Paradise Blue Metallic Build

Wow you're going to bedline over that beautiful metallic blue paint job!? I saw a fully bedlined vehicle this week and it looks way good, so I'm definitely sold on it too.

 

Looking good!

 

Yeah the paint is getting pretty scratched up from trail riding in Kentucky. Figured bedline was the best option to protect it from branches and what not. Pretty excited for these bedsides and fenders to show up.

 

Finally picked up my new fridge. Looks like someone dropped it in the box causing that dent. Spent $500 on a 90q dual zone so I’m happy with my purchase.

Now time to start building a slide system for it in the bed. Also looking into some dual battery systems.

 

Update: The bedsides and fenders should be here by next week. During the install process I will be tubing the fender well.

All of this is leading up to a new set of 4.88 gears front and rear, 5 Micky Thompson classic 3 matte black 17x9 rims with 35x12.5 mud tires. I will be running 2" hub centric spacers so the tires line up with the fenders.

 

5 new wheels and tires. Getting excited. Hope gears show up in the next week.

 

That’s going to be a sic set up! Did you buy assembled diffs or are you going to rebuild them yourself?

 

Thanks, I'm pretty excited to see how it turns out. I am rebuilding the diffs myself with the new gears. Going to change out my needle bearing while I'm in the front diff. The only parts I'm waiting on now are my fiberglass fenders and gears.

There is something I didn't really think about, the front manual hubs. So to solve that issue, I'm going to get SpiderTrax 1.5" spacers for the front since I have read a lot of people have used them with manual hubs. Hopefully I can start working on everything by next weekend.

 

Nice! That's pretty impressive you're going to assemble the thirds yourself.

I looked into spacers as well when I had a truck with manual hubs. The lip that's at the center of them making them hubcentric hits on the hub mounting bolts. Some guys either use the lug centric ones without the lip, the 1.25" hubcentric and grind out small notches in them to clear the bolts, or like you said use thicker spacers to clear the bolts.

 

What did you use to strip your frame? I've read of people using lots of different methods. Also, did you unbolt the cab at any point to get the top of the rails in that area. My frame has some surface rust in some areas but has a few potential problem areas from mud accumulation that the PO left sitting on there way too long. Thanks for the info!

 

Thanks for the information, Yeah I think im going to buy some of the lug centric ones that dont have the lip for the front.

Well im sure i didnt do it the most efficient way lol. I just used a angle grinder with flap disks, cutting wheels, and a wire wheel on the angle grinder(I used a combination of twisted and brush wire wheels depending on the application). I only cleaned the areas round where I was welding since the frame caps slide up over the existing frame. The frame caps require you to cut the bottom 2+ inches off the frame but they are a hair thicker than the factory frame and make fixing trouble spots super easy. here is a link just in case you were interested. https://www.autorust.com/safe-t-cap-kits/

 

That is for the link and the info. Did you paint up or Por the inside of the area you boxed in before fully welding it up? I’m assuming it all comes as bare steel.

 

Yep, I coated the inside of all of the frame kits before installing them. I also coated the inside of the C frame before boxing it in. The one thing I didnt think about was coating the inside of the existing frame before welding on the frame kit. Hmmmmm, guess I could of thought this through a little better lol. After finishing the frame I did use a can of Eastwood internal frame coating. They include a 2-3 foot nozzle extension so you can get pretty far into the frame. Using Por 15 would of been the best option if I would of thought of it during the project.

 

That’s very helpful. Thanks for all the info on this. I’m hoping to get into this either over the summer or in the fall in this year. Sounds like I’ll need to get practicing with the welder.

 

These things are gonna look sick. Also got in my spidertrax spacers and a nice brake bleeder so now it’s a 1 person job.

 

Heck yeah, that's awesome.

This build rocks

 

Nice! I was looking into those revolution gears. I read some pretty good reviews on them.

 

I originally wanted to go with Yucon gears but they had the set of both front and rear revolution gears on Amazon and they seemed to be pretty good. The real fun will be installing them lol. Will be a first of me.

 

I read on a couple Jeep forums that they are manufactured by the same company as Yukon.

 

That’s good to know, I had no idea and honestly should of done a little more research. I see a lot of Jeep guys running them so I decided why not. Now I know I actually got the gears I wanted with a different name lol.


Also got my fenders and bedsides in today. The fun will begin soon.