Project Red Roof Inn

[BigDaveZJ]

Without doors


Doors in place, but not mounted to hinges



Ron,
The heater has always worked great. I salvaged the a/c a few years ago though in an attempt to fix the a/c on Pam's ZJ, so I will need to do something about that.

[OverkillZJ]

Nice work...

[ajmorell]

That's pretty sweet. What are you doing as far as latches go?

[JohnBoulderCO]

Looking nice, good work.

[BigDaveZJ]

Pulled the 8.8 out yesterday, need to go through it and do some things. First off is a new master install kit after the ring gear debacle last summer. Then I'm going to re-run the rear brake lines along the axle so they don't get caught on the gas tank skid again. Might also pull the t-case and do a rebuild kit there, and probably put some new bushings in the rear control arms and shocks. Once that's done a few more maintenence items in the front end and we'll be ready to go for the summer.

[BigDaveZJ]

Tore the 8.8 down today, I've got more work ahead of me than I anticipated. Looks like a couple of the threads on the ring gear are jacked, and the bolt holes in the carrier have ovaled out due the loose ring gear bolts.

[Brad S]

No good.

[1ABrian]

[QUOTE=BigDaveZJ;330029]Tore the 8.8 down today, I've got more work ahead of me than I anticipated. Looks like a couple of the threads on the ring gear are jacked, and the bolt holes in the carrier have ovaled out due the loose ring gear bolts.


THAT EQUALS THIS

[BigDaveZJ]

I need to go through and fix some of these pics . . .

Anyways, got an ARB and Warm M8000 a couple months ago off another ZJ that I picked up. Definitely a different look than what I'm used to.



Have some LED strips coming for rock lights to replace the Harbor Freight cheapo fogs I had been running as rock lights for about the last 10 years. Also have some switches on the way from OTTRATW for a custom switch panel that will go in place of the VIC in the dash. Going to add a dual USB outlet in the panel too for charging the GoPro and phones.

Managed to blow up some of the t-case innards last fall too. Apparently one of the planetary gears was missing some of its bearings, and in turn took out the thrust washers in the t-case. The teeth on the input gear were actually slightly chipped from chewing up some of the shards. Got that all fixed up with another case from the yard. Not much else needs to be done right now since the case broke about an hour into a weeklong trip, so I had just finished up a bunch of maintenance work at that point.

[biggoofy]

Looks good man.

[BigDaveZJ]

Some of the t-case damage. If you look closely right in the middle of the gear you can see the damage. The first time I had the case apart Jim and I completely missed it, but it made an awful noise. I'm assuming the sun gear has similar damage.

[Ken L]

Dave's ZJ with a front bumper that's not just the sheetmetal crossmember. Who would have ever thunk it!

[redneckrollercoaster]

Looks nice, Dave. Thought I had you pegged as more of a minimalist, though lol

[BigDaveZJ]

Yeah the ARB wasn't my first choice, but with the price I paid for the ZJ that it was on I couldn't really pass it up.

[BigClay]

My ARB wasn't bad, it took a lot of hard licks and still kept going. My biggest compaint was the poor approach angle.

[BigDaveZJ]

Yeah I know they're plenty beefy, but I always enjoyed the approach angle of not having a front bumper. But it was a lot easier than fabbing up a custom bumper and recessing the winch into the factory x-member area.

[BigDaveZJ]

Got a little bit of work done over the last few days. Made the switch panel to go in place of the VIC and started in on the new rock lights. I got a roll of 600 LEDs for $25 on Amazon and have mounted them to driver side so far, and they're bright as shit. Hopefully they hold up for a while. Currently there's a 10" strip facing the rear on the rearward side of the rear rocker leg, same thing on the front facing forward, and then 32" on the bar that bolts to the pinch seam. On my old ass RRO sliders the pinch seam bar sits up above the main slider by quite a bit so they should be safe. I'm going to put a strip on the steering box brace and bumper for some forward light as well.

Crappy cell phone pic of the switch panel. Made from lexan and mounted with RTV because that was what I had on hand. The upper light on the switches comes on with the dash lights, and the lower light comes on when the switch is turned on. The HCS is a momentary for the misters, the other 2 are in the on position. Replaced the factory 12v outlet with a "marine-grade" one, and added another 12v outlet to my dash panel, as well as 2 USB ports for charging cameras and such.

[BigDaveZJ]

New rock lights.

[Jeep Whore]

i'm doing the same set up for rock lights but the front is different. from pictures i saw posted, the front strip doesn't seem like it gives enough light off to the side/ in front of the tires. do the pictures just not do it justice for the front corner area?

[BigDaveZJ]

My old rock lights that I had been running for about 10 years only lit up under the rocker panels and I never had much of a problem with them. There's also not really a spot on my rig to light up the corners any better without destroying the lights everytime I go wheeling. But there should be plenty of light to see anything I need to with this setup.

[Mtn WJ]

I was surprised to see how much light he was getting with those strips. Pretty even coverage too.

[Jeep Whore]

My old rock lights that I had been running for about 10 years only lit up under the rocker panels and I never had much of a problem with them. There's also not really a spot on my rig to light up the corners any better without destroying the lights everytime I go wheeling. But there should be plenty of light to see anything I need to with this setup.

Ok, once I do my bumper trim then I can get my 48 led panels in there I will post pictures of the light out put of those installed maybe see if thats something you would be intrested in doing

[BigDaveZJ]

So Pam and I have been discussing what we'll do when the unibody starts to fall apart around the rest of the Jeep as that is bound to happen sooner or later. Our thought is to find another ZJ, gut it, build a good internal/exo cage similar to the one Ryan did in his 5.9 and go for a solid combo expo/crawler rig. And tonight I'm perusing CL and find this: http://denver.craigslist.org/cto/3926429941.html Anybody wanna buy my green ZJ so I can go get this one?!?

[BigClay]

Are you dead set on another ZJ, or have you considered something with a frame?

[BigDaveZJ]

It'll be another ZJ. If I found this other ZJ 2 years from now I'd likely be all over it, but at this point my unibody is still holding up relatively okay and I don't have the room to complete this scale of project. Nothing with a frame really intrigues me and fits what I want without a ton of work.