Glad to be here! I used to be addicted to forums back in the early 2000s, and try to keep my eye on a few when I can. With the deep well of information here on the TJ platform, I'll be lurking a lot and learning what I can.
I'm a perpetual tinker and modder, and love doing my own stunts (work). I was daily driving a 2018 Grand Cherokee Trailhawk with the 5.7, but my wife was also driving it and leaving her car parked nearly 100% of the time. I got tired of keeping her car on a battery charger, and it was paid off with only ~55k miles, so we decided to sell it off and I would buy myself something for me. She officially inherited the WK2, and I found a clean 2006 non-rubi LJ.
It's been a little over a month now, and I have done a ton of stuff to it in that time. It's really easy to tinker with these things. This isn't my first wrangler, but it IS my first TJ & LJ at the same time.
I picked it up for $9,000 after some back and forth with the old owner. He threw in a fair bit of parts he had laying around, he wanted out of it to get into a truck. His commute had doubled, according to him. He also claimed he gave $16,500 for this 3 years ago, but who knows. It had 151k on the clock when I bought. Mileage wasn't low, but not exactly a scary amount to me. Heck, my first 4.0 (in a 91 YJ I had years ago) had 257k and ran like a top! This one is a cherry by comparison.
I'll shut up, on to some pics!
Day 0, stopped at Buccee's after paying the man and taking it off his hands
Heavy cut compound, then a nice polish with some Si02 I had on hand. Which was a fun task that led to...
Cutting holes in the hood like a psychopath.
Here's a few no-particular-order pics.
Showing off my wolfbox g930 front & rearview dashcam + digital mirror, and the double din carplay head unit i had in the garage that i threw in the dash
Any reservation I had about getting an LJ instead of a TJ (knowing full well I'd spend more) was gone when we took it for a week's trip to Galveston. I had it packed with stuff and we were perfectly comfortable.
The week in Galveston was illuminating, and I realized I need to do some heat management pronto. I added these fans to the rollbar to keep air moving back to the kiddo's spot. The AC works fantastic, especially after we evac'd the whole system and re-filled with fresh r134 by weight. However the heat management was bad. In addition to the fans, I added a closed-cell foam treatment to the floor and ordered some BedTred (not a fan of bare metal). I also have a sun-shade that i leave on all the time under the hard top, so I jammed some heavy fleece blankets between the hardtop and shade when the top is on. Cheaper than a hotheadliners and keeps the interior very nice for $30 spent at dollar general.
Here's how it sits right now. I couldn't stand the dick cepeks, and its now on some American Racing AR23s and KO2s I got a good deal on. I'll eventually do a different wheel, but I couldn't pass this up. Swapped a guy straight up, 5 for 5. The tires are pretty new too, so we both were really happy with the swap.
List of all the stuff I've done that I can recall
Thanks for reading if you've made it this far!
- Chris
I'm a perpetual tinker and modder, and love doing my own stunts (work). I was daily driving a 2018 Grand Cherokee Trailhawk with the 5.7, but my wife was also driving it and leaving her car parked nearly 100% of the time. I got tired of keeping her car on a battery charger, and it was paid off with only ~55k miles, so we decided to sell it off and I would buy myself something for me. She officially inherited the WK2, and I found a clean 2006 non-rubi LJ.
It's been a little over a month now, and I have done a ton of stuff to it in that time. It's really easy to tinker with these things. This isn't my first wrangler, but it IS my first TJ & LJ at the same time.
I picked it up for $9,000 after some back and forth with the old owner. He threw in a fair bit of parts he had laying around, he wanted out of it to get into a truck. His commute had doubled, according to him. He also claimed he gave $16,500 for this 3 years ago, but who knows. It had 151k on the clock when I bought. Mileage wasn't low, but not exactly a scary amount to me. Heck, my first 4.0 (in a 91 YJ I had years ago) had 257k and ran like a top! This one is a cherry by comparison.
I'll shut up, on to some pics!
Day 0, stopped at Buccee's after paying the man and taking it off his hands
Heavy cut compound, then a nice polish with some Si02 I had on hand. Which was a fun task that led to...
Cutting holes in the hood like a psychopath.
Here's a few no-particular-order pics.
Showing off my wolfbox g930 front & rearview dashcam + digital mirror, and the double din carplay head unit i had in the garage that i threw in the dash
Any reservation I had about getting an LJ instead of a TJ (knowing full well I'd spend more) was gone when we took it for a week's trip to Galveston. I had it packed with stuff and we were perfectly comfortable.
The week in Galveston was illuminating, and I realized I need to do some heat management pronto. I added these fans to the rollbar to keep air moving back to the kiddo's spot. The AC works fantastic, especially after we evac'd the whole system and re-filled with fresh r134 by weight. However the heat management was bad. In addition to the fans, I added a closed-cell foam treatment to the floor and ordered some BedTred (not a fan of bare metal). I also have a sun-shade that i leave on all the time under the hard top, so I jammed some heavy fleece blankets between the hardtop and shade when the top is on. Cheaper than a hotheadliners and keeps the interior very nice for $30 spent at dollar general.
Here's how it sits right now. I couldn't stand the dick cepeks, and its now on some American Racing AR23s and KO2s I got a good deal on. I'll eventually do a different wheel, but I couldn't pass this up. Swapped a guy straight up, 5 for 5. The tires are pretty new too, so we both were really happy with the swap.
List of all the stuff I've done that I can recall
- Hood louver
- Big 7 battery cable kit
- Sony av3000 carplay head unit
- new steering stabilizer
- flush mounted backup cam (drilled hole in the rear bumper)
- Wolfbox g930 dashcam mirror
- Replaced the blown out muffler with a nice & quiet take off
- Replaced speedo gear (Still looking at a SpeedoHealer, not QUITE deadnuts accurate)
- oil, diffs, tcase, transmission fluid service/checks
- tint
- Floorpan heat treatment (careful not to cover any drains)
- Re-sealed header gasket and upper surrounds on hardtop (rain ingress-b-gone)
- Full bedtred kit (the rear seat and cargo area had it, front seat did not)
- AC System service & new belt tensioner
- Sun shade & fleece blanket treatment (poor man headliner...good enough for now)
- Took off all the Heep certified lightbars and gave them away
- Brake fluid flush and new calipers + pads on rear (drove it home with a stuck rear caliper and thought it was even more gutless than it actually was)
- Took off the grille cover and jc whitney fender covers (they were hiding some rock chips, but its a ~20 year old jeep by now, I'll embrace the blemishes)
- 4 gang switch panel to control my fridge and the kiddo-fans
- Rotating kiddo fans (when im riding solo, i can point them at my head and i feel it all the way down to the footwell. Bliss.)
Thanks for reading if you've made it this far!
- Chris
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