Lee's Jeep '25 JL Wrangler Build

[Lee]

So I did a thing, convinced myself a new JL Wrangler would make a great 'Life style' vehicle to commute to work in.
I've had a few convertibles in the past and I thought something that allowed me to open it up and enjoy the outdoors on the commute home was a good idea.
My thinking was I'm going to drive it too death, 50 miles one way, five round trips a week totaling around 30k miles a year.
It will be well on its way to being toast in five years.

A Miata would be easy to drop the top and fun on the country back roads I take to work.
But winter would suck, some of the roads I drive don't get plowed for a few days after a snow - the more snow the longer it takes.

I have always liked the idea of a 3 wheel car, and Polaris makes the Slingshot.
The styling is a bit polarizing - I don't like it but it ticks the open air and 3 wheel boxes.
But it doesn't even make a pretense of sealing out rain.
So convincing my wife I needed to get 2 cars seamed like a non starter.

The Jeep Wrangler ticks the open air and winter driving boxes.
And what's not to like about a Wrangler?
So two weeks ago I bought a new Wrangler JL Sport with the base soft top, Pentastar V6 and a manual transmission.

Traded in the wife's Honda HR-V, it was a nice car, great commuter, loads of room for a small car and really no hassle to maintain.
But the car I was driving is a company car so I couldn't trade it in.

The plan for the Jeep is to drive it.
Get a bike rack to carry my bike so I can stop and exercise on the way home from work.
(Mopar receiver and bike rack already installed but it's been too cold (by my standard at least) to ride.)
And probably some soft doors so I can pull the doors for the drive home when it's nice out.
Wasn't really planning to do an overland build...

 

[Lee]

I have a full size truck build for overlanding.
I don't daily it, usually I get 2 or 3 big trips in a year, last year I made it to Colorado twice and Tennessee twice as well a few local trips in Ohio.
Build thread here:

Lee's '04 Chevy Silverado 2500HD and Radica MoonLander camping shell

In a nut shell When I start to read a build thread I always wonder if this is one that will hold my attention or not. I'm not saying some are bad, just some are not for me. (If it gets you out of the house and away from work it's all good) But it's just a little frustrating when I read 5 pages...

forum.expeditionportal.com

In doing my truck build I keep an Excel file open on my work computer, when I see something or think of something I make a note to circle back to later.
As an example, in this document is a tab for built in air compressors.
There are no bolt in mounts for a 20 year old Chevy, but I have lots of pictures and web sites tagged for interesting looking mounts and systems.
But for the Jeep every mount out there fits in a Jeep (well, almost).
How am I not supposed to think about what could be...

I see a build 'lite' in my future.
I would love to schedule it in to AEV and throw money at it.
It would be worth every penny in my book.
AEV works with two different OEMs and has a better understanding of what OEM integration is.
FYI - I am a 30 year R&D design engineer for a transplant OEM (and man dose a stock Wrangler Sport stick out in there parking lot).
Instead I will add some functional parts, try to keep the weight down and do some local trips with it.
- Bull bar and because of the deer.
- 33" skinnies.
- 2~3 inch lift.
- Winch with the Yankum Rope fairlead (no hook/no metal parts on the end of the rope).
- On baord Air and a traction board mount for the yearly family vacation to the outer banks.

Saw this taped to the wall next to the Jeep salesman's desk:


At the time I thought it was funny so I took a picture.
Now I'm thinking 'I could really use the deduction'.

A quick story about the new car buying process.
When I got to the dealership it was raining so I ducked inside to wait for my wife (we drove sperate).
An older sales guy asks me if he could help me, I explained I was waiting for my wife.

When she arrived we went up to the desk and the next sales guy in line started looking for the vehicle I saw on-line (not a lot of manual transmission Jeeps available in Dayton, Springfield, Columbus Ohio - only 2 I found).
The vehicle I was interested in was down the street at the Ram dealership where they do all the service work.
The Jeep had just arrived on a dealer trade and they where going to install a Lo-Jack (there insurance company requires it - or so they said) and a lift and big tires.
But they would be happy to sell it to me.

Young sales guy has the older guy I spoke with before drive him down the street.
A few minutes later the older guy is pulling the Jeep up in front.
The kid didn't know how to drive a stick - the older guy got the sale.

 

[grogie]

Congratulations on the two-door JL!

I'm the original owner of a Jeep TJ, which I'll never sell. Nothing better then a two door! I have both a hard top (for trips) and soft top for around the house in the summer months.

 

[AggieOE]

Congratulations on the Jeep! Sounds like it'll fit your goal perfectly with a set of all terrain (three peak) tires.
Unless you're terribly worried about mileage, the Jeep makes daily driving so much more fun.

 

[Lee]

Thanks @grogie and @AggieOE
I'm loving this thing so far.
Had to drive the company SUV (now the wife's car) the other day, when I got in I wanted to know how much range it had - turn left at the end of the drive way for gas and right for the freeway.
I had to cancel three nanny screens before it showed me the default screen with range remaining.
Not so in the Jeep!

@AggieOE I have run dedicated studded snow tires for the last 25 years.
We have more ice than snow in this part of Ohio.
It snows a little, it half way melts during the day then the wet areas freeze over night - just in time for my morning commute.
So that opens up my tire choices, do I run a solid AT with decent wet traction and less hit to my mpg or do I go full MT?
Logic would suggest a nice AT but who wouldn't want full on muddies?

 

[Lee]

Trailer tow lighting kit install

When I purchased the trailer hitch receiver I also ordered the Mopar wiring for trailer lights.
There are several good YouTube videos showing how to install the kit, one from Quadratec, that were made around the time the JL was released.
However the installation has been changed since then and I did not find much on line that touched on this.

The parts behind the rear axle and in front of the front axle are not changed.
But getting the wires from the back to the front is changed.
In the old kit the interior trim on the right side is removed and the wires are run inside the cabin.
On the new kit the wires are zip tied to a harness that runs underneath along the top of the frame rail.
However the harness is on the inside top of the frame, the gas tank blocks access from the inside and the body is too close to the frame for my fat fingers to access it.
Apparently the diesel has a fuel line that runs on the outside of the frame and looks easy to access.

Photo shows the gap where the harness lives, you can see the trailer lighting wires and a zip tie.


After fixing the wires under the hood and down in the right front wheel well I started to fix the run along the frame.
I struggled with the first couple of zip ties only managing to snag the existing harness if it looped out close to the outside edge of the frame.
This was one of the first zip ties added, I managed to get the trailer wire harness in the wrong way around but the battle was won so I left it.



Finally I hit on the idea of using a length of aluminum welding rod for an oxy-acetylene torch.
This rod (think wire) was soft and easy to bend, I could put a bend in it, fish it behind both wires, attach a zip tie and then pull the welding rod back out.
The aluminum would flex and draw the zip tie around the wires.

In the picture you can see the aluminum is pretty janky being drawn out looped over the wire harness.



I tried to grab the end of the zip tie before releasing the aluminum wire, lost the battle a few times before I started doing this.



A side note, the VIN is a dot matrix stamping on the frame.
For reasons the VIN gets stamped in after the painting, my employer dose several things to slow the rust, wipe heavy grease in it, paint it with clear.
Jeep slaps a thick clear tape over the raw metal.
After this picture was taken I peeled the tape and painted it with clear coat.

Pic of the installed hitch and trailer light plug.

 

[Lee]

Mopar Wrangler Swing Gate Reinforcement
Retrofit Offroad Tailgate Hinge Adapter Bracket
Jeep JL hinge corrosion abatement
One of my goals with this vehicle is to try and keep the weight down, the JL dose not have a lot of payload capacity and anything I bolt on to the vehicle eats in to my camping beer allotment.
Also, the primary role (and where the majority of miles will be spent) is for on road commuting.
Anything I can do to not kill the fuel mileage will allow more budget for travel.
In this light I ordered the Mopar tail gate reinforcement to support a slightly larger tire in the future and to add a mount for Maxtrax hanging out of the way off the back.
The Mopar swing gate reinforcement conveniently has three mounting bosses for holding accessories and there are several companies making RotopaX holders, Maxtrax mounts and Hi-Lift jack mounts.

Only, Mopar changed their reinforcement and eliminated the three mounting bosses.
I didn’t find much on this online.
There was one company, Drago Jeep Products, that pointed out that you had to have the mounting bosses for their brackets to work.
My solution was to add the Retrofit Offroad hinge adaptor brackets that would allow attaching a bracket to the tail gate.

So, I bundled three items together to modify the Jeep tail gate;
- adding the tail gate reinforcement,
- adaptor brackets for mounting a Maxtrax bracket later,
- painting between the hinge and the tail gate to slow the aluminum corrosion the JLs are known for.

When I was young and dumb, almost 40 years ago, I did a few semesters at a junior college before deciding to drop out and work as a body mechanic for six years.
I had taken a few classes for body work and with a class or two taken at night I managed to get an AA degree.
FYI knowing how to do body work is much more important than having an AA degree.
But with this experience I knew what I was getting in to.
I knew there was little chance of disassembling the hinges from the gate and getting it back together again without some evidence around the hinges.
But the swing gate reinforcement covers the edges of the hinges so it’s not so obvious.



I was hoping to find the end all be all blog account of how to do this, I did not.
If only @Hodakaguy had a jeep (If you haven’t seen his build accounts you should have a look for his Mog, Sprinter or Pops Scout camper builds).
Back in the day aluminum was primed with green zinc chromate primer.
This stuff was known to be toxic but 35 years ago we used it anyways.
The internet shows this primer as still available but I don’t have the equipment to be comfortable handling it (and I’m not sure that what is available today is the same).
After cleaning and sanding I ended up using POR-15 primer with a top coat of color matched touch up paint from Mopar.
It will all be covered anyway.

Stellantis has had plenty of issues with door hinge corrosion (I assume if you are reading in the Jeep page you are already familiar) and they have added a zinc shim between the hinge and the door.
The shims are 0.009” thick (three times the thickness of note book paper) and stuck on the hinge side with goo.
I have to wonder what impact the goo has as it will insulate the zinc from the hinge (sorry, I’m an R&D engineer for another OEM and asking this type of question is what I do).



I cleaned the goo off the hinge back and zinc shim with a Scotch-Brite pad and lacquer thinner.
If you do something similar, no matter what it looks like put the zinc shim back in when you reassemble it.

One of the bolts for the tire mount was cross threaded or stripped but I did not notice it while disassembling the parts.
After some digging around some in the barn I found my random collection of Heli-coil inserts, from the kit packaging I recognized this particular size was from my Fiat 850 days, when I was still a teenager in the early ‘80s.
Tapping for the Heli-coil.



Treading in the insert.



The reinforcement slides under the spare tire mount on one side and there are some spaces for the other side.
The Mopar kit is well thought out, there are fiber washers to hold the bolts in place while you are trying to attach it and there are recesses cast in to the spacers so the fiber washers don’t get crushed.



After fitting the fiber washers, I decided to add a anti scuff tape between the reinforcement / spacers and the aluminum panel.
I have had this tape kicking around in the barn for ~20 years, consequently I have no idea what it is.
It’s some sort of heavy-duty low friction tape (try McMaster-Carr, anti friction tape).



OK, one last thing before assembling it all, I added an anti-corrosion compound to the bolts before assembling it.
I have a tube of aircraft grade Mastinox that was gifted to me when I was working on my 1949 Ferguson tractor.
The Fergi has a aluminum/magnesium casting bell housing.
They are famous for having corrosion around the bolts in to the bell housing which is a stressed member.
I recommend some form of anti-corrosion compound for all fasteners into the doors/tail gate/hood.

The reinforcement kit came with longer bolts to replace the stock bolts, and the hinge adapter brackets came with even longer socket head cap screws to replace those bolts.
You can see the order of cap screw, washer, bracket (it’s kind of hanging there) spacer, reinforcement, spacer and fiber washer.



I went three rounds with the tail gate trying to adjust the hinges before I realized the body and/or the tail gate were warped.
The first round I tried to match the parts to the lines in the paint – I should have remembered from experience this never works.
Once I let the bottom of the right side of the tail gate stick out a little the left side fit just nice – I will always be standing on the left side to operate the handle and the reinforcement dose a good job of hiding it.



Once the tail gate was on I checked the back side to see if the cap screws where long enough, just barely.
I’d a preferred three more threads but this will do. (Hinge bolts are the outer ones, center bolt holds the nut plate on loosely to allow for adjustment).



The rest of the assembly was uneventful.
Seams like a lot of work with nothing to show for, I don’t have wheels and tires yet, I don’t have a mount for traction boards (or traction boards yet) and this has not started to show corrosion yet.
But I’m a step close to being ready.

 

[Lee]

I had to run outside to get a picture of the finished tail gate.

And with the bike rack (that cost 5X what the bike cost).

 

[vintageracer]

Lots of choices out there for Jeep since a Jeep is the most modified vehicle ever produced anywhere in the world.

Now all you have to do is separate the Aftermarket Good & Useful Jeep Crap from the Aftermarket Bad & Useless Jeep Crap!

That might take a lifetime of searching and decisions!

 

[AggieOE]

There is something so nice about doing these over-engineering modifications when you don't need them. As another R&D engineer, I respect the attention to detail with zinc adhesive although I also don't know the impact.
If you want another mod that adds more capability and peace of mind without much costs, raise your diff breather hoses. That and honestly, interior door storage pockets are game changers as the nets stretch and give.

Regarding tires, as much as I love the look of MTs, I just haven't heard of any pro they offer aside from dirt/mud. Living in Houston, I have to focus on rain being the guide for tires. So, I'm stuck with ATs and I imagine you are too with such a variety of weather.

 

[Todd780]

I just went through a similar train of thought. Something I could take the top off on the nice summer days, yet still drive in the winter.

Settled on a 2 door JL as well... Leftover 2024:



Jealous of your soft top. It would make taking the top down on nice summer days so much easier.