ZMotorSports 2011 JKUR Build Thread

I am new here but thought I would throw up some pictures of my latest Jeep build. It is not real time as I have owned it now for almost two years.

I bought the Jeep with only 3208 miles on the odometer and commenced building my "Dream Jeep". This is my daily driver and weekend wheeler.

On lift just before sitting it down with the 4" BDS Suspension Lift and 35" KM2 tires/ATX Crawl wheels.

Backed outside the shop after just barely sitting her on the ground with new lift and tires/wheels.

More to come as I dig through the pictures. Also pictured here is the Warn Rockcrawler bumper/Powerplant combination that I purchased used just to get me by until I could fabricated my own bumpers.

Mike.

 

[zmotorsports]

In a little over a week I'll be heading west to do some 'overlanding' with my van. The Burr trail is one of my target roads in the loop I have planned. Thanks for posting this mini-trip report.

Enjoy your trip. You'll like the Burr Trail. Nothing too extreme but the views are amazing, especially from the top of the switchbacks.

Mike

 

[zmotorsports]

Good info on the clear! Is it as crazy expensive as everything else out there? My jaw literally dropped last time I was in an auto paint store. (I need to do my bedside on my F350....)

I've never used any SPI products. Good to hear it's laying down nice. Some quick research shows it's not to badly priced? I assume if you let the basecoat flash well, you're fine with a different vendor's clear. I've always been paranoid mixing products and just stick to same/same for base/clear but have heard read it's not a big issue at all.

Price is the only reason I even entertained the idea of changing brands as I have been pleased with the quality of the PPG over the past 33 or so years I've used it. I felt comfortable with the products and was nervous/anxious to change. However, I went to my paint supplier a couple weeks ago when I was getting ready to commence this job I was sticker shocked on how much the PPG DC2021 had jumped up in price.

Upon research I kept seeing SPI come up but when I looked at the pricing I was surprised. Usually higher quality also carries higher price and from what I was reading and hearing that wasn't necessarily the case with the SPI products.

I rolled the dice and decided to try it on my Jeep before anything too "showy" and I was very impressed with all of their products. As for mixing brands of base and clear I too was a little nervous but I've used a lot of House of Kolor's products over the years and always laid them down over PPG's primers and used PPG DC2021 clear without ever having an issue so after speaking with Barry, the owner of SPI, I became quite comfortable with using their primers and clears mixed with PPG's basecoats. Now that I've shot it I wouldn't hesitate to use SPI products on a complete or even a show job.

I'm still reserving my overall opinion on longevity but time will tell. I feel optimistic after seeing that the clear has been around since 1998 and has been unchanged since it's inception.

Mike

 

[zmotorsports]

Finished the Jeep up last night.

Got my cutting and buffing tools and supplies out and ready to go. It’s been a little while since I’ve used them but it’s amazing how easily everything comes back.

License plate frame installed. I used some nylon washers until I can machine a couple of stainless steel ones.

Tape marks where I have some scratches to polish out while I’m at it.

Tailgate needed a little attention as well.

Polished.

Measuring for the new decal.

New decal installed.

She looks as good as new. At a glance one would never guess it is ten years old with 115k miles and actually sees off-road.

Thanks for looking.

Mike

 

[Tebbsjeep]

I think you would be the coolest high school auto shop teacher.

 

[zmotorsports]

I think you would be the coolest high school auto shop teacher.

Thanks. I guess that's one career choice that never even crossed my mind.

That may be something to consider, IF they still offered shop classes in school.

Mike

 

[Tebbsjeep]

That is very true. I don't even know if my high school still has a program. We had a huge dedicated building just for auto shop when I was there.

 

[zmotorsports]

Nothing hi tech at all but I had a few minutes before my wife arrived home from work last night so I machined a couple of stainless steel spacers and cut down and threaded a couple of 1/2”-20 stainless bolts for the license plate mounting on my Jeep.

That looks nicer and should withstand the elements much better as well.

Mike

 

[zmotorsports]

I caught a little crap for leaving the ugly markings on the stainless steel bolts on my rear license plate mount, so last night I addressed that issue.

Thanks for looking.

Mike

 

[mbryson]

Can't have that script on there Looks great Mike!

 

[zmotorsports]

Can't have that script on there Looks great Mike!

Thank you. Yeah, I kinda got beat up for having the marking left on the bolts so I had to address that.

Mike

 

[glockman]

Thank you. Yeah, I kinda got beat up for having the marking left on the bolts so I had to address that.

Mike

You have create your own monster. Setting the bar so high, people expect it all the time now.
Looks great as usual.

 

[zmotorsports]

You have create your own monster. Setting the bar so high, people expect it all the time now.
Looks great as usual.

Thank you.

Mike

 

[zmotorsports]

A few pictures from last week’s annual Ouray, CO trip.

Campsite.

Airing down on day 1 with some friends as we headed over the Alpine Loop via Mineral Creek, Engineer Pass to Lake City then back into Silverton via Cinnamon Pass.

Airing down as we begun Ophir Pass into Telluride.

Return trip from Telluride via Imogene Pass.

Poser shot.

A doe and two fawns crossed the trail in front of us and didn’t seem to be too bothered by us stopping to take their pictures.

As we departed the campground Saturday morning this balloon was lifting off as we drive through Ridgeway.

All in all another great trip but my wife and I never tire of the scenery around Ouray and Silverton.

The Jeep ran great all week even at 13k plus feet elevation and all of my suspension tweaks from late last year have paid off as it flexed nice and ride great off-road.

Thanks for looking.

Mike

 

[Jinx]

What were the temps like at 12,000+ feet? Looks like a great time of year to be up there...

 

[zmotorsports]

What were the temps like at 12,000+ feet? Looks like a great time of year to be up there...

This time of year is usually fantastic as the temps are usually quite pleasant in Ouray and surrounding areas. Ouray is at 7800' elevation and the trails are above that. In the past 13 years we've been going to Ouray we've only had to run the A/C in the coach a couple of years. In 2018 we had a few days of high 80's and this year we never turned the A/C off. It ran from the time we arrived until we left. Temps were high 80's and even low 90's on a couple of the days. Once you get up to 11k or 12k feet the temps are in the high 70's to low 80's so a bit more comfortable but you're only at those elevations for brief timeframes as you're going over the passes, then you drop back down into the 8-9k feet range and temps again were in the 80's.

Most other years we've been there the ambient temps in Ouray have been in the mid-upper 70's and well down into the 60's at elevation. I remember last year having to wear long pants the entire week and even a jacket at the higher elevations. Also this was the first year that we didn't get any rain while there. Every other year in the past 13 years we've had rain at least 2-3 days of the week. This trip we had no moisture at all which made camp as well as the trails very, very dusty.

Mike

 

[Bart]

We missed you by a couple of weeks down there. Like you, this was the first year for us without rain. It was aweson.

 

[zmotorsports]

Personally I'll take a day or two of rain over the warm temps we had this year.

There's a couple of trails we won't run in the rain but other than that most don't really matter. We actually try and do the Alpine Loop (Engineer Pass and Cinnamon Pass) on rainy days, especially with a group.

This year was too dry and dusty compared to most but still had a great time.

Mike

 

[zmotorsports]

The wife and I just returned from our annual week long RV/Jeep gathering in the Black Hills of South Dakota with our Jeep club, the FMCA 4-Wheelers and we had a blast.

We saw some old friends there as well as met new ones. The weather was great and foliage was in full change exhibiting beautiful fall colors, largely due to the cold snap earlier in the week before we arrived and the few inches of snow. Most of the snow was melted by the time we arrived and only a few areas on a couple of trails had mud (which I despise).

Jeep hooked up to the coach with protective measures in place.

My wife and I couldn’t get off work until around noon on the day we wanted to leave so we ended up stopping for the night in Rawlins, WY at a KOA just off of I-90.

Truly spectacular colors. Mother Nature sure blessed us with some amazing scenery again this year.

After airing back up on one of the days we headed back to camp via Spearfish Canyon.

On our “off-day” the wife and I took to the pavement and headed to Custer State Park which is one of our favorite drives. They were gearing up for the buffalo roundup that begins later this week but the bison were already gathering.

Shortly after passing the large heard of bison we spotted this young coyote trying to catch lunch. He wasn’t too successful and the prairie dogs were all letting him know he wasn’t welcome around their burrows. He didn’t even seem to be bothered by us pulling off to the side of the road to watch.

We departed the gathering early Saturday morning as I wanted to knock down the entire 650-miles and push on to home.

Upon arriving home Saturday night we discovered that our son had mowed our lawn for us so I could concentrate on getting the coach and Jeep cleaned. We had a lot of high winds between Muddy Gap and Rock Springs, WY which then turned into about 25-miles of hard rain and very wet roads. Enough to get both the coach and Jeep filthy requiring a deep cleaning.

The slightly cooler temperatures at home sure did wonders for my lawn. My couple of spots that I have been struggling with to keep green all summer were finally greening up nicely. Took this picture to show the lawn and didn't realize how big our yard looked. Even with a 40' coach backed up to the shop it barely makes a dent in the back yard.

Backed in and put to sleep until the next trip.

After getting the coach and Jeep cleaned and parked yesterday, I decided to service the wife’s Acura and while the washing supplies were out I gave it a wash and vacuum as well before calling it a day and relaxing.

All in all a great week long trip.

Thanks for looking.

Mike

 

[zmotorsports]

My wife and I just returned from our annual week long Moab trip with our RV’ing friends from the FMCA 4-Wheelers. Six days straight of Jeeping in Moab, hell yeah.

Airing down on day one as we prepared to run 7-Mile Rim, which is one of our favorites. We ran as tailgunner for the group.

A couple of poser shots from the top of 7-Mile Rim overlooking the highway.

Lunch spot was at Uranium Arch.

Photo opp of the group before we headed over to Wipe Out Hill.

Getting flexy dropping down a waterfall on Dome Plateau trail another day. I am sure happy with the amount of suspension travel I've been able to achieve and still be able to keep my OEM fenders.

Some canyon overlooks from various other trails throughout the week. Views were as breathtaking as always.

On the last day we ran Hell’s Revenge, which isn’t one of my favorite trails because we’ve done it so many times but we had a couple with us that had never ran it and this trail was on their bucket list so we obliged and ran it anyways. As we were airing down in the parking lot at the entrance to Hell’s Revenge I saw this old CJ-2A pull in and recognized it from home as well as YouTube and here, plus he just lives a few miles from my wife and I. While my tires were deflating I went over and introduced myself and inquired about his Jeep. As we talked he asked if he could tag along with our group as his friend was a no-show. It was great to have Stan along with our group and we enjoyed his stories while we ate lunch at the base of Escalator and his old Willy's is no joke. That thing will go about anywhere and Stan isn't afraid to drive it. It was great to meet you and wheel with you Stan.

I didn’t realize just how small his Jeep was, or how large ours is, until after I snapped this picture. WOW, what a contrast from 1948 to 2011 models.

 

[RockChucker]

I've heard it said that you don't ride in a flatty, you wear it. LOL Crazy how small they are. Looks like a fun trip!