ghetdjc320

The airbag kit is nice. Wondering the max travel on those bags though. It would seem like it might limit suspension travel??

Thanks for all your help Jeremy!

I’d love too. I have everything sourced, I’m just on a full on marathon build at the moment. These side projects have really gotten pushed to the back burner. Been trying to knock out some switch trim covers also. It will happen eventually though. I’m guessing maybe 2-3 months??

Doors and hood have been loosely remounted. Will shim and adjust once fenders are loosely installed. Also worked on restoring the oem receiver hitch. Added quite a bit of weld to the factory setup. Also added a drain hole (why does the factory always miss this??) and reinforced a couple of spots. POR15’d the whole thing and will let that cure overnight. Will use some filler to smooth out the metal before raptor lining.

Y’all’s comments are much appreciated. Was able to clean up and refinish all the door hardware. Had 4 bolts for the door hinges I wasn’t to sure about so replaced them with some 10.9 button head bolts. The rest I was able to extract nicely with zero damage to the torx head. Cranked up the shop heat to about 90* overnight to help everything cure. Once the hood and doors are on, I’ll shoot the fenders and cowl. Also working on restoring the oem receiver hitch and skid plates. Spare tire winch resto also coming up. Been contemplating a great variety of audio configurations. One concept I’ve always wanted to do is a center console sub. Had one in my TJ and it was nice since it didn’t take up any extra space and added just the right amount of low end filler for the small cab. I’d like to keep 5.25 components on all 4 corners and build a custom box for the JL 6.5 w3 sub. I’d prefer 6.5” but I’d like to keep the factory speaker grills in tact and the 6.5’s will be just too shrouded by the interior panels.

Indeed! Did 4 coats of base (3 plus a guide coat) and 6 coats of clear (tinted the first 3 with base for depth) And here are the result:

Are you going to regear the front to 3.73 or the rear to 4.10?

Not sure what gear ratio you’re running but you may be money ahead getting a junkyard KJ 8.25 which will have larger 29 spline axle shafts and disk brakes in most years. Just a thought since an axle swap from an XJ isn’t bolt in anyways.

The aw4, ax15 or ax5?

The amount of work needed will only be apparent once you have it stripped down. As far as alignment is concerned, it’s not hard to get things back into spec. Key parts makes bedside panels, rocker panels, bed sections, floor pans and a few other small parts. Cab corners can be found on Facebook occasionally. As long as you don’t cut the actual “frame” you shouldn’t have any alignment trouble. As a precaution though, get some simple square metal tubing and tack weld it to different areas of the truck as a temporary reinforcement.

Body panels all prepped and ready for primer/sealer

Here are some pics of my install. I also went with a very similar design but since I had my tailgate split and had built some internal square tube frame for reinforcement I decided to add an additional pin guide to relieve the strain on the actuator. I used 3/16 galvanized steel rod along with 1/2x1/2” square tubing. The guide holes for the locking pin are 7/32”. The guide itself I welded onto the inner “frame” that I had built for the gate. I didn’t built a bracket for the unit but the actuator can still be removed through the opening for the handle once the gate has been reassembled. Once I had everything fabbed up and welded, it was sanded, cleaned and sealed with epoxy.

Will do

I can add the info the the tailgate separation write up I did last year. I think it’s buried somewhere in the mods and repair section. If you want to move it to the diy area, I can add the info there

It’s pretty straight forward. 3/16 rod, 7/32 holes carefully lined up. But unless someone tears apart their tailgate and adds support structure, there is no good way to add the locking pin guides which are crucial to not putting the strain on the actuator. I tried using the 1/8 rod that comes with the actuator but I could have easily opened the gate by force. The 3/16 rod just doesn’t allow for any play in the handle and it’s the biggest rod the actuator would accept. You’d probably end up bending the handle before shearing the lock pin. Going to tie it in with the door locks. It will be a nice addition to the locking hard retractable bed cover. There should now be a fully locked secure cargo area!

Electric tailgate lock. High powered actuator, 3/16 locking pin with beveled guide. The pin is guided by 3 pints of contact before going through the actual handle. The handle has almost no play when locked and the actuator arm doesn’t have to bare any of the pressure from the locking pin due to the guides. And yes, you can replace the actuator through the tailgate handle hole. Though there is no way to build the additional pin guide without tailgate disassembly.

Oem bumper straightened and trued. Took lots of heat and an air hammer for a few spots.

Had to really dig for this picture but the MJ handled this no problem. That was at least 3k. No trailer brakes either and plenty of hills and curves in traffic. On a side note, that’s the kind of tongue weight it took to finally level those general spring 4 leaf packs setup soa against the rubicon express 5.5” coils

X2 on the CO2. You can just use air in it but you will need much more than 150psi to be useful. CO2 is a much better way to go though

I have an original oem receiver hitch I might be letting go. Not positive though yet. The most solidly built setup though imo is to have the receiver directly in the aftermarket bumper. Dirt bound does not do that, theirs in an add on that hangs onto the bumper mounts. JCR used to make them but have since stopped. Hansens will make them but you have to call them to request it. Every once in a while krusty makes a batch. You may find one on Facebook also.

The NSG370 has an integral bellhousing. The actual location of the cps has been a non issue for conversions with the HO flywheel since it uses 3 sets of equally spaced reference points and the CPS was just at the next set of marks. I know Renix also uses 3 marks equally spaced but I’m not sure if their position is the same as the HO.

31’s on a 3.5” lift always seemed like the ideal setup on an MJ to me. You can still run stock flares, have a pretty stock ride experience but gain some good ground clearance overall. My last MJ was about 6” lift with 33’s but the new one I’m building is 3” on 31’s

Started into the cut and polish.