pic from the ad) A little tired, but a very good platform to start with.
Well it took a tranny rebuild, a new windshield,and lots of time and doing small stuff to get it reliable and safe. Finally, it passed state inspection! :clap2:
After selling the other toy (Polaris Ranger - it will be missed, but this is WAY better) we had enough $$ to start getting the parts together and start building. So here comes the UPS man! We went with JCR bumpers front and rear and JCR steering skid, Metalcloak alum. fenders, alum. corner guards, and steel rocker guards, and 6" flares. We also went with their alum./steel gas tank skid. Add to that goodyear mtr/k's in 35x12.5/15 and Interco birddog wheels, and we are getting there! This took months to do by myself, and with the help of my buddy that lives next door. With the metal cloaks on, I could finally put on the 35's :thumb: They rubbed on full turns, and I didn't dare really wheel it, but at least it was starting to look cool. Not many pics of this stage, but you can kind of tell how it sat by the trailer pic. The pic before that is the day I got the tires and wheels. Yeah, I don't think they will quite fit yet!
And that is how we drove for about two months. In the mean time, I had already gotten in line to have Clayton Offroad work their magic on her. Well, a few weeks ago the big day finally came! It was at their shop for two weeks :sigh: most of that time was waiting on the driveshafts to come in once they could measure for them. So….We are now officially broke
Oh well. A little more debt never hurt anyone, or did it? ANYWAY! back to the story. Oh yeah, so Clayton did their 4" pro series long arm lift which is a 3 link front, and 4 link rear. They also added their full 1/4" main/engine skid plates, and spin tech muffler. Along with Dynatrac Prorock 44 front, and Prorock 60 rear, both with ARB air lockers, and 4.88's. They also customized some JKS miniskids to attach to the Front pro rock 44. We also did a Currie correctlync hd steering setup,and an Antirock sway bar. They did an awesome job! Now we have some serious hardware :clap2::rock:
So anyway, as of right now anyway, here she is. Someday when we get caught up again there will be a custom bent tailpipe (it does have some drone now), better seats, better roll cage, and lights, and…… Yeah, it will never be done!
My wife and I used to have an 07 JK 2 door Rubicon with 33's, etc. etc. Hence the screen name. We had to sell it because I needed a truck for work and at home. Some time went by, (not much because we could not be Jeep-less for very long) when we found a craigslist add for this TJ. I had already owned a 98 and missed it like crazy, so TJ it is. The price was right. And here's the big part - It had spent most of it's life in California! Maybe not a big deal to some, but those of us in the northeast and other similar places know it can be almost impossible to find an older Jeep that is not a total rust bucket. It was a little tired with 158,000 miles. I saw the potential though, so we bargained down a bit more, and brought her home! Here it is when we got it (this is the actual pic from the ad) A little tired, but a very good platform to start with.
Well it took a tranny rebuild, a new windshield,and lots of time and doing small stuff to get it reliable and safe. Finally, it passed state inspection! :clap2:
After selling the other toy (Polaris Ranger - it will be missed, but this is WAY better) we had enough $$ to start getting the parts together and start building. So here comes the UPS man! We went with JCR bumpers front and rear and JCR steering skid, Metalcloak alum. fenders, alum. corner guards, and steel rocker guards, and 6" flares. We also went with their alum./steel gas tank skid. Add to that goodyear mtr/k's in 35x12.5/15 and Interco birddog wheels, and we are getting there! This took months to do by myself, and with the help of my buddy that lives next door. With the metal cloaks on, I could finally put on the 35's :thumb: They rubbed on full turns, and I didn't dare really wheel it, but at least it was starting to look cool. Not many pics of this stage, but you can kind of tell how it sat by the trailer pic. The pic before that is the day I got the tires and wheels. Yeah, I don't think they will quite fit yet!
And that is how we drove for about two months. In the mean time, I had already gotten in line to have Clayton Offroad work their magic on her. Well, a few weeks ago the big day finally came! It was at their shop for two weeks :sigh: most of that time was waiting on the driveshafts to come in once they could measure for them. So….We are now officially broke
Oh well. A little more debt never hurt anyone, or did it? ANYWAY! back to the story. Oh yeah, so Clayton did their 4" pro series long arm lift which is a 3 link front, and 4 link rear. They also added their full 1/4" main/engine skid plates, and spin tech muffler. Along with Dynatrac Prorock 44 front, and Prorock 60 rear, both with ARB air lockers, and 4.88's. They also customized some JKS miniskids to attach to the Front pro rock 44. We also did a Currie correctlync hd steering setup,and an Antirock sway bar. They did an awesome job! Now we have some serious hardware :clap2::rock: So anyway, as of right now anyway, here she is. Someday when we get caught up again there will be a custom bent tailpipe (it does have some drone now), better seats, better roll cage, and lights, and…… Yeah, it will never be done!
