Durtyrok Carolina Offroad Forum

That is actually the OE license plate bracket with an el-cheapo LED license plate light from Auto Zone, its set up to mount with the license plate screws. Then i just drilled and ran the wires through the OE bracket. I also notched the license plate (Shh!).

What type of bumper are you looking to put on it? My Comanche has a SB tube bumper and I mounted the OE license plate lights in the tubing end caps...

This one (thinking about it; haven't made a final decision yet):

http://www.jcroffroad.com/Merchant2/mer ... y_Code=MJB

This is the light that I used:

http://www.autozone.com/autozone/catalo ... ccessories

Cheap, easy, and bright as heck...

Got the cage installed this weekend. I was a little disapointed in the fit. A lot of beeting, banging and ratchet strapping involved just to make it fit and quite a few of the clamps ended up gapped. In retrospect I believe assembling everything and running a hone in all of the clamp ends to remove 100% of the powder coat would have helped. But, not all of the problems can be related to that. My agravation led to sub standard (by my standards) finish on the trimmed interior panels around the windshield, lackign my usual anal retentive attention to detail... oh well. No pictures yet.

The OEM battery also finally took a complete dump on me. So, I replaced it with an Optima Yellow Top. It better be good for $200! Good greif, they are proud of those things!

This week will be time to install the LED side markers I got to put in the sides of the hood. I'll try to get pictures. Either way, my plan is to drive it to the meeting on Sunday...

Interior. fit. finish. attention to detail. Jeep..................................... huh?

I have had a red top in the blue car for 6 years with no issues, at times I did not even start the car for several weeks. You should be fine.

Meeting is Saturday the 27th. Please have the Savvy corners ready for me to reappropriate

My biggest disappointment with the Rock Hard cage was the gaps in the collars. Its not that they didn't fit correctly; they just weren't designed to meet. And if someone wants to come prove me wrong and adjust mine so that they do fit and my door frames fit too, then by all means.

Some of mine tightened down gap free, but no way all of them were going to. I had to trim the snot out of my door surrounds to get them to fit too. Oh well, it should help save my butt if I roll...

Yeah, I know... I'm jsu usually anal about that kind of stuff. But my agravation prevented that this time. No big.

I don't expect any issues form the Optima. I had a yellow top in the Honda, and I would leave it covered for months at a time.

I'll see you Saturday. Hopefully I'll be able to drive the Jeep. I've been out of work all week after throwing my back out at work Monday morning. If it's not better I doubt I'll be climbing up in the Jeep. If it is, I'll see you there and might let you drool on the corners a bit... If not, I'll just drive the Chrysler.

Finally got a pciture of the cage (sort of). Sorry, I didn't feel like taking the breif top and wind breaker off the get the whole thing...



I had to mount the sound pods in front of the B-pillar cross bar because of the angle bars. That's OK, now they're right over the seats for better rocking out!

Got the marker lights installed. I cut the old marker light bulb sockets off and pulled the power wires out of the harness and ran them up to the hood and along the edge. I ran the ground wires to the bolt for the hood grounding strap. Then I put it all in loom and attached it to the edge of the hood with mouting cable ties and aluminum rivets...



They're pretty bright considering they are only 3/4" diameter LEDs.



Not too tough of a job, and I think they turned out pretty good.



I also finally got my DurtyRok stickers (and my Savvy stickers) put on. The only stickers that I ever plan on putting on the Jeep, unless I can find one of those "if you can read this roll me back over" stickers... or of course the big decal for the hard top back glass that Marcus was supposed to let me know about getting made (Huh Hmm...) .





(and there's my baby girl checking the air in my tires for me)


So... WE'LL SEE SOME OF YOU IN A FEW HOURS!

I'm patiently waiting for Savvy to get their tire carrier, rear bumper, and dual rate sway bar available.

I want to get their front bumper, but I want to do the sway bar at the same time (and put on a synthetic winch line).

I also want to do their tub mounted tire carrier and rear bumper together.

That's ok, maybe by the time they come out I will have some money!

WooHoo!

Just got off the phone placing my order with Gerald at Savvy Offroad for:

SS tub sliders
rockers with SS sliders
front bumper
rear recovery bumper
gas tank skid
tailgate skin
lower valance w/sand blasted Savvy logo
drill bit and nutsert tool
license plate relocation bracket
under armor kit




The boxes should be rolling in soon... and then a after I drill the tub rail hole in the corners I can remove them and take everything to the powerd coater.

And then I get to work, work, work... Swap out the 6" springs for 4" springs and start installing aluminuminum!

AND BOY AM I BROKE NOW!!!!!!!!!!

Damn!!!!!!! That is a lot of nice stuff.

Don't you already have some under armor?

I have a Skid Row Engine / trans skid, but I couldn't resisit the Tummt Tuck.

I'll be selling some Skid Row stuff soon (like engine/tranny skid, rockers, and gas tank skid).

Ths Skid Row roclers won't work with a body lift, and I don't see the point in not installing a GTS that can be raised if I'm doing a body lift.

way to go mailman!!!

Yeah thats one hell of an order!

I'm gona feel it in my wallet

But he made me an offer I couldn't refuse

I broke my own cardinal rule and blew the dust off of my credit card

But hey, we only live once

Got a load of Savvy crack all unwrapped today...


Now I'm just waiting on the front bumper

Man that stuff is nice!

Daaaaammmmmmmnnnnn!

*some assembly required

That won't take but a few hours to install

Yeah that under armor kit has more pieces than a jig saw puzzle.




It took two hours to unpack

This just showed up:



Now I'm ready for powder coat.

The corners and OEM bumpers are coming off this weekend

Are you sandblasting and powder coating the corners?

Yep! My failed attempt at painting aluminum will be my last...

How about a progress update.

sweeeeeetttttt


you have an awesome build!!!!

I had to go to Charleston this weekend and get my daughter from my mother's house, so no progress. I have the crossmember, transmission mount, body lift, and motor mount lift for the Savvy Under Armor installed. The powder coater still has everything else. Except for the rear bumper brackets, which I plan to install soon (probably tomorrow night).

Just a little tip: eight hours in a JK for a fat guy with a bad back is not fun!

What is better, 8hrs in a JK or TJ?

and to keep it on topic.. when do you expect the parts from powdercoat?

Actually, when I talked to him last week he said they "might" be done Monday (yesterday). But, I knew I wouldn't have time to get them yesterday.I'm going to call him in a couple hours...

Les between you and Jeff i dont know who is going to be the trailer queen first...lol... keep up the pics and good luck it sounds like a blast....

He has a trailer and I dont so I guess Les wins.

I'm not sure that's one I want to win...

I just got off the phone with the powder coater, now he says "definately no later than Friday"

The price better be good and they better look dam pretty!

I'm super slack about pictures. There are a bunch on my JF build thread, because that was part of the deal with being an early adopter.

Powder coater just called. Said I could pick everything up at lunch tomorrow. He also came down quite a bit on the price due to the wait. He wants to try a new powder he's just started using. He called it "Black Polly Peel". Apparently it's get a heavy texture to it. It will still be gloss with clear over it, but when I beat something against a rock and touch it up with rattle can it will hide it better. He's going to do the spacer plates with regular satin black and no clear. So, we'll see what happens...

I also told him that I didn't mean to send him the exhaust hanger bracket, so he's not going to spray it.

I actually just found the data on it online.

http://www.trojanpowder.com/pdfs/TCI%20Color%20Card.pdf

The color swatch is on page 9.

According to the chart on page 4 it shoudl be one of the best choices for this type of application; hard, flexibe, and tough.

And it should look really unique with the clear over it. I can't wait to see it!

Well, the poly peel powder looked good... But, they did a crappy job! I left it and told them to re-coat it. The logo looked horrible (not his fault there). It looked good in the shop, but once out in the sun you could see that they had sprayed everything too thin and the metal was peaking out. So, it will be some time next week

Looks like yet another delay

I get to remove and disassemble the hydrostatic transaxle in the garden tractor when I get home, it won't go after the fluid heats up..

This is getting annoying

Scott- That is a picture of Fred Flintsones ABS system. Its not a hydrostatic transaxle.

What's confusing you?

Automatic transmissions in tractors and riding mowers are just a hydraulic pump and a hydraulic motor, when you push the accelerator it moves a valve that lets more or less of the fluid from the pump go tp the motor, that's how it controls how fast you go. Mine will not go when the oil is hot. That is normally an indication of wear on the motor plates that allows fluid to bypass the motor vanes when the oil gets warm and thins out. So, I need to tear it down and inspect the inside of the motor. I got it pulled out yesterday, will start disassembly tonight.

Was that way more than you ever wanted to know?

Unfortunately, the land has to take precedence over the Jeep... I don't understand the logic there, but her priorities are a bit askew

just go buy a jeep oil cooler and put in line that should help...lol

Yeah... there is a reason people shouldn't count on me for trail repairs! But I do know how to change my oil


Always good to learn!


Sorry for the derail. Do you expect your parts will really be ready this week?

Don't worry about the de-rail, I started it...

I talked to him this afternoon. I'm going to pick them up at 4pm tomorrow. Let's hope they're right this time!

Picked everything up last night. Looks good!

He didn't knock the price down anymore, but when I paid him he handed me back $40 to cover my gas for driving up there last week. So, I thought that was fair.

No pictures yet because it's still all wrapped up.

Hopefully I will have the trans back in the GT tonight and I can start back on the Jeep tomorrow night...

Not quite, but I'm close...

I got the transaxle dissasembled, repaired, reassembled, filled, and bench tested.

I'll have it back in tonight.

I can definately start on the Jeep tomorrow morning, if not tonight.

Well, I got the GT back together and functional (with what might as well have been no help at all from any of the other three people who live in this house... go figure!). SO that's out of the way, but now I can barely stand up from the back pain. So, now I will take some pain pills, ice my back, and shock myself until I fall asleep...

Then I should be good to go in the morning!

Nothing else needs to be fixed right now, so the Jeep is back in the front of the line!

When I start unwrapping parts I'll take some pictures.

I just saw that!

Actiually I was plotting for next time this happens I already know how I can add a drain plug and use an electric oil scavenging pump to circulate the oil through an external filter and an oil cooler (power steering cooler sized) bfore dumping it into a fender mounted external reservoir that will bravity feed back into where the breather is now. I have everything sketched out!

Yeah, I'm crazy! But hey... if I actually do all of that I can garantee I never have a problem with it again.

I've really got to start checking this from home more often. The picture Scott posted of the flux capacitor didn't show up at work, so I totally missed the humor in his post and really had no idea what Donnie was talking about!

Boy do I feel like a goob...

Here are some shots of the powder coat...

looks great!..can't wait to see them on the jeep!