High travel, high clearance & high octane, a streetable adventure LJ story

It's nice to see the work needed to open up the rear wheel openings. Mine is setup so the 33s just barely fit at the upper limits of travel. I'll need to do some cutting and moving of the body when I change to 35s.
 
It's nice to see the work needed to open up the rear wheel openings. Mine is setup so the 33s just barely fit. I'll need to do some cutting and moving of the body when I change to 35s.

I am not positive of the differences between a TJ and LJ for those supports.

Remember that I did not have to do any of that extra cutting to fit 37s. But I did to get extra clearance. I could probably fit a 40 in there now.
 
I am not positive of the differences between a TJ and LJ for those supports.

Remember that I did not have to do any of that extra cutting to fit 37s. But I did to get extra clearance. I could probably fit a 40 in there now.
It's close enough to still be helpful. My upper limit to travel is the lower control arm almost touching the frame. I've been building everything else around that.
 
This is a catch up post from a 30 hour weekend I worked on the Jeep pre-garage project:

Thankfully I have a few contacts that I called up including 1 of the only 2 known people in America (or maybe the world) who can fully program the Jeep ECUs. I sent my ECU to him to have SKIM re-enabled so it could be programmed to my SKIM module again. While he has my ECU he'll also be doing a few other small changes that I'll cover later in my build. The other person I contacted is the only person I know of who is able to pair my SKIM module with my ECU without the dealer. Once we're all done playing hot potato with my ECU I will hopefully have a properly functioning SKIM security system again. In the meantime if I need to move my Jeep I still have the factory ECU in my possession. Thankfully I didn't install it as a weekend project!

I got the ECU back from the tuner. He is massively skilled when it comes to programming these ECUs. SOMEHOW he managed to get my SKIM key working without having my SKIM module. We have a theory of how it functions, but no clue how he got it to function that way. As usual my tuner refuses to share his God-like secrets so this will remain a mystery. I couldn't be more thrilled with his work.

You might be wondering where the EVAP junk went. Sure I could have stuffed it someplace but I found it fits better in a garbage can. After doing some ECU programming work the CEL behaves exactly how it should. While the ECU was getting worked on, I had all of the nonessential and nonimmediately detrimental functions set to not display the CEL. So now the ECU will still benefit from O2 sensor feedback, but if a sensor fails it won't turn on the CEL and will only show when a scan tool is plugged in. Basically allowing me to not worry about things that don't need to be worried about until I get back home.

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This is a catch up post from a 30 hour weekend I worked on the Jeep pre-garage project:

As I previously posted, the coilover reservoirs needed to be moved out of the way of the rear antiswaybar. I bent up new brackets for mounting them in the rear drug compartment... err, I mean inside the rear fender area. Thankfully I don't have to deal with the charcoal canister back there too. The reservoirs will be held in place by hose clamps (I'll try and remember to post a picture of them in place once I install them).

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(I unfortunately don't have a picture from before painting, so pretend that it's not painted yet. ;))
 
This is a catch up post from a 30 hour weekend I worked on the Jeep pre-garage project:

I welded brake line retainer tabs to the top of the axle tubes. And bent up hardlines out of 3/16" annealed stainless. I'm not perfectly happy with the way my bends ended up looking. I'm sure it won't effect performance at all but looking at them hurts my feelings. I ordered some more material and will probably end up redoing them with cleaner more precise bends using the lessons I learned the first time.

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It's difficult to see but I also welded on tabs for the parking brake cable. I'll post more about those once I get to assembling it under the Jeep.

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This is a catch up post from a 30 hour weekend I worked on the Jeep pre-garage project:

While I had the axle out I decided it'd be a good time to paint the rear tub where I had worked before parking it outside for the next month. 2k primer, urthane base, and 2k clear. After buffing this combo has been producing good results for me. Unfortunately at this point I don't have time to buff it but it'll be covered with armor anyway.

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The axle was sanded and received 2k primer and 2k black top coat:

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After painting, I stuck the axle back under the Jeep, put the hardtop on and pulled it outside to start work the next day on the garage! The rear has maybe another 2-4 hours before it's finished.

I think that catches us back up to current. Thank you for traveling back in time with me; I hope you enjoyed the ride. Please remain seated until the attendant signals you to step out of your seat.
 
While it was nice having a break from working on the Jeep, I did loose track a little bit of where I was at and what was left to be done. Over Thanksgiving I inventoried my tools, parts, and found an old shopping list of mine which contained everything I needed to finish the rear. I ordered everything up and with some luck it will be arriving by this weekend.

I also ordered everything I can figure I'll need for the front.

Perfect timing with Black Friday sales!
 
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My body isn't perfect. It has some "crunch" marks and bends from various known and unknown encounters. When I installed the corner armor I was able to straighten some out, but there remained a few high points.

To protect the paint and metal from rubbing with the corner guards in those areas I applied a layer of 3M paint protection film before putting the corners on for the (hopefully) final time. I torqued the corners and rub rails down and they should be ready to make friends with the next tree they meet.

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Here's an interesting one... When I lowered the rear bridge to improve the 4-link geometry, it put more of a pinch on the breather hose than I am comfortable with. I figured I'd replace it to a -6 AN fitting and go from there. Well, my first box of fittings and hoses came in and I grab the 3/8 NPT to -6an adapter that I assumed Currie had used. First off I somehow blanked when I ordered it because 3/8" NPT is actually more like 1/2" OD, which is way too big. Secondly, I figured I'd actually take the old fitting out to verify the threads before ordering something else and it surprised me that Currie used 10mm x 1.0 threads tapped in the cover and for the fitting to the 3/8 breather hose is what I can only figure is BPST (British Standard Pipe Taper). SUPER ODD!

20181129_breather-fitting.jpg


I can't find anything BPST to AN so I ordered a 10mmx1.0 (with crush washer) to -6an adapter (Russell 670470) that should be here on Saturday.

Edit: Is it possible they used a 1/8NPT fitting in a 10mmx1.0 hole?
 
@toximus your garage looks amazing. Your wife did an unbelievably amazing job with that trench digging.

As to the build ... I've said it before ... for someone like me, this just looks like magic.
 
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@toximus your garage looks amazing. Your wife did an unbelievably amazing job with that trench digging.

As to the build ... I've said it before ... for someone like me, this just looks like magic.

I appreciate your kind words.

Since everyone seems to be enjoying the trenching more than my build, here's a bonus 2ft deep trench picture for all you trench admirers out there:

IMG_20181019_103545.jpg
 
I appreciate your kind words.

Since everyone seems to be enjoying the trenching more than my build, here's a bonus 2ft deep trench picture for all you trench admirers out there:

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Ha! Maybe you need to start a trench build thread ;)

Maybe you can get your wife to build you a rock garden next?
 
How'd you guess? A Jeep trail is on the list!

Wow... you've just thought if it all apparently! I'm not sure how much land you're on, but if you got some rocks hauled out there and some heavy machinery to move them, you could probably build a pretty cool little trail. I'd do that for sure if I lived on a bunch of land!