ghetdjc320

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

I'm reinstalling my tailgate and need to see how the lower hinge pivot points are mounted to the body. These are the ones that mount near the taillights. It looks like there is some sort of bolt and nut on one side and a smaller bolt going into a threaded hole. Any pics or diagrams would be great

Let us know how they work out for you if you don’t mind

I will say, the spring rates they have along with the free arch specs have been quoted on here before but the specs they have don’t match parts manuals from the era. No complaints though, they are a great low lift spring. But definitely not an oe replacement. Both springs should ride about the same on road but there is more overload on the 1700. Free arch and lift should be the same. Definitely less flex from the 1700’s, though the 1250’s also suck at flex unless you’re wheeling with a loaded bed. Id recommend the 1250’s for pretty much any application for an on/offroad rig

Front fenders are getting trimmed for the notch flares. Honestly, the fitting from the Notch flares is utter crap. Lots of work to get them to fit correctly. Grill, fenders and hood all getting prepped for final fit up and paint.

It’s from blue sea systems. They make a bunch of styles of these panels with various modules depending on what you need.

Tech note for the A/C system: The C5 corvette PCM does indeed need a 12v+ switched input vs the 12v- that is rumored on pin 17 of the red connector (C1). I was unable to activate the A/C at first and had to rewire the relay to provide the 12v+ signal. I ran the relay ground signal through the evaporator core thermistor (freeze switch) to switch off the relay if a freeze occurs. I also was not getting 5v reference signal on pin 45 of the red connector which is supposed to provide the 5v reference signal to the corvette a/c pressure sensor. I was able to repin that connection to an unused 5v reference signal that the eco provides for an automatic transmission output. This made everything work perfectly. The ECU now has full data and control over the A/C system so it will automatically account for speed, engine temp, engine load, wide open throttle and rpm to determine when the compressor should activate. This level of control will ensure a long lasting A/C system and modern factory style ac functionality. It's worth noting that it took 28oz to fill my a/c system and get a 42psi low side and 160psi high side reading. This A/C system is quite custom but I am running the later style parallel flow condenser and evaporator which require some slight mods. I'm also running an aftermarket dryer from vintage air and all my hoses are custom made. I used a nice T adapter fitting to install the 10mm port for the GM pressure sensor. I ran both my high side and low side ports right off of the expansion valve which provides the easiest access ive ever had to service the system. I have an extra high side port I installed down at the compressor so if I ever need to compare high side readings before and after the condenser & dryer I'll be able to quickly diagnose any issues. On the subject of A/C oil, genuine Sanden compressors come pre-filled with the correct amount of oil (in my case for the SD7B10 - PAG 100). The amount of oil in the compressor is sufficient for up to 4lbs of freon per Sanden. My system took just under 2lbs so the levels are excelent. If you ever flush out your A/C system, lookup your compressor specs to see how much oil the compressor needs. This is how much you should add to the system. When vacuuming a completely new system, the oil is not extracted during the vacuum application so there is no need to add more. This would only be when purging out an old system. The vacuum is applied to help dry out any moisture and remove contaminants.

If it’s a true 3” lift then it’s about 3/4” that the track bar moves. Adjustable track bar solves this issue as you can tune it in. I’m not sure the reason behind the drop brackets though with a 3” lift. Some adjustable lowers and stock uppers is all that’s needed with that lift height to set your caster properly.

It’s the bead that can present a problem. But it should be fine so long as you don’t air down much when off-road