WK2: BMackin Build & Adventure

[Chief Products]

I got a chance to sneak away from work for a few hours today (don't tell the boss) and have some fun working on my WK2.

My off-road wheels just got back from the painters. While fixing up a few gouges and scratches (I'm not sure how those happened) I asked them to paint the inside of the wheels 'Flame Red' to match the new recovery points. I like it! It's just subtle enough, but still ties in well with the other red parts.

What do you guys think?

Cheers,
Bill

Here's a few photos:

Freshly Painted Wheels


Close up


Flame Red Inside


Installed


Installed Close up

[Chief Products]

I got my new custom license plates last week. Oddly 'Jeep' was already taken! LOL! But I was excited to find 'WK2' wasn't. Of course who other than a Jeep Grand Cherokee guy would be excited about 'WK2' as a license plate?!

They looked great when they arrived from PPQ, but I wasn't happy with the license plate holders I had. I searched around on the interwebs and found a great company called Lakin Custom Plate Brackets down in Tassie. Philip the owner there was great (highly recommended). I sent the plates down to him and he made custom brackets for the plates. Excellent fit and finish and the front bracket even follows the contours of the front bumper.

I wasn't happy with the OEM mounting system (screws into plastic) for the front plate. I'd already lost 1 plate on Fraser Island. So I put 4 stainless steel nutserts into the front bumper. Philip over @ Lakin was nice enough to customise the front bracket so I could mount the plate using 4 stainless steel screws into the nice new nutserts.

Cheers,
Bill

New Mounting Holes


4 Stainless Steel Nutserts


Custom Bracket


Front Plate Installed


Rear Plate

[fwdjeep]

Nice
What sort of dollars for the parts

[Hutch]

Nice One Bill.

Hutch- Jeep GC blackhawk 2014.

[Chief Products]

Originally Posted by fwdjeep

Nice
What sort of dollars for the parts

The license plate brackets were about $100 each, which included machining the corners of the license plates to match the rounded corners of the brackets. The Stainless Steel nutserts and machine screws were only a few dollars.

Repairing and painting the wheels was about $250 each wheel. It's normally only about $150 per wheel, but I had some decent gouges in the wheels that they had to do weld repairs on before they could machine and paint them.

Cheers,
Bill

[MattG]

Great idea - I like the use of stainless nutserts. Having my plates flapping around with only two screws holding them in has been annoying me for a while. The custom brackets are probably a bit overkill for my stocko plates, they look good though.

[Chief Products]

I've had a few people requesting information about the Rhino Rack I purchased. Here are the part #s and prices I paid back in 2013. Things may have changed since then, but hopefully it helps a bit.

Rhino Platform Rack (Black) RR42100B $640.00
Rhino Leg Height Spacer (10mm) RRLHSPAIR $10.00
Rhino Leg Set RRRLCP27 $200.00
Rhino Rack Hi-Lift Bracket RR43101 $85.00
Rhino Rack Spare Wheel Holder RRRSWH $90.00
Rhino Gas Bottle Holder (4kg) RRRGBH $89.00
Platform Rack Rail Kit RR43141B $220.00

As you can see I purchased a few of the accessories as well. They've all performed great and I couldn't be happier with my purchase. I love how light the rack is. Most of the other racks I've found for the WK2 are much heavier, which limits how much weight you can use for cargo. I should also mention, I didn't end up using the Leg Height Spacer Kit.

I hope that helps!

Cheers,
Bill