Lobo the 05 LJ Rubicon

[Kuhl_Runnings]

Background: I have had Wranglers the entire time my daughter has been alive. She has always wanted a Wrangler and I wanted an older Jeep to work on with her as a dad daughter project. When one popped up on Marketplace that I thought looked good, I jumped on it. We found a mostly stock Rubicon LJ with about 57,000 miles. It was a southwest Jeep so almost zero rust, but had a completely shot Rubicon Express suspension, body mounts were gone, paint that was completely destroyed, and tires that were about to disintegrate.

She fell in love with it and named it Lobo after a wolf in an old movie she liked as a kid. We have been working on it together for the past 8 months.

It's a win-win as I get to drive it and buy all the tools I need to fix it, she gets to think it is hers, even though she can't drive for another 6 months.

This is not so much a build thread as it is a way of thanking you guys for all the threads I have read to get us this far.

 

[Kuhl_Runnings]

Progress to date:
Metalcloak 3.5 Inch short arm lift
Rancho shocks
Rockhard 4x4 front bumper and rear bumper with tire carrier
Currie Steering
Metal Cloak Front Diff Cover
Currie Rear Diff Cover
New body mounts
Mickey Thompson Baja Boss 33" tires (on my old JL wheels)
Genright Aluminum Corner Armor
Genright Rocker Rails
Black Magic Brakes Rotors and Pads
Black Magic Brakes LED Rear Taillights and License Plate Relocation
Genright Hood Louver
Bartac Seat Covers
Hothead Headliner Sound Deadening on the floors
Sony Touchscreen Head Unit
Alpine rear camera
Speedo healer for the new tire size
All new speakers inside
Replaced all fluids
Fixed a shorted ground in the dash

The paint on the hood was almost gone. Gave us a reason to try to repaint and put a louver on.

Still to do:
Repaint the doors
Repair the ubiquitous inner door cracks
Replace the leaking power steering pump hoses
Replace leaking crackcase vents
Fix a leaky rear main seal (not looking forward to this)
Add onboard air with a remote chuck
Fix the fuel valve overflow/cutoff issue
Get a hardtop (looking at Bulldawg)

Overall goal is a daily driver with weekend offroading/mild crawling, assuming she doesn't destroy it. All in all, it's been a fun family project and definitely crushed my bank account.