Nova Scotia WJ Build

[derekmac]

Hey everyone. This is my first post here, though I've read a ton of stuff. Not sure why I didn't register before, lol.

My Jeep is an 02 Grand, 4.7, Selec-Trac with a 4" RC lift and 32" BFG MT's. It's been a very slow build, but it's getting closer to what I had in mind 4 years ago when I bought it.

This is how it looked when we got it. No rust, no scratches, damn near perfect. It was owned by a minister, and was dealer maintained every 6 months.


This is when I put on a 2" BB, and 245/70-17's.


I had it in my head that using bed liner on the bumpers and cladding would be a good idea. It wasn't. They were damn near impossible to keep clean.


When I took the plastic rocker guards off, this is what I found.


The dirt that fell out of one of them.

[derekmac]

At that point, I decided to go the custom slider route. To prepare for them, I started cutting sheet metal so they'd be the right length when my fab guy did them.

[derekmac]

And here are the custom 2x6 sliders.

[derekmac]

Installed a small Viair setup.


Put on some aux reverse lights, wired through a relay and 3 way switch.

[derekmac]

Got some used 255/75-17 BFG MT's for it.


After getting them, the line pressure sensor in the trans decided to go on my way to work, and the trans was slipping like mad. It was damn cold too, around -15 I think. I managed to baby it to work, but the fluid was really burnt, and smelled AWFUL!

I ended up buying an 01 Limited that the engine went (dropped a valve), but the rest was in really good shape for $500. One of the first things I swapped over was the headlights. Mine were in really bad shape, and I liked the look of the Limiteds more.


Getting ready to pull the tcase and trans out of the parts rig. Those top bolts were a pain to try and get to, so I just cut a hole. Much easier!


I hadn't been driving the Jeep, as even after changing the sensor, fluid and filters, and wasn't running right. It would only start out in 2nd gear, bang really hard when shifting, and would always go into limp mode. I had been driving the inlaws car, but they needed it back, so I started driving the Jeep again. It seemed that everyday it would shift a bit better, and eventually it got to about 95% better, and has stayed there ever since. (I've now been driving it over a year like that, and it's not getting any worse.) Since it was winter when I started driving it again, I "had" to park on a snow bank. This led me to find that I REALLY needed to extend my front bump stops as I couldn't turn the tires, lol.


Bump stop extension in, and much more clearance now.

[derekmac]

The next thing to do was to swap the heated leather over, and the door panels. Not a fan of the fake wood really, but I liked the lights and the carpet on them.


Pulled and painted the Limited bumpers and door cladding.




Cut the front.






IMHO, looks much better than the other bumpers and cladding.

[derekmac]

Figured I should break up the all black in the front grill. Pretty happy with how it turned out.


Got the rear bumper and factory hitch swapped on.


Got tired of the horrible looking front fenders, so I cut the rot out.

[derekmac]

Here it is parked next to the parts rig.


Swapped the front Vari-lok axle in, and good this I did, as this was one of the perches on mine!


Also picked up a used 4" RC lift for $250.




The front went in very easily, but the rear was kicking my ass. The bottom shock bolts were seized inside the sleeves. I had to cut them out with my angle grinder, which wasn't easy as the shocks were still good, and were going to a buddy. Got it done though.



First time parking next to a stock rig.

[derekmac]

I've been thinking about painting the Jeep too. I have a few gallons of PPG gloss black aircraft paint ($700 a gallon!), so I gave the hood from the parts Jeep a spray. I didn't set my gun right, so the first pass gave pretty bad orange peel. I was able to get it half decent looking though.


My reflection in it.










Info on the paint. http://www.ppgaerospace.com/getmedia...arycoating.pdf

[derekmac]

Getting up to much more recent stuff, but haven't done too much to it. I drilled out the track bar holes, and used 1/2" grade 8 hardware. Also did the ZJ washer bottle swap.






And replaced my blown rear shocks with some Bilstein 5100's.




My rear upper bump stops are rotted out, so I need to get those fixed ASAP.


Also swapped out the halogen spot lights on the back for LED floods. The pics really don't do them justice.




Next on the list is to replace a couple of worn out tie rod ends, and make new rear bump stops for it.

[Ken L]

Looks good! The progression/evolution is interesting to see. I'll bet it looks pretty cool for you to see all the before/after pics all together too.

[derekmac]

Thanks Ken! It is cool to see, that's for sure. This has been over 4 years, so going that slow you don't really notice the changes all that much in person, but when I look back, I'm pretty happy with what I've done, and how it's turned out.

[dp96zj]

Looks good! I'm slowly piecing together a WJ build, so this is good motivation for me.

[ELLLLLIOTTTTT]

Looks good! I'm slowly piecing together a WJ build, so this is good motivation for me.

Welcome to the dark side!

[J$_]

Looks good! I'm slowly piecing together a WJ build, so this is good motivation for me.

I am doing the same