95 Wrangler YJ Denver

[yjcolorado]

95 YJ 2.5L Rio Grande

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I recently purchased a 95 Jeep Wrangler YJ 2.5L 5 speed manual with 135,000 original miles. It is in good shape mechanically and doesn’t have any modifications or a lift which is just what I wanted. I would have liked to have gotten a Sahara but there weren’t many available in my area and they were priced really high, had significantly more miles than the Jeep I purchased and/or had lots of frame rust. I chose this Jeep for my 2 main priorities for purchase which were it had to be mechanically sound and unaltered, and it had to have very little rust. The seller gave me a very good deal for what the market was like here in Denver. I want to keep the Jeep around for a long time and since it’s not my daily driver and mostly a fun weekend vehicle I will only put 3 to 4K miles on it a year.

Here is the general maintenance I have done so far:
1. My buddy who is a mechanic helped me fix the exhaust manifold leak. There was a missing bolt that we replaced that completely sealed up the leak and its been running great for several weeks.
2. Full Tune up
3. Sanded down rust spots to bare metal and primed, painted and clear coated on passenger fender, tail gate hinges and driver side windshield hinge. I painted these white like the rest of the body because Jurassic paint is a ways off.
4. Sanded surface rust on frame, then coated frame with rustoleum rust reformer and sealed up with black chassis paint. Looks great and very solid.

My first Jurassic Park modification will be replacing the rims and wheels on the 12th. I found the correct alloy wheels on craigslist. I first found 3 that I purchased a month ago and then I found a seller with 4. I tried to buy two of the 4 from the seller but he would only reduce his price and sell the 4 as a group so I agreed. I got 7 total for $120 which I thought wasn’t too bad. I’ll try and sell the extra 2. I’m going to mostly focus on the exterior mods to begin with and see if I want to change interior. I actually really like the rio grande seats – ha! It does have half doors and a spice top so that is good to have complete.

As for the BFG’s I’m going to go with either the 235/75/15 size or the 30/9.5/15 size. I currently have 235/75/15 tires on the Jeep with no issues. My first big question to the forum is which of those tires did you like best? Did any of the 30’s owners have rubbing on turns at full lock or large bumps? I take the Jeep on a few Jeep trails close to my house that are graded low at 1-3 at the highest out of 10 on my jeep trail map, so certainly not rock crawling but I hit some light bumps here and there and I don’t want to rip the tires if they will rub consistently. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[COBrian]

Another denverite! welcome.

What number you thinking about doing? www.jurassicjeep.com For build logs of 3 other Jeeps in Denver.

[yjcolorado]

I now have the BF Goodrich All Terrain tires and the 5 star alloy rims installed on the Jeep. I decided to go with the 30x9.5 size in the KO2. The KO2s have really good reviews and the reinforced sidewalls make the tire look even more rugged which I like. After driving on them over the weekend I am really happy with the decision. The grip is fantastic, the ride is smooth (for a Jeep) and I like the Jeep sitting a little higher. The 235/75 just didn’t look right. The springs are in really good shape and there isn’t any slack in them so that is probably why. I think a lot of the Jeeps on here with the 235/75 look great, maybe the KO runs a little larger in that size than the KO2. The PO had a set of Master Craft Courser tires at 235/75 that had a diameter of 29.1. The BFGs KO2 in a 235/75 measures out to 28.8 and in a 30x9.5 measures out to 29.5. When the 235/75s were installed they obviously looked smaller than the previous tire which was disappointing but the 30s fit perfect with no rubbing.

I also ordered the bumper end caps for the front, they should be here in a few days.

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[yjcolorado]

Another denverite! welcome.

What number you thinking about doing? http://www.jurassicjeep.com For build logs of 3 other Jeeps in Denver.

Thanks COBrian. Your Jeep looks amazing.

I think I will do 27. Not doing one of the original numbers since my Jeep already isn't screen accurate being a 2.5L. And I actually really like the Rio Grande seats so they might have to stay. I will most likely just focus on exterior elements unless I find some Sahara seats for a steal and I think i'll leave the spice dash, carpet and console regardless. I'm probably not going to do a winch since it already takes about 5 minutes to accelerate to 60mph with the 2.5L. I'm 50/50 on the light bar. I probably only want to install one if I get the lights because I don't like adding anything significant that won't get used. And I will probably add the fog lights.

As for paint, I've actually been thinking about leaving the base white coat and doing blue stripes instead of red. The white keeps growing on me more and more so the chance of beige is dwindling. I was inspired by the mock up Boomerjinks did for a "cenozoic" Park YJ. He mocked up the Jeep with what looks like his base gray with the blue, but I'm thinking the white with that same blue would look good.

[yjcolorado]

If I do the "cenozoic" Jeep, i'll definitely have to go back to Snowmass, CO where I recently saw with my Wife the "SnowMastodon" site. And I think it would have to be a "Pliocene" Park logo on the doors.

[COBrian]

It's your jeep have fun with it. Boomerjinks is here in Denver. I'm sure he'd get a kick out of his photoshop being created.

[EdynB]

hey if you do 27 then welcome to the club, there are 2 of us in cali and another in utah as far as i know right now. and welcome to the jurassic jeep group, did you join the motorpool on facebook yet?

[yjcolorado]

Thanks, it's nice to hear there are some more 27s out there.

Very small update, I got the front bumper end caps ordered and installed. I ordered a light bar manufactured by Crown Automotive that I have seen on a few Jeeps on this site. The part name and number is crown automotive 488480 light bar. I also ordered 4 x 6" square Navigator driving lights to mount on the light bar. I know the bar and lights aren't accurate but I'm clearly going the "spare all expenses" route by using a rio grande edition 2.5L as my base. I'm just going to get "similar" accessories as I go and I might do different colors than the sand beige and red stripes as mentioned earlier. I'm still considering keeping the white base and doing blue stripes in the same locations as the movie red stripes.

I wanted to ask if anyone has any recommendations for removing the two bolts on each side of the windshield to mount the light bar? The bolts on my hinge are not stripped so I think i'm going to hit them with an impact driver to loosen the lock tight goo from the factory install and then use T40 torx bit and ratchet to remove the bolts. Has anyone used this method or have a better plan?

Here is a pic of the end caps attached. I know, not that exciting, but I do think the front of the Jeep just looks better with them. It sort of rounds out and completes the composition of the front from lots of different angles of looking at the Jeep. And thanks to everyone for their help and comments.

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