JKOwners Forum banner

Ryan's 2016 JKUR Hard Rock Build

11K views 87 replies 14 participants last post by  ryan505 
#1 ·
Hi,

I asked a few of you for input to help get me started, and I took the plunge and ordered a whole bunch of bits and figured I'd undertake this adventure on my own... at least as much as possible. Thought it might be fun to document somewhat as I futz through the process.

I've had over 1000 lbs of stuff show up at the house this week, with a bit more showing up on Monday next week, and a couple items delayed a couple weeks (no biggie). A bunch from Northridge4x4, some from 4-Wheel Parts, fenders direct from Metal Cloak, and so on. There's some great deals to be had out there if you spend the time to check a few sites out, and lots of free shipping too which is great.

I'm limited for space, so I've had to throw the motorcycle in the living room for a while. Same for all the parts that I ordered. To say my girlfriend is displeased is a slight understatement.





I'm really stoked for these AEV Savagre wheels!



I didn't realize how much wider the 35" BFG KM2's would be over stock until I put them side by side. You can also see how tiny my garage is, which should be interesting once I get this thing on jack stands.



Today I managed to get some time to run the wheels and tires over to the shop just down the street for some mounting and balancing. Maybe tomorrow I'll try throwing them on the rig, just for shits and giggles. I've seen this look a few times across my internet travels, but it just looks so much more bad ass in person.



For me time is kinda hard to come by, so it will be a pretty slow process building this thing. I'll update this once in a while as I go along, make mistakes, mount new parts, or actually take it wheeling :)

Wish me luck. I truly have never done this before.

Ryan
 
See less See more
5
#2 ·
Good luck....if you need any help or have a question just ask!
 
#4 ·
Do you want the bumpers or know someone who does? I'd like to sell the ones on my 4door, along with the rock rails!
 
#5 · (Edited)
I'm limited for space, so I've had to throw the motorcycle in the living room for a while.

Damn it's a good thing you've got a Grom.....something tells me a full size bike would have sent her packing!!
 
#9 ·
ok. nice casual sunday. the 35's fit without a lot of drama on stock suspension, but i'm sure like 99% of the folks on this board already knew that. i did pull the rock rails off that come with the HR package, as i was a bit nervous about that rear clearance even just for around-town driving. otherwise i predict only a bit of rubbing up front at full lock if i was really compressing. nothing that the 3 inch lift won't fix.

the wheels didn't fall off on a short blip around SF, so i haven't royally screwed this up yet.

i've also got the metal cloak rock rails on order to replace the HR rails.

the gf also took an interest in what i was doing today, and i got to teach her how to change a tire. guess we're not breaking up yet, but the pressure is on to get the shit out of the living room.











until next time...
 
#10 ·
Looks good! In the pic that bike just looks small....Hahaha

Sent from my SM-G900P using Tapatalk
 
  • Like
Reactions: ryan505
#13 ·
Very nice!! I just purchased a HR Rubicon this month and will be looking to make some mods a little later down the road. I'll keep an eye on your build. Thanks for sharing.
 
#14 ·
yesterday i slapped on the front bumper. i went with the poison spyder brawler lite. everything was pretty straight forward. a few tight areas to get your hands into, but pretty doable.





i was a bit bummed to discover that the stock fog lights on this rubicon hard rock bumper won't work on this bumper. the mounts are totally different. i've ordered these, which seemed to be well reviewed and have the proper four-post mount that the brawler bumper is expecting.

i'm also debating if i should use the black bracing that came off the stock bumper mount (that you see on the floor) with the new bumper, instead of just the straight washer/nut setup that comes with the new. and i need to figure out what to do with the front license plate, because california.

lastly, of course, i need to start looking into a powder coat shop somewhere around the bay area. the plan is to mount up all these raw bits (front bumper, rear bumper, tire carrier, fenders, rock rail), make sure they fit ok, and take them all in at once. i'll review the vendor list here, but if there are any strong recommendations folks have i am happy to hear them.

today might be a good day to try the rear tire carrier. it looks a touch scary, as it'll be the first time i drill into the tub. what could possibly go wrong?
 
#15 ·
got the rear on yesterday. quite a bit more challenging than the front. this is my first encounter with "shit don't line up" or "these instructions are lies", so i had to kinda make my own way with it. taking the rear bumper on and off about a dozen times to check fit and alignment made the beer taste extra good once i was finished with it. at least now i understand why you absolutely must, without a doubt, test mount before powder coat or paint. i would have for sure beat the hell out of the powder coat if i had gone that route first.

as for powder coat, looks like the JKO crew recommends "champion powder coat" here in SF, which is ridiculously convenient for me to get to. once i'm done test fitting the tire carrier, i'll take all three down there to make it all pretty.

this is the poison spyder rockbrawler II.

i also picked up the poison spyder tramp stamp II along with the rubber plugs to fill the tail gate holes.

other mistakes made:

- i was a bit of a donkey and managed to crack the inside tailgate grille. new one on order.

- being slightly clueless, i forgot to order rear lights. i've since picked up the poison spyder 2.5 inch rears lights, but now i'm into a world of reading about their wiring harnesses trying to figure out the best way to approach it. i know for sure i want the lights in there before i mount the bumper for the final time.

- i stupidly cut the wires leading to the stock third brake light, thinking i could reuse the rubber plug, while just reconnecting the wiring and taping it to sell it or whatever. nope. the wires are molded into that plug. so now i have a plug with some wire stuck in it, and a taillight wiring lead hacked to hell. ah well. not a huge deal.

- some scratching of the frame rails and cross members while test mounting the bumper. i've ordered some PX8 touch-up paint to clean that up and protect the metal before final bumper mounting.

- i tried to get into my jeep forgetting about the long screw driver in my back pocket, managing to scratch the body by the door latch area. that one really pissed me off.

until next time...





 
#18 ·
- being slightly clueless, i forgot to order rear lights. i've since picked up the poison spyder 2.5 inch rears lights, but now i'm into a world of reading about their wiring harnesses trying to figure out the best way to approach it. i know for sure i want the lights in there before i mount the bumper for the final time.
Coming along, nice...

Are you planning on those rear bumper lights independent or tying them into your reverse? FYI, I have them in mine and they aren't too bright so I switched from having them independent and made them my reverse (via the PS wiring harness). Added a Rigid as a stand alone back light.
 
#16 ·
If you ever need help, I live in the city too. It's coming together and looking good! By the sounds of it a few of your issues can be solved at a Jeep Night. I tried to tell you nonchalantly JasonMac would've built your Jeep in two days for dirt cheap....and got all your stuff powdercoated overnight. I also understand the satisfaction of doing it yourself.....and the headaches!
 
#25 · (Edited)
so this weekend i undertook the poison spyder body mounted tire carrier. let me tell you - cutting into your less-than-200-mile brand new jeep's sheet metal is slightly terrifying. aside from some moderately out-of-round bolt holes thanks to a few things not lining up as they should, and a spacer that slipped between the double-walled sheet metal that will forever rattle and remind me of my impatience, i think it went as well as could be expected for someone of my mechanical aptitude.

video one, opening:



video two, closing:



perhaps the most annoying thing was needing to take off the bumper in order to get at the stock license plate bracket, but it had to come off anyways for upcoming powder coat. and that's the other annoying thing i guess - after spending all weekend getting this thing on there, adjusted, and functional, i have to take it all off, powder coat, and then remount again. but at least i get the opportunity to paint all the carved up sheet metal while it's off.

it feels pretty solid on there, and i can't seem to make it rattle, but we'll see after a few hundred miles. most of the load is on those beefier hinges, with the latch plate keeping things snug to the body, but i still think taking a hit to the bottom of the tire off a ledge would do a bit of damage to the body where the hinges mount up. what do i know, though? and i don't expect to be crawling crazy stuff with this thing (famous last words).









sounds like my fenders and rock rails are ready for pickup out in rancho cordova (metal cloak), so i'll swing out there on friday to snag them. maybe i have another weekend project coming up!
 
#26 ·
you may also notice in the very last pic the reflection of a distraught and somewhat lonely girlfriend who is already quite tired of my jeep project. she was nice enough to fire some bolts thru the hinges while i held the carrier in place, at least. many times in fact!

she's a trooper.
 
#27 ·
i headed up to rancho cordova on friday last week to see the metalcloak crew and pick up a bunch of my new goodies. been chipping away at it since then.

started by ripping the fenders off. was kinda tempted to leave it like this :)




i then sussed out the rock rails first. the driver side lined up pretty well, but the passenger side was a bit of fun. this was also my first run-in with rivnuts, which went in pretty easy as long as you are patient with them. i slapped some tape on the body so i didn't scratch the crap out of it while test fitting. a lot of on/off/on/off/on/off going on.

i ended up picking the flip step up, cuz my gf is 5 foot nothin' and is gonna have a hard time getting in once i have this thing lifted.




just for giggles i placed the skins on. i think they look pretty sweet, but it's a metric shit ton of rivnuts and i just don't have it in me today. maybe this weekend. i'm contemplating picking up a rivet tool just to make my life easier.



i fit the driver's side front fender the other day, and tonight was the passenger. these are the "hardline" fenders, and i went with aluminum. once again the driver was very little drama, while the passenger side gave me annoying little alignment challenges. i'm beginning to understand and expect that things will never line up just right out of the gate, and you have to deal with it.






i'm really digging the line from the bumper to the fender itself.

now onto the rear fenders... and more rivnuts. hoping to finish all my test mounting this weekend, and i've got Champion here in SF lined up to receive all of my components for powder coating next week.

later!
 
#28 ·
oh i also recalibrated the ECU for my larger tires, and disabled TPMS. i'm sure it's no surprise to anyone that my 35" BFG's measured in at around 33.25", sitting at around 32 PSI, and this is what i calibrated for. a quick check on the phone while driving has the speedo pretty darn close.

i used the AEV procal for this, and read a few tips on here about needing to disconnect the battery for around 30 minutes to get the computer to really understand that yes, in fact, i do want you to shut up about TPMS. worked like a charm.
 
#31 ·
nothing major. got the rear fenders on this weekend. again, these are the metalcloack hardline series.





i saw a trick on these boards for the rivnuts/nutserts. someone was using their impact driver for it. i gave that a spin and jeeeeeeezus my life is so much easier now. i just count the revolutions from my initial hand-tight. i go for three full revs and call it good. it's so much easier than doing it by hand, struggling to keep things completely perpendicular, blowing out my rotator cuffs.

i plan to use the same method for the exo skins. probably tomorrow.

after that, it all gets ripped off and taken for powder coating on monday. pretty stoked for it.
 
#32 ·
welp, these "exo skins" were the last of the body stuff (for now, i'm sure). if i never have to do another rivnut/nutsert in my life it'll be too soon. 17 a side, but i got 'er done without any major disasters.



rented a cargo van, loaded up everything, 28 pieces total, and drove it down to champion powder coat this morning. everything's going to be black, fine textured. maya in the front office dropped jasonmac's name and said "he normally goes with this one or that one", so i picked one of those. way too many shades of black, textures, etc! hopefully it turns out good.

elliot (owner) looked at me like i was an idiot, because i didn't take the urethane bushings out of the tire carrier hinge pivot, so i rightly deserved the look. who knew that they'd probably melt in a 400 degree oven? he showed me a trick to bang them out, so it was a good lesson to learn.

should have it all back by tues or weds next week, so i'm really looking forward to getting it all mounted next weekend!

and then, onto the lift kit. :faint:
 
#33 ·
well i got after it this weekend. tore the front apart and started bolting on a bunch of new bits. pretty sure this is old hat for most of you, and that someone could have probably hammered this out in 6-8 hours, front and back. welp, i'm no expert, and it's been two days this weekend of approximately 10 hours a day and i'm still not done the front. taking my time, reading a lot, thinking about shit before doing, reading more, thinking more, and then getting after it.

i've managed to get the new drag bar on, sway bar links, upper and lower control arms, track bar bracket, brake lines, and i think that's about it. i got hung up with the new springs, not able to find a way to get them in there, but then realized it's because i attached the new sway bar links. so, yeah, duh, of course i can't get the damn axle low enough!

let the fun begin:


action shot, taken by the lovely (but bored out of her skull) girlfriend. i had to grind out the lower control arm mounts at the axle end so the new arms wouldn't bind.


new lowers, uppers, sway bar links, brake lines.


i bought a spring compressor anyways, even though i know the fault in my ways. i figure it'll probably come in handy at some point, and it's only $30 for a set off amazon.

working in and around the track bar relocation bracket has been a bit of a challenge. one of the bolts stripped out when approaching 90 ft/lb, so that's annoying. i'm going to have to grind the head off and try a new bolt there. and generally i have to throw a bunch of shade on synergy/poly for their instructions. i mean, fine, a pro probably knows exactly wtf he's doing. but i'm not a pro. and when you tell me it's a 5/8'ths and it's actually a 11/16'ths because you haven't updated your instructions in 4 years to go along with your product updates, that kinda pisses me off.

also, the bracket they include for the driver's side new brake line doesn't in any way shape or form make mounting sense at the stock point, even though that's what they suggest. the reality is i have to drill a different hole into the frame for this new revised routing.

there's a bunch of examples of this where you are left kinda scratching your head, but anyways, gripes gripes gripes. i'm sure you've all run into stuff that just doesn't make sense. i just know that the stuff i bought from metalcloak came with instructions that very nearly 100% made sense even for a layman like me.

next weekend i'll try the springs/shocks on the front, try to eyeball align everything, and then move onto the rear, bleed the brakes, put in the exhaust spacers, and then take it into a pro alignment shop that can adjust everything correctly for me.

tuesday i'm supposed to get all the powder coated bodywork parts back from Champion, but i have to piss off to seattle for the week (work).

beer time.
 
#40 ·
needed a breather from the rear control arm fiasco, so worked on mounting up the freshly powdered bits on the driver's side. skins, rock rail, flip step, step grip, and rear fender, in that order. i am so stoked on the job that Champion did, and the choice of black. this is gonna look amazing once i get it all done.
@jason mac;, whatcha think?

 
#42 ·
finished off the body stuff on both sides. everything went pretty smoothly, except for one bolt that i overtightened somehow on one of the fender flares, which separated the sheet metal. it'll forever only be noticeable by me, but it'll irritate me for just as long. really have no idea how i managed to do it, but i guess it's a good reminder that not everything needs to be really reefed on.

so i got back to the rear. i cut off the tiny track bar bracket and installed this new beefy one.



next up was cutting off the shock mounts to make room for the new ones. not much left of these after cutting the welds and hammering them off. before i bolted anything back on i painted the axle mount point that saw the tough end of the grinder, hopefully preventing future corrosion (plus it looks better).



new springs, fox shocks, drag bar links, and now it's back on two wheels. i bled the brakes on all four corners and slapped the rear tires on. i thought i was prepared for how tall it'd be, but it's quite a change from stock. hopefully with the tire carrier, roof rack, and my fat ass dog (he's not really fat, and maybe 25 lbs) it'll settle down a bit.



i wanted to get the front on wheels as well, but realized i completely forgot to bolt on the front shock mounts! so that's tomorrow's project, and then i should be able to torque down all the control arms, eyeball alignment and steering wheel centering, and then drive this thing around the block to see what falls out of the bottom.

and then onto bumpers, winch, and lighting.

i feel like i'm on the downhill slope now, and it's easy to get ahead of myself and get impatient. caught myself once today, had to take a step back and chill out for a bit. impatience makes for easy and stupid mistakes.

long weekend, so hopefully some good progress over the next 48 hours.
 
#43 ·
welp, here she sits. tire carrier on. front bumper on, with new fog lights wired in. rear bumper on, but i'm having one hell of a time getting these poison spyder 2.5 inch LED's into the damn thing. anyone got any tricks for that?

i also mistakenly ordered the poison spyder wiring harnesses, thinking that they'd work with my stock lights but allow for the additional rear bumper lights and the license plate / third brake light kit. no such luck. they only work if you plan on running the poison spyder round tail lights, and i'm certainly not a fan of them. so, kinda back to the drawing board on how to get the license plate / third brake light and these rear bumper lights wired up. lots of reading/googling ahead of me.

i need to pull the tire carrier off again and adjust the hinges up a bit. it's sitting a touch too low, to the point that the adjustment nuts are basically at their max point. it wasn't like this during test fit, so i am pretty sure that's all it needs.

on the subtle drama front, you definitely gotta be careful with tightening the rear bumper bolts. poison spyder calls for 45 ft/lb. either my torque wrench is garbage or jeep uses some pretty cheap steel for the rear frame cross-member where the bumper bolts on. i could feel with my hand that i was slightly crushing the cross-member, and the torque wrench wasn't clicking. it clicked fine on the side bolts, however. pretty annoyed by that, but no real damage done.

after adjusting the tire carrier and sorting out the rear lighting situation, next up will be winch mounting, getting the winch lead powder coated (forgot about that), figuring out how to mount my front license plate, replacing the torn boot on the front drag link (came like that, which is lame - not excited to beat the hell out of it to knock it loose again), exhaust spacers, and hitting up a proper alignment shop.

i'm really damn happy that i've got the tougher bits out of the way (or at least i think i do). i almost wish i went 37's :)









i totally destroyed that banana. :grin2:
 
#45 ·
great question! i need some sort of light shake down run somewhere. will have to ask the gents at jeep night to escort me out somewhere :)

truthfully though i'm off to europe soon for a couple weeks (work), so i imagine sometime in october, sadly.

different note to any locals who might be watching this thread - suggestions for somewhere in/around SF for a solid alignment and once-over of my work? a quick phone call to places near me (like firestone) won't touch my rig, and frankly i kinda want someone that's got experience with adjustable control arms and such.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top