Threep the Jeep

[Happienumber]

I have a Jeep again! Let's go!
When I moved away from the north I got mildly bullied into getting a "practical" car with better gas mileage and I couldn't really justify a fun car. Well A few months ago I moved back and and now the fun vehicle IS the practical vehicle! Went on a long road trip and bought my 2006 Wrangler from a single-owner in Florida, essentially rust-free. 220k miles on her but meticulous maintenance records since the day she rolled off the lot. Getting a frame and tub that clean was worth the drive and I'll pop a new engine in her when the time comes. Heavy duty rust prevention is going to be the lion's share of my routine maintenance.

Goals for the rig: (copied a bit from a different post but I'm getting everything centered here)

I would like to be able to do some rock crawling in the summers for fun, nothing too extreme. But Threep is definitely a daily driver, my main and only vehicle, and needs to be able to handle going on the autoroute sometimes. However, most of my “daily driving” where I live would be considered by many to be snow wheeling. Mud and snow are my number one priorities (as Mud Season delivers some 2 foot deep mud holes on regular roads, worse on the unmaintained rd I live on)

For reference, this is what our roads look like:

Spoiler: Shortened to keep the first post neat

This is what our good rds look like:

This is what our average roads look like:

And this picture (downloaded from the internet because I'm too busy driving on these rds to stop and take a picture lol) is what our unmaintained rds (like the one I live on) look like:

For two months every spring we have this on the good roads:

This on the average roads:

And the bad rds are just straight closed. You park at the bottom and walk home.

For a half a second in the summer, the dirt rds are washboard and the handful of pavement rds in downtown look like this:

When I lived here as a teenager I had a ZJ that came to me already lifted 4.5 inches on 34’s for 900 bucks because that’s what you could get for so cheap up here back then. That rig took me pretty much anywhere. Tow ropes and using a hi-lift jack as a come along got me out of anything the wheels didn't. I liked being able to pull people out of ditches and having the capable rig to go out and drag trees off roads after storms.

Threep is stock suspension with 33's and is surprisingly capable with no lift in comparison to the very tall ZJ (Peep the Jeep) but I have gotten her stuck once already in something I absolutely could have driven through with Peep. I'm also running into a lot of issues of snowpack filing the wheelwells and getting me jammed up so a lift is on the shortlist.
I want to build out Threep to be a reliable "get you there" rig through the kinds of daily driving I do.

Build plan, subject to much change based on how things play out and what advice I get from you guys:

1. Zone offroad 4.25 combo lift
2. A winch of some sort
3. Highline fenders
4. Hurculine the tub
5. Dana 44 rear axle
6. Diff lock



I'm going to try to use this first post as a directory for the build.

Initial undercoating and paint
Radio install
Headlights and Fog lights
Fender trim and extension

 

[Happienumber]

First thing I did when I got her home (after a standard oil change/air filter change/fluid checks) was to get her up on the lift and get the frame and tub coated.

1. Regular debris removal wash
2. Wirewheel away any surface rust
3. Full degrease wash
4. Metal Etching prep
5. POR-15 every flat surface and inside frame
6. Farm enamel bolts and parts that I'll have to remove and adjust
7. Some rattle can bedliner on floor pans for traction
8. Woolwax inside doors, under hood, on moving parts, and inside frame

Took about a week and a half doing 10-12 hour days, I did it over a work break.

Before:

All of that surface rust wire-wheeled down to bare metal SO fast. Living in the north I've never had such an easy time treating rust. I planed to spend two days just grinding but it only took a few hours.

Primer up top, after metal etch:

After:

Sorry the underside pics are so crap I forgot to take them when she was on the lift.

It didn't really need it but while I had the bumper off and the tow hooks off to paint them and their bolts separately, I tossed some green paint on it just for some aesthetics. I'm mostly a function over form guy but If I CAN add aesthetics for basically free, I'll do it.

I'm eventually going to get a bumper that can hold a winch and has a brush guard, as the brush guard on Peep came in handy a LOT.

I didn't do TOO much to the seats while they were out but they are gonna need an overhaul at some point. Ironically the seats are the rustiest part of the entire vehicle, by far.
At some point I'd like to replace them with something a little more bare-bones and lighter, passenger side doesn't flip forward anymore (I figured out how to release it manually by reaching underneath and rotating the bar by hand, but that's a pain.) If the budget doesn't support new seats this year, at some point I'll be pulling the seats again to totally take them apart, treat the rust, and fix the mechanicals.

The one thing I did do was wirewheel all the rust off the brackets and the seat contact points with the tub:

And then gave them a quick degrease/metal etch/single coat of POR.

 

[Happienumber]

Threep didn't have a working radio and I have to have tunes so I picked up a $30 dollar radio off walmart online and when it was finally shipped up to me I began the arduous process of installing a very very very off brand radio with no instructions

This was inside the dash where the radio was suppost to be:

One can only guess why it wasn't working.

SPAGHETTI
I'm so glad I have a multimeter. And the FSM.

Soldered in and tested:

(that yellow wire is supposed to be going to the backup camera that came with the thing. I still haven't gotten that to work, but what can you expect with a 30 dollar unit tbh. I could be an idiot that's got it wired wrong but also It might just be broken)

I had an old subwoofer that I disasembled, made a new smaller box for, and stuffed inside my center console:

It's actually WILD how much that amplifier improves the stock speakers. Its literally night and day just with the stock speakers running off the amp, subwoofer unplugged. The sub makes it pretty amazing by my non-audiophile standards. I honestly thought that one of my first non-essential creature-comfort upgrades was going to be new speakers all around cuz they were so trash sounding but that amp fixed all.

Also tossed a coat of the same paint as the bumper on the console, painted the side steps, and stickerbombed the center dash since I had them out and had the rest of the afternoon free:

 

[Happienumber]

The stock headlights were super dim, so I put in some LED's and added some deer and moose spotters on my bumper

I wired the critterspotters to the always-on power outlet so I can use them as worklights with the vehicle off.

High and low beam comparison:

Took her down to the main rd to try to get a shot of before and after at a longer straightaway:

But it started snowing so the distance of the highbeams weren't shown off as well. Under clear conditions you can see the trees at that bend.

Just the critterspotters alone are brighter than the old highbeams.

 

[Happienumber]

Today's project was some fender modification. I'm really annoyed with how much the tires throw salt and rocks up the sides. I can wash her down and after driving maybe a kilometer it looks like I didn't wash her at all. New fenders and or fender flares aren't in the budget yet since this one is more of an annoyance-fixer and my dollars are saving towards the lift kit first. So I had to fabricate something up for as cheap as I could.

I started by cutting the lip of the fender flares off:

I thought about leaving that front part in for the side blinker but I decided I might be able to help some of my snowpack woes by cutting it all the way and bolting it on somewhere else.

Took a coarse and then fine file to get the edges knocked down

Then sanded the cut edge:

Then I measured out and bolted on some extra wide lawn edging. The first one I put on looked pretty crap, like a dented piece of roofing or something. I think I figured out why though (I made it a bit too long and didn't get the tension right when i was drilling the bolt holes) and the subsequent three turned out not looking egregiously bad.

I have enough left over to redo that front one so after work I'll probably do that.
They completely cover the rear wheel. They don't completely cover the front but it's four inches wider than it was and I have a little more room up front for snow to escape. I haven't tested it on the rd yet to see how much if any it helps the mess on the sides.

 

[Happienumber]

I completely forgot that I put on a new soft-top (fairly obvious as it goes from black in the first pic to spice lol) but the original soft-top after spending 18 years in the florida sun absolutely bit it. Dried out in the heat and then got all brittle in the cold up here. First time I unzipped the rear window it cracked into pieces like sugar lol. I like the spice color a lot better, and it's doing fine in the cold so far. My only peeve is that it's stretched tightly and not super evenly across the back, so I can't really unzip the rear window all the way and even zipping a little bit is very difficult. My solution is to just leave one side of the window unzipped all the time so I can flip it up to access the back where my tools are without hating my life. Problem is, it does let the rear end get full of snow and rain. Not the end of the world since it's bed linered in there and my toolbox is waterproof but it's not ideal. IDK if its a skill issue and I did something wrong putting it on as I've never put a soft top on before, or if it's just becasuse it's the cheapest one I could buy so you get what you pay for.

I made a whoopsie daisy tho because I tossed out what I thought was part of the old soft top but was in fact a rail I need to connect the rear window to the tailgate. Which just adds to the gap.

 

[Limestone]

Nice. I spent a huge amount of time cleaning the insides of my frame too and then recoating with Eastwood rust encapsulator. This spring I plan to do what you did with the exterior of the frame etc. I found just pulling the inner finder liners out and cleaning the 20 years of collected dirt and debris helpful.

I too struggle with the amount of "stuff" that gets kicked up by the tires. Eventually my windows and mirrors are so covered it's a safety hazard. Have you found your DIY extended fender guards are working?

 

[Happienumber]

Nice. I spent a huge amount of time cleaning the insides of my frame too and then recoating with Eastwood rust encapsulator. This spring I plan to do what you did with the exterior of the frame etc. I found just pulling the inner finder liners out and cleaning the 20 years of collected dirt and debris helpful.

I too struggle with the amount of "stuff" that gets kicked up by the tires. Eventually my windows and mirrors are so covered it's a safety hazard. Have you found your DIY extended fender guards are working?

It becomes a safety hazard on the mirrors and windows SO FAST!
I haven't gotten to test them yet as it was a work from home day but tomorrow I'll be driving in to my other job so I'll report back.
I hope it at least helps. The fender flares are MUCH wider so it looks promising. I don't mind being covered in gunk when i've gone mudding but being unable to see out of the windows after having just driven down to the mailbox was getting real old real fast lol (especially when it's not even mud season and it's just random snow salt)

Ive heard really good things about eastwood. Since I knew there was barely any rust inside the frame I went for straight POR after prep but if there had been any rust I think I might have leaned eastwood. It's a toss up. However I just learned about a new military-use wax coating that I've forgotten the name of but its saved somewhere, and I'm pretty sure I'll switch to that over the woolwax next year. It looks CRAZY good. Every single review is glowing.

For a one-and-done like you can do on the flat surfaces (or round, I just mean not painting over bolts or joints and stuff) I've never had POR-15 fail on me. Like I had it on the underside of a blazer I drove through hell and back and slid over all kinds a rocks and never got a scratch or a chip. But it's literally ALL about the prep for that one. As far as my experience, it will last as close to forever as your car can imagine, if you do it right. Every single time Ive talked to someone that was like "oh that stuff chips" or whatever, asking a few more questions they either didn't do ANY prep and thought it was just a paint over anything one and done. Or they skipped the etching, or they skipped the degreaser, or they were like "I used simple green as a degreaser because I already had it" or some sort of caveat. When you're doing POR-15, just follow the manufacturers steps. Many times the "best practices" for things aren't necessary, but in this case they are. They are particular about things for a reason. (prep steps, time between coats, just follow it like the bible) I've never had the slightest issue after like....6 or 7 different POR jobs on vehicles or heavy equipment.
It usually takes me about 7 days for prep and one for paint. And then the thing just becomes indestructible.

If I was pedantic enough and had the time and patience I'd take off every part of the suspension and carefully POR each one but that would be literally rediculous in time and if I calculated it at minimum wage wouldn't be remotely worth my time to do over replacing the part when its toast. But still, wish I could lol. I'll settle for future proofing my frame and tub.

 

[Limestone]

I think that is largely where I'm at. Some previous owner had drilled holes in the bottom of the frame, in the known low points to improve drainage and I think that's what saved it. But when I got it, there was heavy metal flaking inside the frame. I spend days vacuuming the interior to get all the debris out and then ran small chain on a drill inside to get any more loose material out and then vacuumed it again. I then used the long hose nozzle that came with the frame interior rust encapsulator to spray a degreaser that doesn't leave a residue inside and THEN sprayed the rust encapsulator. After all that, I took it to Krown to have it undersprayed and verified they did the interior of the frame.

A friend of mine got me this stuff from Loctite https://www.amazon.ca/Loctite-1-QT-Extend-Rust-Treatment/dp/B00B73YUKK/?tag=tjforum-20 that is absolutely incredible for already rusty surfaces. It can't be loose rust, but surface rust is perfect. It paints on very thin and basically you have a paintable surface. I've been experimenting with it on random places and I'm impressed and recommend trying it.

Loving the blog/build thread. Very much have similar goals in mind.

 

[Happienumber]

Some previous owner had drilled holes in the bottom of the frame, in the known low points to improve drainage and I think that's what saved it

I've heard that does wonders. Previous owner did that to Threep too.

I spend days vacuuming the interior to get all the debris out and then ran small chain on a drill inside to get any more loose material out and then vacuumed it again

Prepwork is the real work lol. Takes SO LONG

Loving the blog/build thread. Very much have similar goals in mind.

Awesome!

 

[Happienumber]

Have you found your DIY extended fender guards are working?

Absolutly RAVE reviews!

This was after a drive that would normally have made my windows opaque. They definitely work!!