ghetdjc320

V8’s use 4cyl mode most of the time.

You can grab a new grip pro for the same price with free shipping to Guam. Amazon part number GT443527 It’s the powertrax version of the truetrac. Summit also carries it and has great rates for fedex to island (summit will price match Amazon most of the time). Rock auto has these sometimes as well. It will have the c clip windows but otherwise it’s the same setup. I’d suggest grabbing some new set 10 bearings while you’re at it.

All paint work is complete. Final reassembly and a few remaining punch list items begins tomorrow. Should be complete very soon. I’d be satisfied never picking up a paint gun for the rest of my days .

Surprising how well the Morimoto 3rd brake light/cargo lamp fits the MJ roof. You do have to make a sizeable opening for it but if aligned properly, it really looks like it was made for it. I added the rapid flash module to make sure it gets attention when I stop.

Prepping final pieces for paint. I used fiberglass stranded filler for the flares anywhere the gap was larger than may 1/8”. After the glass work, I seam sealed them all to the fenders with medium bodied, flexible seam sealer. That portion is almost cured so will be spraying epoxy primer next. Cowl panel and header panel are all sanded and ready for sealer. Tailgate has been primed and sanded and is ready for a final wipe down with mineral spirits and paint. Hood needs to be lightly sanded and finished. I chose to paint the bottom of the hood black. It is getting lined with 1/2” DynaCore for thermal and noise insulation. Mineral spirits is my go to for panel prep. It will remove most residues without being too harsh on cured finishes. Plan to begin reassembly tonight. Hope to have this thing out for road testing by Tuesday afternoon.

. The one gap you’ll see is in the front near the mirrors. The 97+ mirrors are slightly larger so they come closer to the trim. There is about a 3/16 gap between the mirror in trim in the pics above. Looks factory but I know there’s gap lol.

You’ll need all the late model trim for the outside including the glass surround trim. Here are a couple of pics of how they fit. Unfortunately, the original trim is not usable in the swap. Having a pair of donor doors is really handy for this swap

Have to finish the hood, fenders, tailgate, cowl panel and grill then align and assemble. That should all happen tomorrow. Wire in the front light harness. Install interior plastics and just go through a bit of a punch list. Have to take off in 6 days

3 coats of base and 4 coats of clear. Will cut and polish it then ceramic coat in about 90 days. Tons of work on the flares contouring them to the body and getting them to look factory. This door configuration is definitely my favorite. Keeps the classic door styling while having a full size window.

The efi kit will come with several sizes and pretty decent lengths.

I’d suggest the painless powerbraid efi harness wrap. Made in the USA and made to go under the hood. I’ve used a lot of different wraps to save some coin and keep going back to that one. It cuts well and the actual braiding does well to prevent snagging while still maintaining its shape when flexed without bunching up or folding. Alternative products have failed in those departments even when they claim to be made from the same materials. Also, when you need to use electrical tape, use 3m super 88. If you need to wrap the harness to protect from abrasion, use Tesa 51036 harness tape.

I used some permanently flexible seam sealer for the flares to body seam. Epoxy coated everything and glazed a couple of times. Block sanded it all by hand which is a ton of work. But the end product is epic. The flares have become part of the body now. I’m treating them more like a body kit than a true custom made flare.

I’d expect maybe 3/16 or less. The strength will be in the design and welding methods vs just material thickness. Original frame rails were probably only 1/8 material or thinner, so adding a thicker metal and welding it will only be so successful. Adding a sleeve and some nice fillet joints with some boxed tubing will be a solid repair.

The fit is truly horrible and inconsistent. But once they’re fitted, they are nice.

These notch flares take an epic amount of body work to fit properly and look good. Rear flared are installed. The wheel opening gain is mostly in front and behind the wheel which is nice. Once all the bolts are tightened down, I added some fiberglass filler and shaped the flares to fit the body correctly. Then I skim coated the whole bedside and block sanded it. Finished with a coat of glaze. Will do one more coat of glaze followed by sealer then paint and clear. Marathon run to finish this project up in a few days.

The front speaker size is 5.25 and the rears are 4x6. The rear speakers do very little for sound, but can help reinforce things somewhat. You could run just a pair of the front components in 6.5” size so long as you’re ok with enlarging the speaker opening slightly. Get a class a/b amp and nix the rear. Spend the extra on dynamat Xtreme and some dynaliner. Do the inside of the doors with dynamat and add dynaliner on top of that behind the speaker opening. Also get some aftermarket speaker grills to open up the door panel opening so they aren’t shrouding. The stock knee panel tweeter location images nicely with the woofer even though the placement isn’t ideal.

I don’t want to speak for Jeremy but he hasn’t been active for some time now. I believe Jeremy was running Tempo’s. If you’re wanting separate tweeters, get a component set vs adding tweeters to a coax setup. I ran morel Maximo components in my last MJ. Sound quality was very good. Having compared the current morel lineup in person, the Tempo’s would be my go to for sound quality for the price point. Focal ISU 130 is another fantastic set if you’re running a smaller sub along with the system. I can tell you that spending the time doing acoustic treatment to the doors and cab has paid off massive dividends in my system. A good class A/B amp for the woofers and tweeters also really improves things along with some good tuning. Once the cab is tuned, then you can really start to tell the difference with your speaker selection.

Not saying they were designed to provide lift, they just do for many. Someone around here should have the factory springs specs for the common springs found on our MJ's. I suspect General Spring got their info from a spring pack setup that was not a commonly used part number. Perhaps some accessory pack or optional pack for special builds ?? They certainly didn't get it from reverse engineering a common 4 or 5 leaf pack. Just look at the thickness of the leaves on the oe vs the GS ones. The GS are substantially thicker. The results obviously will vary depending on which factory pack you had and what kind of life they had. GS did state that they went with the higher listed rates and free arch from their reference source when designing their regular 4 and 5 leaf MJ springs, therefore, they can list them as OE replacements. I think the question is whether the specs they based them on are actually what were commonly installed in our rigs. I still don't see how this is an issue though for most installations. I'm glad they provide a mild lift, though running them SOA nets quite a hefty lift Edit: Here is the SRI chart GS posted last year. Can anyone confirm which part numbers were the most common to find in MJ build sheets. This list ranges from 7-5/8 to 10-1/4. Depending on which springs you started with, that would provide a substantial lift over stock - and I suspect that is the reason that many are seeing lift from these springs. Couple that with a slight loss of original free arch and you got a recipe for a decent lift spring. Comanche_SRI.pdf

Awesome, thank you all so much for the pictures! That’s exactly what I needed

I went through 4 pairs of springs to compare the lift given. The 97-551 provide a consistent 2” of lift over within spec’d 4wheel drive 4 leaf packs. I tried swapping the packs left and right. The oe 4wheel packs all netted the same ride height. The GS 551 springs have a much higher free arch. Again, they said they got their specs from some oe spring catalog. All in all, they were still good springs for a truck. They aren’t great for wheeling. Shocks definitely account for a lot of the ride quality.

It’s also the same design as the Honda Pilot and Ford Maverick

Not a fan of any “truck” where the cab and bed are one piece . But I like where this is going. If Jeep came out with a maverick contender, that would be a neat idea.

3/8 nicopp line works great as a fuel line and will net you far better flares than stainless. Just do your 37* flared ends and use a tube nut to go straight to AN fittings