12' Gecko Build

desertrunner

desertrunner

Hooked
well about a year ago i made the decision to sell my 08 JKU rubi to get myself a solid DD. Ended up purchasing a 16' Toyota Tacoma and it is fantastic i love it and it makes for a great DD. But of course its no JK. I knew after selling my 08 Rubi i was going to be getting another JK sometime soon only this time to be completely a toy. That being said i searched for about 4 months to find a Gecko Green 2 dr and now i am the proud new owner of a 12' Gecko Sport 2 dr 6 speed. Unfortunately i dont have the cash on hand to throw together a big build right off the bat like my last one but cant wait to see how it evolves.

my old 08 JKUR

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New to me 12' Gecko sport

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As of right now sitting in my garage i have a full suspension off of a 16' rubi 4 dr hopefully i will get that put on right after thanksgiving to give it a little bit of lift from the 4dr springs and then chop the stock fenders, should look nice with the light 2 dr on 33s

right now on my radar i have a local guy (same guy i bought the rims from) who is selling his Rubi transfer case that i am hoping we can agree on a price soon.
As well as i found a warn power plant on craigslist a few hours away that im hoping i can snag as well.

Looking at getting a set of JKS quick discos
Crawler conceptz Ultra series front stubby stinger (or Evo 1/4 lb not sure yet the recess winch would be nice for the power plant)
Evo rock skins
Evo protek Skids
Undecided on sliders but at the moment i am planning on picking up a cheap set of rubi rails (they did well for me on my last rig)

All that is going to wipe out the rest of my cash for now and i dont think i can swing all of those especially if i cant talk the Rubi t case down in price at all

Eventually the ultimate goal is going to be the Dynatrac 44/60 axle set Evo bolt on coilovers and 37s BUT i have a bit of saving to do before that happens so for now going to play with what i got

Feels good to have a JK again :rock:
 
So I finally got around to installing the set of 4dr rubi Springs and shocks on my gecko. I also took a set of stock rear links to put up front to level out the sway bar for now. Unfortunately I forgot to measure before and after so not 100% sure how much lift I got my by my best judgement I got about 1.5-2" out of it.

Before
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After
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Rear sway bar links up front
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Can't wait to see it as you go! My wife wants a Gecko for her Jeep as well.


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So an update on what I have been up to. Started to tear down some stuff while waiting on my trail jeeps order that should be in tomorrow!

Front bumper and sport sway bar pulled out. Picked up a rubi sway bar with a set of RK swaybar links on it from a guy on Craigslist. Evo Manual no limits should be coming in tomorrow with my order.
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Got the vacuum pump pulled off, the old bracket cut off and painted in prep for an Evo relocation bracket.
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Taped off the stock fenders for where I'm going to cut them and got one cut tonight. This is now my 3rd stock fender chop and so far I'm liking this one the best!
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My trail jeeps order should be in tomorrow so I'll be mounting up a 1/4 pounder stinger with the warn power plant I picked up. All 3 Evo Protec skids, and I bought the under door armor as well but I'm going to hold off on that for a while until I get a good nutcert tool and find a buddy to help. I dicked up my last set on my old 4dr and it looked like shit so I want to read up and get it right this time.

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catahoula said:
Build looking good! How easy was the sway bar install?
Click to expand...
I haven't installed the new one yet. The vacuum pump relocation bracket attaches to the swaybar bolts on the driver side so I figured no point in installing the rubi one yet when I'm just going to have to take it right back off. But it's just sway bar links and the 4 bolts holding the bar on its super easy. I'm going to mess with the manual no limits with the sway bar off too in case I need to cut the spring at all and I'm not messing with trying to wire up anything.

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Had pretty much all day off today so I got some more work done.

Finished up the fender chop and trimmed the factory liners and fit them back in I'm not a huge fan of the door trim on the fenders so I took an 80 grit sanding block to hit the edges after the chop, turned out clean IMO

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Evo vacuum pump relocation bracket in

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Finally got my trail jeeps order merry Christmas to my jeep haha

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And last but not least for the night I got the rubi sway bar installed and the manual no limits installed. It's pretty sweet way better than pulling pins on quick discos.

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Next up is to get working on the 1/4 pounder get the winch mounted and the skid plates in.

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Still working on getting the 1/4 pounder mounted up. Go the test fit in drilled all the necessary holes now have to pull it all back off to paint what I cut and drilled.

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OK so a little update on my jk. I finally got the front all buttoned up for now I got the 1/4 lb 90% installed and I ended up just putting the stock rear sway bar links in the front as I am pretty sure I am missing the bottom spacer that is supposed to go on the axle side of the RK links the guy gave me with the rubi sway bar.

So with the 1/4 lb stinger I got the holes drilled and painted up and as I got it mostly installed I finally realised which one of the top bolts I was supposed to knotch the frame horn for. Of course those were the last bolts I went to tighten so without taking it off for the 3rd time I said F it I'm just going to run it without the front top stinger bolts in haha.

Felt good to get it out of the garage and on the road again.

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