Another WJ Build

99GrandLTD

New member
I have been lurking this site for over a year now and I finally decided to register. Seems there is a great wealth of knowledge here. I havent built my Jeep to go over the biggest rock or deepest mud. I was just told last night it should be criminal to even take it off the road. Its fun and I more or less built it to be able to have fun in all weather, cross creaks, go camping, etc.

For a formal introduction I just went out and took pics of everything I have done to it. So here it goes.

jeep.JPG


I guess I'll go from the top down. On the roof is a Garvin Wilderness rack. On the rear of the rack I have two driving lights hooked up via relay on my factory reverse lights, I have a 2ft firestick CB antenna, hi-lift jack, two yakima quick release fork mounts for my mountain bikes.

top.JPG

ant.JPG

The rack itself is grounded to the vehicle so that I can ground electrical components right to it
jack.JPG

I still need to cut off the excess thread and paint the brackets flat black

On the inside I have done a few things for trail communication.
frs.JPG

these have a snap glued onto them, and the dash and are held securely, they are great for anything from hiking from camp to spotters
cb.JPG

As clean as the WJ interior is I needed to come up with somewhere to hide the CB, this was my answer. I needed the external speaker pictured next since this was built into the console
speaker.JPG

I still need to sand down the glue holding it in. The switch is for the lights you'll see in a minute.
floor.JPG

Last thing for the interior is the false floor setup in the rear. I had two 10" subs in there a few years ago and I will again in the future. problem is protecting them when loaded being on the floor. Inside the hole shown used to be a window to make the amp visible. Now that I am a few years older and like function a little better than loudness the amp will be replaced with a smaller one located elsewhere and the extra room in the spare well will be used for mods mentioned down the list.

bumper.JPG

On the front bumper I have a Go Rhino brush gaurd with 3 offroad lights, they are junk but they work.
hitch.JPG

The warn reciever shackle is a decent recovery point and I painted it to match the vehicle, it gets painted often.
 

99GrandLTD

New member
rails.JPG

These rock sliders are a mod in progress as you can tell. I just need to order the metal to finish them.

lift.JPG

The lift is a 3" Iron Rock Offroad with DT8000 shocks that have intergrated bumpstops that allow me to run a 32" tire pictured below with the 3" lift. JKS quick disconnects also.
tire.JPG

I love these tires, I paid $485 shipped on eBay 2 years ago. I have close to 50,000 miles on them. Some offroad mileage too. 8 ply sidewalls, great traction, not to loud. They are a great value.



Future Plans:

This summer will find a ax/shovel mount on the rack along with a spare that is currently out of commision.

Also this season I plan to do a 12v. on board air setup in the rear spare well. I will have a male quick disconnect in the front bumper, one in the trim panel next to the hitch. I will also be placing an air horn under the rack on the roof so it is not to visible. Using an addition air horn selenoid running to a piece of hose under the Jeep I plan to be able to drain the tank via push button in the drivers seat.

I wont be able to afford it this season, but also in the future are DVD screens in the rear of the factory head rests with a dvd player mounted similiar to the way the CB is, but in the back side of the console by the floor. With that I would also put in a Chrysler RB1 GPS system and do the subs and amp setup.

Currently it has infinity reference speakers all around, they will stay. The factory amp will get replaced with an aftermarket infinity 6 channel model to power the speakers plus two 10" subs in the rear. It will all be balanced and sound good. Not the thumping sound machines you hear at the local high school.

Last mod planned is the biggest and hardest. I plan to do as AEV did with the Wk and cut/replace the front crossmember with a winch mount to hide a smaller winch (Warn M8000) behind the factory bumper.

Thats what I have and what I have planned.

Hope you enjoy.
 

JChatary

Outdoor Daydreamer
I'm not usually a fan of red vehicles....but I like your rig!!!! I especially like your CB set up with the speaker! I may have to "borrow" that idea!

Another WJ!!!! Cheers! :beer:
 

Tanto

Adventurer
Nice WJ, looks clean & well put together,

I have a few questions regarding your CB setup because I'm rethinking the way mine is done:

How is your reception with the 2' firestik? I've been thinking of mounting one on my KOR rack.

Is your antenna cable routed through the factory rack bezel on the roof? (nevermind on this one, I see it is just through the hatchback)

How far does the CB project into the center counsel compartment?

Did you wire direct to the battery or do an axillary fuse block?
 

99GrandLTD

New member
Tanto said:
Nice WJ, looks clean & well put together,

I have a few questions regarding your CB setup because I'm rethinking the way mine is done:

How is your reception with the 2' firestik? I've been thinking of mounting one on my KOR rack.

Is your antenna cable routed through the factory rack bezel on the roof? (nevermind on this one, I see it is just through the hatchback)

How far does the CB project into the center counsel compartment?

Did you wire direct to the battery or do an axillary fuse block?

For power I hooked into the drivers side cigarette lighter feed ...Pro: It cant be left on and kill the battery Con: it defaults back to channel 9 every time the vehicle is turned off since power is completely cut.

It mounts on an angle so it projects in I'd say 6" or so. I'll snap a picture of it later tonight maybe.

When I do my onboard air I have an airhorn that will be on the roof under the rack, the airline for that will be drilled through the roof into the feet of the rack and run in the rack tracks... when I do that I will route the CB antenna wire there too.

Reception is decent with it tuned properly, using it out of the box was absolutely horrible. Tunning it properly was no easy task either but it worked out in the end, it was just very picky.
 

99GrandLTD

New member
ringin10 said:
I'm not usually a fan of red vehicles....but I like your rig!!!!

I hear that often, thanks!
ringin10 said:
I especially like your CB set up with the speaker! I may have to "borrow" that idea!

Another WJ!!!! Cheers! :beer:

Borrow all you want, its great. Cheers! :beer:
 

99GrandLTD

New member
I didnt think it had been so long since I visited the site, I ordered my on board air system yesterday and it made me think of this site again. The Jeep is nearly the same as pictured above except for the rack. I drilled holes for the wiring so its hidden, put the ax/shovel mount on, and have the spare on the roof. In a week or two when the OBA is installed I'll post some updated build pics.

The rock sliders are done and installed also.
 

Fergie

Expedition Leader
99GrandLTD said:
I didnt think it had been so long since I visited the site, I ordered my on board air system yesterday and it made me think of this site again. The Jeep is nearly the same as pictured above except for the rack. I drilled holes for the wiring so its hidden, put the ax/shovel mount on, and have the spare on the roof. In a week or two when the OBA is installed I'll post some updated build pics.

The rock sliders are done and installed also.

Make sure you throw in some pics of the sliders.
 

99GrandLTD

New member
Here is the pics finaly. The updates on the build since I started this thread are the rock sliders, spare, axe/shovel mount, skid plate, and On Board Air.

1.jpg

Rock Sliders, 2" square tube, with 2" legs going back to the frame and a 1" square tube on top of the legs bolted to the back of the pinch weld

7.jpg

I also added a factory transfer case skid, its good enough to let me know something is there before its to late, I dont do major rock crawling, also from this pic you can see the legs of the rock sliders, and on the passenger side you can kind of make out the 1" square tube behind the pinch weld.

4.jpg


The On Board air system is from IronRock Offroad, I dismounted the compressor from the tank and mounted the tank sideways so that i could fit it in the spare well with my false floor subwoofer box. (Subs are yet to come)

2.jpg

I took out the drivers side cig. lighter since there is two and mounted the OBA system switch there.

3.jpg

I dont have any air lines run through the Jeep yet but there will be one run just to the right of my hitch with a quick disconnect, and another up to the rack for an airhorn, just for fun!

6.jpg

Here is the rack with the ax/shovel mount and spare. The spare has a matching factory rim.

8.jpg

This is just an overall shot with the rack and sliders
 

The Swiss

Expedition Leader
99GrandLTD said:
7.jpg

I also added a factory transfer case skid, its good enough to let me know something is there before its to late, I dont do major rock crawling
The factory skid is actually not bad at all. I hit the cr@p out of mine and it held up very well. Surprisingly also the muffler held up well, despite it getting bent a little bit more out of the way every time I took my WJ off-road; it looked like a crushed Coke can, but did not leak or never got ripped off.

The WJ is a very capable base vehicle. Just get ready for some PA pine-striping, trees and brushes just LOVE this pretty red color.
 

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