A TJ called The Lion

Elroy231

Active Member
In December 2018 I bought my first jeep wrangler. A 2002 jeep wrangler sport. A week later I discovered the frame was no good. In January 2019 I bought my 1999 jeep warangler sport. It came home tame.
Then came the first round of "upgrades". Rough country 2.5 lift with 2 inch spacers. Bilstein shocks. Rough County track bar front and rear. Jks sway bar quick disconnect in front. 33 inch mud claws to guide the way.....not very well. Wheeled it like this for several months then went with a much better jks sway bar in the front. Also added a full set of stage 1 adjustable control arms from Core 4x4 at this point. At this stage I pretty much spent the next year having a blast learning how to wheel meeting some cool people doing things I had not done before. I fell in love with the jeeping experience.
I tried and failed in various ways to improve my jeep in an inexpensive manor. I decided after reading on the forum and watching other builds that it was time to invest a bit more into The Lion.
A plan was set and orders were placed.
I decided to keep things local and run JCR offroad boady armor and front hi- line fenders. Custom rockers. Jump down the road 3 months and now into the build i am notified JCR Offroad no longer makes the body armor for my jeep model. Cant go wrong with Genright so I ordered there body armor. Gonna do custom fender flares to match front fenders.
Custom 4 link long arm suspension with Artec mounting brackets.
Pro fender 2.5 12 inch air shocks.
35 inch Cooper stt pros
Custom front and rear bumpers.
Currie anti roc to replace front sway bar.
I'm sure I'm forgetting some details, but its still a work in progress as I'm waiting for things to show up and also finish other tasks along the way.
The rear of The Lion will be wrapped up tomorrow. Still using stock axels until we inspect the 1 ton and d44 o picked up used. That may change. It will end up on tons and 40s. Its being built to clear 40s while being as low as possible. Right now I can achieve full bump in the rear. We'll see how that goes as things progress.
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Elroy231

Active Member
This is where things are now. Im waiting on the Genright body armor to show up so I can get that powder coated and installed and also send out front fenders for the same treatment. 20200904_224334.jpg 20200905_173408.jpg 20200905_173426.jpg 20200905_200010.jpg

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wjtstudios

Hooked
Lions going to be a beast! That is so awesome

Can’t wait to see the next stage of the build


2015 JKUR AEV JK350
1985 CJ8 Scrambler
 

dustinfromohio

New member
If I read it right you’re still doing the JCR fenders, just swapping to genright armor? I’ve had my eyes on both brands high line fenders for a while. What are you doing for fuel tank? Can’t wait to see it!
 
uhhh dude, did you 4link the 35? lol Time to get the big boy axles under there.
Also, did you say you removed some Adjustable TJ core arms? hahaha
I wish I could weld better like this
 

Elroy231

Active Member
If I read it right you’re still doing the JCR fenders, just swapping to genright armor? I’ve had my eyes on both brands high line fenders for a while. What are you doing for fuel tank? Can’t wait to see it!
Yeah, I've got the Jcr hi line front fenders. Rear armor not available anymore. Genright front fenders look great too. Im hoping the quality of Jcr can stand up to the same as I've seen from Genright.

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Elroy231

Active Member
Thanks guys. Im excited for the progress. Yeah I know I need to switch axels,very soon[emoji1787][emoji1787]. I do have those control arms available. Pm me if your interested. Just rears at moment. Fronts coming soon.

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Elroy231

Active Member
I got lucky with my fuel tank. My brother ordered a bunch of stuff from Full Traction. Took over 6 months for the tank to arrive. He got sick of waiting and ordered another one from Genright. The Full Traction tank was just in time for my build tho!

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Elroy231

Active Member
Got the SYE done and drive shaft in yesterday. Had to wait until today to go grab a muffler that fits. Fortunately I was able to pull one from project silverback. A nice Flowmaster series 10. Installed a Spectre cold air intake kit. Drove the Lion home today after a few hours of adjustments and fixing shitty brake hardware. Did a decent alignment as it was kicked out last time I went to Drummond Island. Always a successful day when you drive your jeep back home!
Huge thanks to Matt and Mike at Mi Custom and Fab shop. Wouldn't be here with out you guys. 20200908_114255.jpg 20200908_160014.jpg 20200909_121158.jpg

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JKbrick

Active Member
Got the SYE done and drive shaft in yesterday. Had to wait until today to go grab a muffler that fits. Fortunately I was able to pull one from project silverback. A nice Flowmaster series 10. Installed a Spectre cold air intake kit. Drove the Lion home today after a few hours of adjustments and fixing shitty brake hardware. Did a decent alignment as it was kicked out last time I went to Drummond Island. Always a successful day when you drive your jeep back home!
Huge thanks to Matt and Mike at Mi Custom and Fab shop. Wouldn't be here with out you guys. View attachment 352987 View attachment 352988 View attachment 352989

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Whoa that’s awesome you drove it home today!


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Elroy231

Active Member
Thanks fellas. I cant wait to get the front done and all the armor on. For now its driving much better than it has since I've had it, but thats where quality leads.

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Nice. Which sye and shaft did you go with? I keep seeing a rubicon tcase and shafts pop up for sale and makes me want to go that route instead. Guy still thinks they’re made of gold though, hoping he gets some sense soon so I can “upgrade” rather than just replace.


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