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2012 White 2 Door Rubicon Build

So I mistakenly bought a 2011 sport without A/C. It was earlier in 2011 and I didn’t know about the new motor coming out. I came from a 350z, so needless to say, the Jeep was disappointing in power but better than my old YJ. I drove it for a year and then my brother-in-law got a job at Jeep so I scored a new 2012 for under dealer invoice and they gave me a 19 for my POS no A/C sport (that has been sitting on the lot for 6 months and is now selling for 19... lol). I had the 2011 for a year and bought a lift, tires, winch, and sliders. I moved those over to the new Jeep on day one. This will be a work in progress….

Specs:
• 2012 2 door manual Rubicon
• 35 inch procomp MT
• 2.5” TeraFlex Coils and shocks
• Ruff Country front Bumper
• Warn 9.5TI Masterpull Synthetic Line and Aluminum Fairlead
• SmittyBilt XRC Carrier
• Shrockworks Rock Sliders
• Cobra Radio
• Front D44: Artec Truss, and Skids, Poly Performance C Gussets and Inner Sleeves, Alloys USA Ball Joints, Ruff Stuff Tie Rod, Synergy flipped Draglink
• Synergy front Long Arms
• Chopped up fenders, dings, NW pinstripes, broken taillight, crunched up stock skid plates

Next Plans:
• 8 inch Stretch Synergy Stretch with coilovers
• 37-39inch tires
• Flat Belly

Yikes moment. will be adding a cage

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=cSmuh-qQqg4

 

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Front Axle build (repost from other thread)

 

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Tie Rod..

 

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A stubby bumper that I built (when I still had my other Jeep) but am not running at the moment.

 

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Thanks Guys!

 

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Nice Job... Looks good! When are you going to start the stretch?

The plan is early 2013. It depends a couple things. I am probably going to be very busy the first couple months of 2013 and won't have much time to tear into the rig.

I also need to make up my mind. I was contemplating relocating the rear spring mounts and reusing my current coils to keep things cheaper. The other cost consideration is whether to wait until after the Jeep is stretched to buy corner armor or do it up front so I can trim the corners and body together.

The front long arms should be arriving any day now. I hope to install these in the next weekend or two. I am going to try and get an inch of Wheel base out front with them. I'll update the thread with pics when it happens.

 

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Alright... Got the Synergy Long Arms for the front.

I just popped out the stockers.... The new ones are much beefier.

And here goes the point of no return... (as far as returning to stock some day) :koolaid:

Hope to wrap it up later tonight or tomorrow. I am going to have to modify my sliders because the synergy frame mount interferes. I might just weld them on.

 

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Removing the brackets with a 4 1/2" angle grinder with a cutting disc was a major pain in the ass. I was kind of dinking around, but it took me like 2 hours just to get off the brackets on the driver side. I wish I had a SawZall or Plasma Cutter... or even a gas cutter.

The only reason it was difficult was because there was very little clearance so I ended up having to cut a lot of small bits.

One side took 8 discs (that bumper that I built only took 4). I love when cutting discs explode.

Brackets Removed

New Bracket installed

 

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Lookin' good! Definitely going to follow the stretch, I'd like to push the front on mine up a bit.

Nice jeep! Interested to see how you end up doing the stretch

Like others have said, nice rig man and I also look forward to the stretch.

Nice fab work, I'll be following this thread.

Thanks guys. Appreciate the feedback!

 

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Bought a new Milwaukee Sawzall this morning.

It was still a pain in the ass to remove the brackets, but it did save some time. The passenger side took about an hour.

Got everything put back together. Stretched out the arms about a inch. I don't think that I could have gone much more. I measured the WB and it sitting right under 96 and 5/8".... so I didn't really gain too much.

The new arms fixed my caster. It drives great and I noticed an improvement right away. It still needs to be dialed in just a bit. I'll probably get it properly aligned sometime this week

 

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Finally got around to taking of picture of the Jeep outside. The inch or so of stretch isn't really very noticeable, but it didn't really require any other modification. I'd recommend it if you already have adjustable arms.

Here is an approximation of the change (Line 1 Before, Line 2 After)

 

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Finally got around to modifying the Shrockworks Sliders and welding them on. This is the first free mod I think I have ever done

Busted beat up shrocks

Clean up rock scrapes and cut lower mounts off

Freshen up with some new paint. Good as new!
Also notice parts piling up in the corner. Streeeettchhhhh :bounce:

Clean frame up

Weld it up!

It used to bolt up in three spots on each mount. I wonder what is stonger

 

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So, I've knocked the license plate off multiple times. After the first time, it was never real tight again....

I was meaning to buy something, but I had some free time today so figured something out. It's pretty sturdy. Made out of some 3/16 and 1/8 flat stock I had sitting in my garage.

 

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I have been moving forward a little bit with the stress progress... at least with the plan and parts accumulation.

-I purchased the Synergy 8" Stretch kit. I just returned the coilover towers..
-I found a smoking deal on Pirate for some brand new 14" King Coilovers
200/250 springs and valved for a V8 YJ. I think they will work well. Hopefully they should get here next week sometime. :bounce:

-

 

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-I liked the look of the genright rear coilover mounts but they are pretty spendy at $450+shipping. I found a guy on a local forum that does custom cutting and bending for a very reasonable price. I gave him some rough dimensions of what I wanted last week and I'm going to go pick these up on Sunday

 

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This is the design the guy sent me. I have a copy in a word document if anybody wants it (apparently they can be sent that way?)

Dimensions:
.25 Thick
16" Tall
12" wide at the base
6" wide at the top
3" deep at the top
6" deep at the base
1" holes to allow a socket to go through
Shock tabs mount inside towers

These should be plenty tall.. I am not exactly sure how I am going to mount them but have some ideas and inspirations. Plenty of room to trim down. But it is going to be along these lines.

http://www.jkowners.com/forum/showthread.php?t=62561&page=3

Desert Dog's Stretch is very nice. I would have liked to do a custom 3-link like him, but at this point my Rubi is my only vehicle so I don't want excessive down time. I am hoping that I can get all of the parts together (with the exception of maybe the driveshaft) and then bang then this out over a weekend with some contingency vacation days planned in the week to follow if things don't go as smoothly as hoped :th_pray:

 

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Nice looking build! This is going to be sweet!

I ran for a week and a half after my rear stretch with only the front driveshaft. Bummer, but liveable.
These things suck as a front wheel drive, and during ice season you might make the news, but in dry weather it's OK.

2 days . . . possible, but don't be surprised if you use one or 2 of your buffer days.
Just do a full inventory of parts and mods before you take it beyond the point of no return (the cuts you have to go poop before).

You're going coilovers, so that saves you better than half a day (lazy ass) . . . so what's left:
Track bar mounts, control arms plus mounts, bump stops, exhaust, locker wiring, wheel speed sensor wiring, shock mounts, axle breather, and brake lines / hoses.

I think that's all so, on second thought, you suck if you don't get it done in 2 days.
By the way, the difference will be HUGE, and totally worth it once you get it sorted out.

Thanks for the advice Something tells me choosing to go through the floor is going to eat time, but hopefully should be worth it. Also, I tend to stare at things for long periods of time when get frustrated or stuck... lol

Didn't even think of the locker wiring or speed sensor wiring - add that to the list.