Motorcharge

The two big differences are 1. pipe is measured inner diameter where tube is measured outer. 1" pipe is not 1" outer diameter. and 2. pipe is rated for internal pressure where tube is rated for external force. Pipe is much more brittle and it will break, not just bend on rocks. For sliders you really don't need to bend tube. Just cut it at angles, you've only got two ends per side that need to be angled. You can 45 the ends and imo it matches the body lines better than bent tube does. You can also bend tube in the HF pipe benders. Just pack it full of sand and get a bigger piece of tube and cut it as a top piece for the die. The big problem you run into with the HF benders is kinking because it naturally wants to push the tube out of the die as it bends which makes it kink instead. If you build a little cap for the die it will hold the tube in place so that doesn't happen. Plus we're talking about pretty shallow bends here, it's not like you're building a cage. If it kinks a little on sliders it's not really going to matter.

Swype on my phone and I didn't proofread. That was supposed to be without.

I got mine like a week ago.

Really depends on the area. I can get a set for $100 around here no problem, less at the junkyard.

Ordered Nates as well. I couldn't even build the same thing for what I paid for it. I know, because I built the same bumper for my XJ and spent more on material. My sole complaint about it is he doesn't shrink wrap them or anything so my hardware kit got lost in shipping. That said, the shipping was free so I can't really complain. Paid $180 shipped for it.

Try and reach the filter from below and you'll know why it's angled up. Wix, Purolator, Napa Gold are all fine. Just stay away from Fram and any other filter with the anti-drain back valves on them. 4.0s don't like em.

Even on an XJ you don't really need a TC drop or SYE at 3". Adjustable LCAs will flex better, but stock is fine at 3" though it's about as high as you want to go on them. As someone else mentioned it will require you to address the trackbar. You can drill it, but the mount and bar stock are pretty weak and I'd go with an upgrade over redrilling if you wheel. On the road it shouldn't be an issue. You can get IROs double shear adjustable trackbar for under $200 and they're doing free shipping right now for the holidays. You can find various forum discount codes for 10% off as well.

Uhh, are those Christmas trees in the roof? :hmm:

Hours, years, whatever. I have no patience. First of all, I'd like to punch a Jeep engineer and whoever put the hitch on in the face. The engineer that decided a 15mm bolt was needed directly above the leaf eye where it's I'm-****ing-possible to get a socket or wrench in can go **** himself. Luckily a 5/8 spark plug wrench fits well enough and the backside of that socket will take a box wrench so I was able to work them out. The guy that did the hitch decided the 10+ bolts that hold the hitch on the frame and factory bumper weren't enough and decided to weld god damn angle iron to the frame and and hitch. Luckily he sucked at welding and didn't bother to paint anything so my fat *** jumping up and down on the bumper after I took the bolts off was enough to break his welds. :laugh: I haven't wrenched on the ground in a couple years. Definitely thankful I've got lifts at work because that **** sucks.

4wd conversion at most is all I could bring myself to do. Drive it a could times a month and keep it in a garage for 10 years and that thing will be worth a ton.

Well this just got a lot more interesting. You're not using the motor from it are you? I'd be weary of the head issues on the motor based on the fact that someone parted that XJ out from the looks of it. Either way, looking forward to this. I'm not a fan of the 97+ exterior, but I'd love to have the newer interior in my MJ.

Leaf packs came in this week. Hopefully getting the lift, steering, and tires/wheels on on the 20th. I'm not overly impressed with Hell Creek. If I'd paid more attention and noticed they're just rebranded leafs I've have just ordered from the their vendor directly or gone with Rusty's who's packs were half what HC's were. Oh well, still excited to get this stuff on. Went and picked the bumper up from FedEx (as usual they wouldn't deliver without a signature) last night. They plastered the damn thing in stickers and tape so I can't paint it today because I've got nothing here to remove it with. Thoughts so far on the bumper: Bad: Didn't come with hardware like it's supposed to so I had to drop another $15 on that just to attach the bumper to the mounts. I had no idea the mounts attach to the outside of the frame and not the inside so now I have to lose my trailer hitch which I'm not wild about and if I'd known I wouldn't have deleted the receiver on the bumper. Good: CHEAP. I spent $180 shipped for this thing so I'm not all that bent out of shape about not getting the hardware. I'm sure Nate would ship it to me, but I don't want to wait a week for him to respond so oh well. Quality welds and grinding. I've heard bad things about the weld quality before but they look damn good on this bumper. All the visible welds are ground down well and it doesn't look like the welds failed to penetrate adequately anywhere. I'm not real wild about having to bolt the bumper to the mounts and it only being two bolts per side. However, both mounts are plenty thick and I've got grade 8 9/16 bolts so I doubt I'll have any issues though I might weld the mounts together anyway. The frame mounts bolt in 6 spots per side so I don't really see any issues there though I'm gonna replace the stock bolts they use with grade 8 hardware. For $180 I'd buy it again despite the small issues but I'd get the receiver next time since I can't use my hitch with the bumper. But I couldn't have bought the steel and tabs and built the same thing myself for what I paid so you can't really beat that. I built basically the same bumper for my XJ and it cost me more than this did. Went ahead and sprayed the mounts so I can get them on while the bumper dries tomorrow at work. Hopefully I'll have time to get this thing on. I don't see any problems as long as the hitch bolts come out though they are pretty rusty. hard to tell from the picture but those mounts are about 2' long.

I wish my MT/Rs had white letters. :( Tires look good.

Fwiw if you can adapt 95+ brackets to work ZJ and WJ seats will bolt directly to the base. They're a direct bolt in swap in 95+ XJs.

http://www.seriousoffroadproducts.com/Suspension-Lift-Kits/Bilstein-Shock-Absorbers/5100-Series/Bilstein-Shock-Absorber-10.171?zenid=0bc6d84db9837865ccf6386f22e78579 That's it if I remember correctly. I couldn't find hardly any info on rear shocks for MJs. They were open eye on both ends with the right lengths I needed so we'll see how they work out. I plan on keeping the shocks mounts stock but I'll modify if I need to.

I haven't even started wrenching yet and I already broke something. Two of my damn toes. :laugh: Dip****s at Amazon didn't tape the bottom of the box my RE springs came in. Picked them up for this picture and they fell out the bottom about 3 feet directly on my toes on my left foot. :mad:

Forgot about these. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008RIEQXY/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Have to have license plate lights in VA. Wasn't sure how to do that with the aftermarket bumper. Figure I can weld a little flat bar where the license plates hole will be, drill through both sides of the bumper, tap the front for these to screw in and run the wire through the bumper and wire it into the stock license plate wiring.

Got a text alert the shocks got delivered. Didn't get home til about 20 minutes ago, no shocks. Nice creepy walk through the dark *** woods to the empty house behind me and they were sitting on the porch. Way to go UPS.

Parts are starting to come in. :D Coils got here today. IRO shipped yesterday and so did my shocks. Haven't heard anything at all from Nate's but I kinda expected that.

As clean as the interior is now, the sun visors really stand out. Might as well re-cover those too. They're pretty easy, they just snap open so all you have to do is glue and rewrap them and the excess just gets hidden inside. I'm jealous of that cupholder too, suddenly wish I didn't have floor shift haha. One suggestion for them, if it will fit get a flared 3" PVC pipe end at Lowe's and screw one of the cupholder spots. They make the perfect cupholders and hold everything from cans to those big foam cups McDonalds has. This is in my XJ, but I'm going to build something similar to fit in where the empty ebrake spot is in the MJ.

It really depends on the state. Get the VIN and call your insurance company. They'll be able to tell you what the title status is and what they'll offer for coverage. Don't tell them it's been wrecked or anything when you call because the less info they have the better for you and your rates.

Meh, $20 junkyard hood, a couple hours with a welder and a bit of bondo and you could do one much cheaper. That style is illegal in a lot of states anyway.

Pictures of the other one? The top bar on the front of the rack looks like it would make a great lightbar.

Looks great and I like it for a rack and as a cover. That said, the only way to make it safe for a roll over is to add triangulation and tie it into the frame. However, being that the steel is that old I highly doubt it's HREW and probably more comparable to Sch 40 which is pipe rather than tube. They're not the same thing. Tube is structural and designed to withstand outside pressure. Pipe is non structural and designed to withstand internal pressure which is why cages are built with the former. That stuff would likely be fine in a flop but I wouldn't trust it for more than that. For a real protective cage DOM is ideal but HREW is fine in most cases and you can pick it up pretty cheap. You definitely have the necessary skills to do a proper cage if you wanted to. If you wanted to mount it the same I'd at least do this. Add tube where the red is (both sides) for triangulation and run plate on both sides (left and right, over and under) of the bed where the blue is. The added triangulation is a massive difference in strength and the plate will allow for more even distribution of force across the entire bed and it will make it far less prone to ripping out of the sheet metal. That said, I have no idea how structurally sound MJ beds are or what would happen to a cage mounted to just the bed would do to one in a rollover.

Waiting on some brown santas now. Just ordered: RE 4.5 coils IRO OTK steering IRO double sheer track bar Bilstein 5100s Hell Creek 4.5" leafs Nate's MJ rear bumper I was going to just get Nate's mounts, but the bumper is about as cheap as I could buy a 2x5 for anyway and he ships free so **** it. Hell, by the time I bought shackle tabs it probably would have been more expensive to build my own anyway. With the 10% code I only paid $180 shipped. Wish I was always this hood rich. I'm glad I Googled discount codes for the 4 places I ordered from. I saved like almost $400 through them. edit: I don't recall if I said it in this thread or not but I'm taking the 33" MT/Rs off the XJ in my avatar and putting them on this MJ after I get the lift on.