9 lives... a tale of resurrection!

Here is the progression of the YJ known as The Albino Gorilla! We picked up the chassis from a buddy that has had it since the early 2000s when it was bone stock. He was driving it for years as it slowly turned into a trail rig. After years of wheeling and abuse it was torn down to a bare chassis and heading to the scrap yard. It was then that we decided that we needed to buy it and bring Him back to life. It was a long road about 5 years till it moved under its own power. This is the long journey he took!

Here is the first time he was put on our trailer and taken to his new home.
He sat like this for quite some time as we gathered parts and pieces.

As we slowly gathered parts it was time to start to bring the tub back to life. we got axles and driveline shoehorned in and she was a roller again.
All new floor pans and firewall went it than it was time to bust out the bender and add a lil tube work . We finished up the interior with MasterCrafts and a custom dash/console. .

We than got the new wheels and tires mounted up. This is when it made big changes to the way he looked! more painting
It was now time to wrap things up as we were running out of time fast.




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Fuel cell and rear area was installed and buttoned up
We made up some armor templates to cut out to fix/ reshape the rear tub area made some dimple die slider/steps and made our own driveshafts it was than time for a weight in and springs for the CO’s than it was time to load up and head to Drummond Island. We wished we had some time to test and tune but he was finished at about 9:30pm the night before we left lol. all in all he performed great!


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Nice work. :thumb:

I've been wondering when we'd get to see this beast. Looks great.

Also looks like someone is in the market for a set on 1 ton axles

That jeep was so awesome see in person! An absolute beast, I just wish I could’ve seen it on the trail. Nice work [emoji106]


2015 JKUR AEV JK350
1985 CJ8 Scrambler

Damn Matt. That is impressive as hell. Would love to get out and see that perform.

You'll need to get longer shocks for the front...not nearly enough flex...hehe

2007 JKU CANADA said:

Nice work. :thumb:

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Ddays said:

I've been wondering when we'd get to see this beast. Looks great.

Also looks like someone is in the market for a set on 1 ton axles

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wjtstudios said:

That jeep was so awesome see in person! An absolute beast, I just wish I could’ve seen it on the trail. Nice work [emoji106]


2015 JKUR AEV JK350
1985 CJ8 Scrambler

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Weebz said:

Damn Matt. That is impressive as hell. Would love to get out and see that perform.

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Brute said:

You'll need to get longer shocks for the front...not nearly enough flex...hehe

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Thanks guys! It was definitely a long process with a big push at the end to get it out this weekend. We still didn’t finish everything but it is very close. It felt great to get him out on the trails for the 1st time in years. He preformed great with little to no issues. With a few more tuning trips he will be right where he needs to be.

Truly thankful to all that helped get the Albino Gorilla ready.


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From "Left for dead"

And turned into an absolute beast.

What an accomplishment.

Man that YJ looks great!!!

Sweet ride! You have some skills to do all that work your self. Do you race to? Your jeep looked like it scaled out pretty good to lol

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Jaybird 11 said:

Sweet ride! You have some skills to do all that work your self. Do you race to? Your jeep looked like it scaled out pretty good to lol

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Thanks Bud! We don’t race it, it’s just for fun! 16” CO’s, v8 with wontons & 43” sticky Mickey’s. We both were pleased with the outcome. It surpassed all of our expectations thus far.


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Bad Ass!!! Nice Job!

That was a lot of work, turned out great, looks like a blast to drive.

Rst8rox said:

Thanks Bud! We don’t race it, it’s just for fun! 16” CO’s, v8 with wontons & 43” sticky Mickey’s. We both were pleased with the outcome. It surpassed all of our expectations thus far.


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I thought you mite have had a stock car or something to have a set of scales like that. Your jeep has a little cross weight in it like the dirt track cars i use to race. About 100 pounds of bite it the rear to like my street stock.

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Jaybird 11 said:

I thought you mite have had a stock car or something to have a set of scales like that. Your jeep has a little cross weight in it like the dirt track cars i use to race. About 100 pounds of bite it the rear to like my street stock.

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Nope just have a lot of buddies that also build rigs and have gone in on a set together.


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The restoration is worth it, you did a job well done.

Congrats to you and your dad, that is something to be very proud of Matt, hope I get to see it sometime on Turtle Ridge


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That’s awesome.

buenavides1 said:

The restoration is worth it, you did a job well done.

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JKbrick said:

Congrats to you and your dad, that is something to be very proud of Matt, hope I get to see it sometime on Turtle Ridge


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J&k_overland said:

That’s awesome.

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Thanks guys! It was definitely a journey.


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