TJ: Rockets Build

[Rocket55]

Painted the surrounds and finished off the install today. Pretty happy with the result. Just need to put the front suspension back under it so I can go for a drive and test them out.

[Rocket55]

Well this fixing the suspension business is taking time. First issue was identifying what bits I needed, that's now done and now we play the waiting game while it turns up from the States. So while my Jeep sits in the garage on stands with no front end in it, I decided to tackle a few nice to do jobs like painting the faded fenders and giving the ratty looking sliders a tidy up.

First up, whip the fenders off, it is now in "6 Stage" mode.



Then off come the sliders, now it looks naked



I used a clear flexible adhesion promoting primer on the fenders then a few coats of Dupli Colour Armor Bed







The sliders just coped some Rustguard Etching primer and a number of coats of my "go to" Saturn black Rustguard



Now just to put it all back together

Fenders on





Look good (now) in my opinion, it has a bit of texture to it and has a bit of a rubbery feel to it, time will tell how it looks once it's been covered in mud and how well it washes clean.

Sliders back on and the finished product







I'm pretty happy with the end result, now to tidy up the mirrors, door handles and rear window hinges.

[Rocket55]

These arrived today, and I'm glad to see them. Means I can put my TJ back together again and get it on the road, just in time too as I have a few trips set up for the next couple of weeks.

Can't thank Brett in Jeep City Canberra enough for getting these bits out of the states and to me in record time, fantastic customer service

[Jimmyb]

Love those lights, almost tempted to get some for the XJ

[Rocket55]

They look cool, but I'll reserve judgement on them until i see how they go of a night time first.

[Rocket55]

Well my TJ is all back together and good as new, well better than new to be honest. Finished it off late on THursday night just in time for a Sydney Jeep Club run to My Airlie on Saturday morning.

Jury is still out on the performance of the new headlights, I was expecting more to be honest.

Heres a short clip of one of the climbs.

https://youtu.be/fKYT6fL0uj0

[Redemptioner]

Originally Posted by Rocket55

mmmMMMmmm goodness.....

What combo did you end up running, rubber bushes on the diff and JJ on the body for the front and one each way on the rears?

This is the combo I went with but on my new diffs I am presently building I am looking at running JJ's on the front diff uppers and a skinnier rubbers on the lower arm to give it more room to move around. It has been running fine and rear works really well but the front starts to bind on the diff mounts pretty quickly and despite the fact the new 1/4" mounts won't tear off I would still like to see more articulation before maxing out. I'm interested to see how other people are finding the combo they are using on their LA setups.