Nate's 2002 TJ, Not so simple anymore by gst95dsm

12 minute(s) of a 391 minute read

This was a proud moment...

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v...47744465623860

+V8 = Trouble! People DESTROY their trucks out there. This is the hill that I went up twice in the video. It's "comp" hill..... people line up and race up it all time, and it's usually where all the carnage happens.  

This is the "creek" that Beasley was referring to at high tide, after a storm most likely....VERY entertaining!

4-30-2013

Here's my not so fun project for the day....

All cleaned up! What a pain but god bless Duplicolor for the color matched spray paint being available.



Also turned out to be a pretty big day for me..... Made the trailer purchase! After just about the most exhausting craigslist search I've ever done looking for something, yesterday a 16' car hauler popped up 4 miles from my house, and it actually looked decent. He was asking $1400 and that's what I gave him for it. Finally something with decent tires, a title, NOT a home built death trap and actually a fairly new 2005 model year for a good price! I'm going to replace two tires before Moab, one for a spare and one that is older than the other 3 and I'll also touch up the paint to make it pretty again. I'm stoked though to have it.

5-2-2013

Sometimes I think it would be nice if I could leave something alone. Na.... well the trailer clean up has commenced. I chopped off the dovetail. The previous owner actually added that to the trailer and although he did do a good job, I felt that he added a lot of weight to the already fairly light duty 6k gvwr trailer. He also inadvertently altered the intended unloaded tongue weight, he compensated for this by adding the diamond plate to the front of the trailer.... but that also added significant weight and upon removing that the trailer did a nice wheelie while resting unhooked. Haha. So anyways.... chopped and grinded until I got that sucker off....phewww! And moved onto sanding the surace rust and missing paint areas. Almost done with that then it's a little bit of welding on the rear and painting on Saturday. It's gonna look sweet when I'm done!  

5-5-2013

Trailer clean up almost complete! I've been putting in some hours this week prepping for paint, cut off the dove tail and bought new light mounts and a new lower profile tongue jack (the other one hit my tailgate when I put it down). So I got the ramp bar welded up and the new light mounts welded up today.... along with paint, and resealed the deck. All in all it looks pretty darn good I think. Lots of work though.... Just a few final details it'll be ready for action.

Before... well, more like during prep.



After....

Thanks fellas! And just for fun I plasti dipped the wheels.  

5-7-2013

They see me rollin.....they hatin.....  

Test rigged my set up today, and drove it a little in town. Everything feels good. Still waiting on my brake control to test freeway speeds. Opinions on strap placement? I'm just using the tie down points that were already there..... obviously I can change them. The only thing I can see changing is the front, having them on the tongue like that doesn't seem very traditional, but I don't know if it's necessarily something that needs changing.

5-9-2013

Gathering the last of my junk for Moab.... trying to think of everything. I just ordered another Gopro case that I can modify to run a power cable into so I can get as much footage as possible without constantly monitoring a battery. My trailer tires are here, brake control should be here today. Just a few little spares that I want to have on hand and I think I'm good. One of my favorite local trails opened up early so I have a wheeling trip planned for next Thursday to really test out my trailer set up. Should be fun. Getting close!

Thanks guys, I am going to weld on two more D rings in the front, spaced out and run the front's straight and cross the back. This should serve me well, I'll be towing up the mountain to go wheeling on Thursday and will report back with any concerns.

Trailer brake control is installed! So glad I went with the factory controller in the factory spot. Looks clean. Unfortunately my truck was one of many that did NOT have the two connectors you need to hook it up, and only had the one for an aftermarket controller but luckily the interweb is awesome and someone figured out what wires to splice into to complete connections. So a little soldering and time under the dash (not a place I like to be) and I think I got it...... gonna go do a test right now. It powered up with no errors so I think I'm good.  

5-11-2013

Welded on some new 15,000lb D rings today. Also mounted my new tires. Just waiting on my wife to get back with another can of plastidip to finish the wheels. Then another test rigging and test tow. Then I THINK i'm safe and ready to tow.

Ok here is the new tie down set up.... opinions please. I crossed them at first and that seems pretty good. I just didn't really like how the straps were rubbing on each other and how the drivers side strap looked around the pumpkin was kind of funky. I then just ran them direct and I think I like that much better. I'm still getting the effect of triangulation for lateral movement and the straps are pulling clean and free from any other parts. I tried crossing the rears but the strap is so short it's awkward so I'm going to leave them straight. All in all......from where I was I think it's better.

5-13-2013

I don't have many, that was a time when digital media was kind of new so a lot has been lost over the years. It was a fun car. 333whp, FWD, lot's of tire smoking! Nowadays the HP comes pretty easy but in 2000 any 4cyl, with over 300whp was a fast street car.  





And as I started making a little more money I was able to get what's still kind of my realistic dream car and foolishly ended up selling it.....







4G63 for life! Haha!

Oh yeah..... I even had one of these! This car was super cool. A 1992 Galant VR4.

Pretty big news for me! I got it cleared with all of my son's teachers to allow him to come to MOAB with me. He's a good little trail lackey, we'll put him to good use!

5-14-2013

Well I took care of an issue today with my front axle side control arm bolts. The last time I assembled the suspension I replaced all of my control arm bolts with grade 8, 9/16ths like a lot of people do. Well the factory size is actually 14mm, and on the front the 9/16's didn't really want to fit in the clevite bushing. I was able to get them in though, they pulled themselves in as I tightened the nut. I wasn't thinking straight and thought that would be fine. Well duh.... the bushing needs to be able to rotate around the bolt freely (somewhat). I guess over some time the bracket compressed some and the entire bolt was essentially "loose" in the mount and rotated WITH the bushing. Well that's not good. So as you can imagine those bolts were very difficult to remove.... I had to use my ball joint press.... then an air hammer. I got them out eventually and went and bought some new 14mm bolts and all is right in the world now. I also took the time to whip up some little skids to box in the bracket a little better much like Beasley did the other day.  

So my wheeling trip has now turned into camping tomorrow night and a night run. Should be fun. Gonna work on my Gopro skills, and this will be the last final shake down run before Moab.