Well, its a bit late for me to start a build thread, but it seems to be what all the cool kids are doing these days, so i may as well
I bought my 06 TJ in January of 2008, it was completely stock, never been off road with 21,000kms on the clock...
I got it home and thought, that looks so tuff, im not going to mod it at all, until i found this site and everything turned to crap
First off i bought a TJM winch bar, a set of alloy mags and a set of 31" cooper stt's. I also had a set of Hella 4000's sitting at home so i threw them on it...
Hears how she looked about 2 weeks after i got it (sorry, no stock pics, but everyone no's what a black TJ looks like!)
So, about 2 months after driving it and wheeling it like that i was stoked with it...
I walked into a tire shop in brisbane to get a wheel alignment and saw a set of 32" Simex Centipedes sitting in the corner, and thought, I gotta have them!!
So I drove out 2 hours later on 32's and couldnt get the smile off my face.
Until i went and did some flex tests and saw how bad they scrubbed!
I went straight to Westside 4x4 and got 50mm bumpstop extensions all round and made it useable off road... It wasnt ideal, but once again, i said, this is it, no more mods!
Some pics.....
I got sick to death of the lack of travel because of all the bumpstop in the car pretty damn quickly, so i had 2 options, either go back to 31's, or lift it...
It was an easy decision? LIFT IT!
I looked around for a while at which option to go with, after doing a heap of research and looking around and asking all the dumb questions, i ended up going with a 3.5" Rubicon Express Super Flex kit with all the gear from Wooders.
I couldnt of been happier with it, i was awsome quality, did everything and more i hoped it would....
So at this stage i was running it with a 32's, 3.5" lift with Edelbrock Extreme travel shocks, SYE, RE arms all round, Adjustable panhard rods, HD tie rod etc....
Once again, i drove it around for about 5 months as it was until the tires were completely rooted.
I was tossing up weather or not to go with 33's or 35's..
After seeing another TJ on 35's my mind was made up.
The next day i ordered a set of 35" Pro Comp X-Terrains and some 30mm coil spacers for it..
Until I thought.. Hmm.. 35's, stock ratios, axles and no lockers.... This isnt going to work
So off to ARB i went, drove my car out 2 days later with Front and rear lockers, 4.88 Ratios, Alloy USA Axle shafts, warn free wheeling hubs and HD uni joint in the D30 on 35's!
I drove it and wheeled the snot out of it with that set up until early this year, i bought a Warn High Mount winch for it, i got a stubby bar for it off Ian and a few other little bits and pieces along the way...
(I took out the coil spacers about 2 weeks after putting them in, so i was running a 3.5" RE lift on 35's)
I threw a set of 4.5" RE springs under it about 2 months ago as well as i swapped the edelbrocks out for some OME Long Travel shocks.
It was about the same for a while, i only changed a few cosmetic things like tail lights, spotties etc....
Until about June this year when i noticed my control arms were flogged out really bad, my tires were starting to wear...
I had a few options, get new control arms, just replace the control arm bearings, or go long arms
I thought about it for a while and got on the phone to wooder to order a 5.5" Rubicon Express Long Arm Tri Link kit...
It turned up the 24th of July and due to a bit of confusion, Rubicon Express sent Wooders a 5.5" kit for a 96-03 TJ..
After a bit of a discussion with wooder we decided that it should fit and i would get the added benifit of have the older belly pan, 2" More clearence than the 03-06 LA Kits!!!
It got to my place at about 3:30 on Friday arvo, drove staight to our workshop, called a few mates up, and the spanners started spinning and the grinders cutting......
It was in at about 12:00 the next day! (Huge thanks to Micheal, Matt, Jake and my beautiful girlfriend for all there help, I couldnt have finished it in time with out them!)
I dont have any wheeling or flex shots of the LA kit yet, but hears some shots of the build and some shots just after i finished it...
Sitting outside my workshop before it all started, on a 4.5" RE SF lift and 35's..
And then the fun began!
I didn't notice how far forward to back tires were inside the guards until i got it outside of the shed, so some time this week im gonna stretch the wheelbase as much as possible!
My current set up is as follows....
06 TJ with 70,000 kms on the clock
5.5" Rubicon Express Long Arm Tri Link kit + 1" Body Lift with Tom Woods SYE and Shaft
F+R ARB Air Lockers @ 4.88, Chromeolly axles all round, Warn Free wheeling hubs
35" Pro Comp X-Terrains on 15x8 Pro Comp Rims
Warn High Mount winch on a Rock Crawler Stubby bumper
ARB Rock Sliders
ARB Rear bar with swing out tire carrier
Currie Anti Rock sway bar
In the next few weeks there will be a bit more gear getting thrown at it, including front and rear Currie Rock Jocks, 17" Walker Evans Beadlocks, 37" BFG Krawlers, 14" King Coilovers etc etc.......
Ill keep the thread updated as i go, if anyone has any questions dont hesitate to ask!
Cheers,
Hollywood
By the way, thanks to all the members on hear who have helped me and given me advise, everyone that has helped me along the way, and to everyone who took me seriously!
Special thanks to Ian, Fat Chili and Wooders for everything!
And also thanks to Bec for telling me it was a better idea to mod my jeep rather than buy a house
TJ: Hollywood's Build
