Kid and Son's jeep for our JP Build

[Kid]

Hi everyone Kid here from Fl. We got our jeep today. 1989 yj. It came with lift and bigger tires. Nothing is in the right color. The build wouldn't be fun if you didn't have to work for it would it? (LOL). Now do we build a beefed/jacked up JP or do we tear it down to stock so to speek? What shall we do , any ideas??

[cptcrunch]

Welcome!

Mine had a 2" shackle lift and 31" tires when I first purhased it. I took off the 2" lift, got 235/75/15 tires and reinstalled the front sway bar and links. I think it drives much better and looks proper, like the movie. However, if done tastefully, a lifted Jeep could do very well as a JP Jeep.

[Kid]

After a long back and forth conversation, we decided to leave the shackle lift on it for now. However, we are going to remove the body lift. That will close the space between the body and frame, putting the shifter and all back as it should be (5 speed). The steering column bushings are shot. What a ride home (2.5 hrs). Who said a jeep can't take up three lanes at once (lol) Today we are going to strip it out and check out all the wiring. Found some rust around the roll bar floor mounts. For the most part the tub is in great shape. The window frame has been repaired. However, it was a bad job, so we will just replace the whole frame. I will add pics latter today.

[Kid]

Hi all, Well we got started on our teardown today. Here is the pics. My son, jumping right into it.

The wiring under the dash looked like a French kitchen, a lot of spaghetti . We gutted most of it and started rewiring it all. They had more wire nuts and black tape under here then your local supply store.

Found oil leaking from around the valve cover. Had a new gasket, bolts weren’t tight. New it had a 4 cylinder. Some one replaced it with a 4.0, 6 cylinder. It’s a good thing I use to own a mobile repair shop. And worked for 3 years as a lead tec. for a Chrysler dealer ship for 3 years or this stuff might be hard.

[fantomas]

Very nice. Looks like you have your work cut out for you but have it under control. I bought mine with a 33" tires, 4" Rough Country lift, and 8" shackles (2" lift). My Jeep is getting prepped for paint now, but I have 5" shackles that need to be installed, and will be going down to 31" tires. Apparently the RC lift kit is crap so if/when I need to replace it I'll be going with a 2.5" lift of a different brand. This high of a lift with the tires I have isn't terribly fun to drive. It was even worse with the old loose steering box. Talk about shooting across 3 lanes on the highway...

[cptcrunch]

It has the 4.0l instead of the 2.5l? Nice!

[Kid]

Hi to all. The last two days were spent rewiring the jeep. For some reason the owner by passed the fuse block for all the lights. To turn on tail lights you had to flip a switch. For headlights you flipped another switch. Running lights, turn signals it had none. Now every thing is back in the fuse block and working as it should. It now looks like factory work from the good old USA , even if it was built in Canada.

Today, if the rain holds out we are going to tackle the blower motor and the dash lights. We were given a new (used) front bumper the other day. It was on crags list for free. I had to drive 3 hrs for it, so it wasn’t that free. We know that it is not the one in the movie. However, we were thinking of using it for now. It is tied up on the front to see haw it looks. Since the jeep is jacked up and has bigger tires on it. We were going to build it as a JP on steroids. It won’t affect the paint or anything. What do you think? Well let me get back at it. WOW this is a lot of work, but fun. Finley something my son wants to do other than computers. Lol.

[COBrian]

. Finley something my son wants to do other than computers. Lol.

I now that feeling.

Since you know you aren't going canon, if you and son think it looks good go for it. I love beefy jeeps. I think the key to making a non canon jeep look good is just making it look professional.. Like hammond says "spared no expense" to me it means it should look clean. stuff looking like it came from the junk yard with paint slapped on won't get that idea across.

As for the bumper, looks a bit wide, but i love the shape of the JK bumpers.

lights wired funky....What was the previous owner a moonshine runner or something?????

[Kid]

I know, right. it's going to take a week or so just to bring the jeep up to road ready. I knew this when I picked it out. We could of found a newer one that all we had to do is paint and jp parts. However, I didn't think my 17 year old son would of taken much pride as he will bringing a jeep back to life. Then making it a JP.

Update I just found the front bumper thats in the movie. So after the jeeps painted I going to install it with the lights. Untill then I going to put on the newer bumper to tool around town.

[kevinbgoode]

Awesome looking jeep! Cant wait to see the result!