LJ Rubicon Build

[jcanderson33jp]

Well it has been a while since I have posted on this site. I have been working on a new jeep build and thought that I would let you guys in on what I have been up to. I have had a few jeeps in my life including a CJ, TJ, JK unlimited rubicon and now I have just bought a LJ Rubicon. In my decision making process of what I have like about the jeeps that I have owned are that I absolutely loved my TJ off road but hated driving it on the freeway. It was a death trap between the vibrations that I would get and the horrible steering it had. the 4 door jeep was amazing on and off road and really don't have a bad thing to say about it. The problem was that it was extremely expensive and I was sick of having a car payment. The wife also cringed every time I would take it off road worried that I was going to damage it.

Here are some of the jeeps that I have owned over the years.


So basically I decided that I wanted a jeep that would do well off road but more importantly I wanted a jeep that I could drive on the freeway with out worry. This is what I came up with


The plan with this jeep is to try and keep the ride and steering as close to stock as possible with making it a little capable off road so that I can still have fun with it down in moab.

 

[jcanderson33jp]

Well knowing that I want to keep this jeep riding nice I new that my main goal with it was to keep it pretty low so I didn't mess with the steering and ride to much. So the first modification that I made on it was to put a tummy tuck on it. The stock skid rides so low that I new I would be hanging it up on everything so I decided to put a Rokemen tummy tuck on because it look like it was good quality and it was the right price. In order to fit that under the jeep I had to do a couple of things including doing a JKS 1 inch motor mount lift and then I put a 1 inch rokemen body mount lift so that I could raise the transfer case up high enough to fit the tummy tuck on.



My main goal with this jeep is to run 37 inch tires with a minimal amount of lift. After the the body lift and tummy tuck I decided that I was going to run some highline fenders with about 2 inches of total lift. I needed to do a 1 inch suspension to give me a total of 2 inches of lift. I looked at the budget lifts that just have the pucks but decided that I really wanted to have springs that gave me the lift and were just a little heavier duty because of the weight of new fenders and bumpers and a winch. I did a little research to find a spring that I wanted but was unable to find one that gave such little lift. I started to look at other possibilities and came across using cherokee springs for the LJ. I saw that if I used the front springs form a cherokee and the rear spring from a grand cherokee it would give me a possible 1 inch lift. I was a little hesitant because people seemed to get different amounts of lift every time they used these springs. I figured what was the loss to at least try. After 40 dollars later I had some new springs for the jeep. Since I was going to lift it a Little I wanted new shocks also and did a little research and discoverers that my old JK rubicon shocks with a little modification would work and give me 3 more inches of droop on the axles. I was a little worried about how it would ride since that was my major emphases on this build but I figured if it didn't work I would try something else and all I was out was 40 dollars for the entire lift. Here is a pic of it with the new springs and I put some 33's on it since I was going to moab. For some reason I can't


Here is a photo of it with the total of 2 inches of lift and 33 inch tires. Sorry this is the only one I could find and it has the flares pulled off of it.

So as a review of how the lift works and drives. I am absolutely please with how it has performed so far. I swear it rides nicer than stock and it is extremely nice on the freeway. I also decided to beef up the steering a little so I swapped the stock drag link for a grand cherokee since it is a direct bolt in and it is quit a bit heavier duty.

 

[jcanderson33jp]

Here are some more progress pictures. After a lot of research I decided on what fenders I wanted to do. I went with the TNT Customs high line front fenders with a 4.5 inch flare and also a the rear corners. The deciding factor for going for those was that it was a complete replacement fender so I didn't have to cut up my old fenders. Here is some of the prep to get ready for the fenders.



Here are a pic of the tires I decided to go with, 37x12.5x17 Maxxis Trepadors



This was just me messing around getting an Idea of what they would look like

 

[jcanderson33jp]

When I finally got the fenders in the mail I had to line them up just to see how they fit. Also I wanted to make adjustments while they were bare steel so that I didn't scratch them up once they were painted. I think my wife got a little worried when I cut half the hood off including her favorite part the rubicon stickers.



So I decided rather than just have the fenders powder coated I wanted them to match so I needed them painted. I have never painted anything before but I figure why not learn now. Besides it would cost way to much for me to take them to a place and have it done. So I turned my garage into a paint booth and got to work. The plan was to match the fenders to the jeep and then mount them. Once mounted I wanted to put a pearl over the entire jeep just to help them blend to gather and then clear coat the entire jeep. It ended up being a bigger job then I though it would be.

Here is some prep


Since they were bare steel I had to prime them first before painting. Since I am pretty cheap if you guys haven't been able to tell yet I bought the cheap sprayer at harbor freight and decided to give it a go. It actually turned out a little better then I thought it would



I wouldn't mind doing this kind of work if all you had to do was spray but the prep work has been ridiculous between cleaning everything and then sanding and then cleaning again. It was more work then I thought it would be.

 

[Bart]

Very cool build. Love the direction you're going.

 

[jcanderson33jp]

Here are some of the progress pics of how the painting went. The harbor freight painting gun actually did pretty well considering how cheap it was. I used jones paint and glass to have the paint mixed and they did an incredible job matching the paint considering the jeep is 8 years old. It was kind of a pain because I didn't have a paint booth and it made it harder having to paint both sides of the fenders and getting it in all of the cracks and crevasses.



I'm glad that I had ordered a little extra paint since it was my first time painting it seemed like i wasted a lot with over spray. All in all I was very please with how it turned out.

 

[rholbrook]

You are going to wet sand and polish out arent you? That should take care of any paint issues like orange peel. You are going to be really excited to see your handiwork.

 

[TJDukit]

Awesome build, can't wait to see more.

 

[idahoyj]

Love the LJ build!

I used to HATE painting anything red! The over spray carries farther and sticks to its surrounding much worse than any other color!
The paint on the fenders looks good! (Too bad your garage will never be the same again!)

 

[jcanderson33jp]

Once the pain was dry I had to mount the fenders to the jeep. I recommend before every painting them that you profit them so that when they are painted they mount right up and don't get scratched. The rears fit well. I got just the regular openings from TNT customs but I had to cut about an 1 1/2 off both sides inside the fenders because they are designed for 35's. It was pretty easy but then I mounted them up prior to painting to cut the body of the jeep and to drill all the hole. I also decided to do the LED tail lights so I had to cut the tub to fit those to.
Pre Fenders


Here is mountain the front and rear fenders



All the mounting went pretty easy since I had already done the fitting prior to the mounting.

 

[jcanderson33jp]

You are going to wet sand and polish out arent you? That should take care of any paint issues like orange peel. You are going to be really excited to see your handiwork.

Yes there has been a lot of wet sanding involved to get rid of some of the in perfections.

 

[jcanderson33jp]

So once the fenders where mounted the plan was to wet sand everything down and clean it and then put a clear coat over the entire jeep. The first coat of clear I put a red pearl in it thinking it might help blend the new and old pain and then I put two more coats of just the clear coat over it.

Some of the wet sanding



Here is some of the taping off getting ready to spray it.



it was a lot of work prepping the jeep for the clear coat.

 

[OB1]

Looks great! I love the high fender look on a LJ or TJ. I noticed you had wheel spacers on the back axle. Is there a reason for that?

 

[Samersen]

This is awesome! I love the lj's

 

[jcanderson33jp]

Looks great! I love the high fender look on a LJ or TJ. I noticed you had wheel spacers on the back axle. Is there a reason for that?

I was running the stock rims with 33 inch tires. With my new rims I won't be needing them

 

[AaronPaige]

Are your stock rims 16 and would you want to sell them

 

[Bart]

Very nice job. Love the garage paint booth.