96DCZJ's build thread

[96DCZJ]

Started out in April 09, bought her with 209k, needing a few parts, and some TLC...for $600. High miles, but a steal.






Started with a few mods..
-2 Hella 700FF lights mounted on the front bumper
-Trimmed and painted the front and rear bumper
-Removed Cladding
-Added a few stickers
-Tinted Rear Taillights

[96DCZJ]

Then the lift, rims, and tires came:
Iron Rock Offroad 3.5" Lift Kit
Skyjacker Hydro 7000's
32"x11.5"x15" Dunlop Radial Mud Rovers
15"x8" 4"BS Black Cragar Soft 8's

[96DCZJ]

Installation day came. 11 hours, and it all worked out.

[96DCZJ]

Finally took it wheeling, and had some fun.

Day after installation

First wheeling trip after the lift installation. No action pics unfortunately

Few random pictures and driveway shots

This was after my best wheeling trip.

Unfortunately, I might have blown a head gasket at one point. The bypass hose for the water pump was torn a little bit, so I was leaking anti-freeze badly at the trail. Tried to get her to a gas station quick to cool her down, and on my way, the temp hit over 260 and was smoking bad. Also ruined the fan clutch from overheating, and ended up replacing the water pump gasket, bypass hose, and fan clutch a few days after that incident.

Here's some pictures of me and my buddies 2000 S10 Blazer SFA conversion

Here's some pictures of one of my first wheeling trips after the lift.

Hill Climb

This might not seem so steep, but definitely had a pretty decent angle.

Mud Pit

Definitely a lot of fun.

My heat shield from my exhaust ended up hanging. At this point, I had no more muffler, only converter. Muffler ripped off in a previous wheeling trip. You can see it in this picture.

[96DCZJ]

October 27, 2009, I got into an accident. I'll just copy and paste this from another site -

Jeep vs. Tree

vs

Around 11:40 AM, October 27, a guy in a chevy cobalt cut me off from two lanes over, I locked up my brakes, his pass rear clipped my driver front, and i skid, hopped the curb and hit the tree at about 30 mph and spun around facing head-on traffic.
I hopped out of my jeep without even looking at the damage yet, ran up to him a the red light as he's still waiting to turn, not even realizing what happened, and slammed on his pass window and he opened it and..

Me - "ARE YOU ****ING KIDDING ME!?!?!? DO YOU PAY ATTENTION!?!?!"
******* - "...what do you mean??"
Me - "WHAT DO YOU MEAN WHAT DO I MEAN?! YOU CUT ME OFF AND CLIPPED ME AND I HIT INTO A TREE!!!!"

So he gets out of his car to look at the side, and I walked back and the guy 2 cars behind him (who originally was behind me) and goes "do u need me to call the cops?" and i said "nahh i got it but u saw him cut me off right?" and he said "yeahh he cut me off earlier too. make sure u get his plates" and i went "oh my god, please stay here and be a witness for me when the cops come" and as I'm bout to get the plate number, the lady behind him hands me a piece of paper with the number on it.

I went back to my truck and looked at the damages, and turn to see the ******* speed away with my witness chase after him. the both disapeared and I called 911. As i'm on the phone, I see a cop right behind my truck. I told him what happened. He told me to try and start my truck and get it somewhere safe, because it was facing the wrong way of traffic and I got it turned around and went into the parking lot right next to it.

The witness was gone, so there went my chance to try and get a whole case going to get the ******* to pay for the damages. Filed a report with it saying "Victim avoided another vehicle that ws changing lanes causing him to skid off roadway striking a tree damage to front end"

Later on in the day, I notice a car driving past Jiffy Lube that looked like the same car the witness drove. Then the driver, turns and it was him. I flagged him down and got him to pull into the parking lot. i got his information and said he has no problem helping me out and being a witness. He, Mike, told me that he watched the guy swerve over two lanes without signaling and clipped my jeep, and his rear gave out but he didnt stop. Considering it was raining, he might've thought his rear just gave out from sliding and didn't realize he actually hit me.
Oh and the driver was completely oblivious because when I ran up to the window he looked as if nothing even happened to begin with.

Brought her to a shop, and ended up getting her fixed for a total of $1200.

I bought a used hood (same color fortunately), grill, header panel, and headlights for $120.

The mechanic bought me a new radiator and upper radiator support, and a used power steering pump reservoir.

Cut the front cross member, straightened the side rails and front crossmember, and welded it all back together. Came out pretty well.

Later that week, I got a phone call saying she was ready to be picked up. They had everything already put together for me, except the grill which I spray painted flat black which was originally white.

Painted the front crossmember, and installed two fog lights. Came out amazing, barely looks as if I was in an accident.

All in the end, it's now been almost 2 months, and I have not received any money from the other insurance company, and I'm still waiting, to this day, for the officer to call me back so I can re-classify the report as a Hit and Run.

[96DCZJ]

Another wheeling trip, and found a rock. Finally...some LI rockcrawling! WOOT!

[96DCZJ]

This is my favorite picture of my jeep to date.
Don't think any other picture will beat it.



It's also on the IRO 3.5" Kit link. Check it out there.
Holiday season came along, and added this.


First blizzard of Winter '09, and had some fun.

Recently got a 48" Hi-Lift which will be mounted up on the front crossmember once the weather is nicer out, and I have the money to either fab up some mounting brackets or buy them.

It'll end up looking just like this

Also have a 3" Magnaflow Converter, and 3" Flowmaster Super 44 waiting to be installed.

[ZJ4.Slow]

Loving the build man. Sucks about the accident, glad you're fine and everything sorta got worked out. I can relate, I got into a hit n' run at night and now im driving with a bent unibody...sucks, hope everything works out with the insurance company.

[IndyZJ]

Nice repair. The pics in post 6 look a little iffy, even if it is on a trail.

[96DCZJ]

Nice repair. The pics in post 6 look a little iffy, even if it is on a trail.

iffy? as in....

[Technohead]

iffy? as in....

As in this.

[96DCZJ]

As in this.

In the first picture, you can see the dirt trail on the right corner. The brown-ish line is the trail

[IndyZJ]

Pictures on more legitimate trails than that have been used by greenies to get shit closed. It doesn't matter what it was, it's what it looks like, and it looks like you're not on a trail.

[ZJ_flexxxer]

man i feel you on the hit and run.i had almost the exact same thing happen to me.luckily though most of the damage was done to his car(what i seen of it as he sped away)