It was a pleasure meeting and speaking with you yesterday. I'm still in amazement that they replaced the frame and didn't total the Jeep. This said, I'm happy its working out for you. :yup:
The build/re-build of Gruff
- Thread starter Ddays
- Start date
Ddays
Hooked
just got back from road trip - I will dig my invoice out and give you the specs & costs....
Ddays
Hooked
Back at ya! Hope you didn't drink too much, although it sure got cold enough to imbibe!
The bill to the insurance co was right at $10k. Labor alone was $4K. Figure that I only had 16k miles on the Jeep so with these holding their values as well as they do it it just wasn't worth totaling it. Also, very importantly, there was no body panel replacement. They repainted the grille & pass fender, thats all. They did replace the bumper and winch. If these were unibodies, woulda been totaled hands down.
Ddays
Hooked
New parts!
First up is the new bumper. Full Metal Fabworks Apex Pinnacle and a set of JW Speaker fogs. Too bad Truck-Lite hasn't come out with a fog yet.
First remove Smittybilt SRC bumper the dealership replaced after the wreck.
Relocated vacuum pump with bracket from FMF. Similar to the Teraflex bracket. Not sure I am going to leave this here. Going back and forth on where to mount my compressor. Where this is or under the passenger seat....
Had to cut small ear off of the pump mounting bracket.
All painted up. Used paint from SEM - Trim Black. We'll see how it holds up this winter
New Jdubs
Nice craftsmanship
Finished!
First up is the new bumper. Full Metal Fabworks Apex Pinnacle and a set of JW Speaker fogs. Too bad Truck-Lite hasn't come out with a fog yet.
First remove Smittybilt SRC bumper the dealership replaced after the wreck.
Relocated vacuum pump with bracket from FMF. Similar to the Teraflex bracket. Not sure I am going to leave this here. Going back and forth on where to mount my compressor. Where this is or under the passenger seat....
Had to cut small ear off of the pump mounting bracket.
All painted up. Used paint from SEM - Trim Black. We'll see how it holds up this winter
New Jdubs
Nice craftsmanship
Finished!
Linebacker
Caught the Bug
Sorry about the accident. Glad no one was injured. "Gruff" 2.0 is lookin' great.:yup:
Ddays
Hooked
Thanks and yeah, the poor kid was really shook up. Pretty scary stuff when you're only 16-17. We both walked away with no injuries except a scratch.
Ddays
Hooked
Thanks! Yeah, I really like this style a lot better. Got a pile of EVO stuff and my compressor to install still. Gotta hurry- our painting season is just about over.
(LOL -know anyone that wants to buy a bumper?)
Ddays
Hooked
Time for the EVO stuff
Figured I better freshen up everything since I was adding so many new trim parts. First up was my Poison Spyder rear bumper.
Ever tried to remove Plastikote Truck Bed Liner from anything? What a pain in the rear. Finally ended up using a wire cup on my angle grinder.
Prime & paint the EVO stuff
Grrrrrr! Amateur!
Install has to wait til next week. Leaving for College visits today.
Figured I better freshen up everything since I was adding so many new trim parts. First up was my Poison Spyder rear bumper.
Ever tried to remove Plastikote Truck Bed Liner from anything? What a pain in the rear. Finally ended up using a wire cup on my angle grinder.
Prime & paint the EVO stuff
Grrrrrr! Amateur!
Install has to wait til next week. Leaving for College visits today.
Ddays
Hooked
Finally posting up my Evo goodies install!
First up, in case anyone hasn't seen one of the Astro nutsert tool, this is the one that I got off of Amazon.
I was worried about rust issues with the standard cad plated nutserts so I held my nose and ordered stainless ones off of Amazon.
This is a nutsert before and after crimping
Ok, First up was the rocker skins
Man, I gotta tell ya, the pucker factor is at about DEFCON 2 when you start drilling all of these damn holes!
Honestly, the rocker skins install went a little easier than I expected. It's not hard to do, you just have to be patient (definitely NOT one of my virtues) and take your time. I did it by myself with a set of clamps I bought at Harbor Freight (saw that trick on Hinrich's build thread - thanks for that photo bud!) and measured everything 5 times before I drilled a hole. One thing I found to make this job easier is to drill the holes with the skins clamped in place. The first side I marked all of the holes and took the skins off to drill them. Thank goodness they all lined up perfectly. The passenger side I drilled the holes with them clamped and man, that way is way easier.
So far, so good. That's all I had time for that Saturday. Weather turned colder and I wanted to wait for it to warm up a little since my garage is unheated. Still needed to paint the rear skins and the temp dipped into the high 30's.
First up, in case anyone hasn't seen one of the Astro nutsert tool, this is the one that I got off of Amazon.
I was worried about rust issues with the standard cad plated nutserts so I held my nose and ordered stainless ones off of Amazon.
This is a nutsert before and after crimping
Ok, First up was the rocker skins
Man, I gotta tell ya, the pucker factor is at about DEFCON 2 when you start drilling all of these damn holes!
Honestly, the rocker skins install went a little easier than I expected. It's not hard to do, you just have to be patient (definitely NOT one of my virtues) and take your time. I did it by myself with a set of clamps I bought at Harbor Freight (saw that trick on Hinrich's build thread - thanks for that photo bud!) and measured everything 5 times before I drilled a hole. One thing I found to make this job easier is to drill the holes with the skins clamped in place. The first side I marked all of the holes and took the skins off to drill them. Thank goodness they all lined up perfectly. The passenger side I drilled the holes with them clamped and man, that way is way easier.
So far, so good. That's all I had time for that Saturday. Weather turned colder and I wanted to wait for it to warm up a little since my garage is unheated. Still needed to paint the rear skins and the temp dipped into the high 30's.
WJCO
Meme King
Looks good. Nice pics.
Ddays
Hooked
Thanks guys! Gotta hurry. Weather isn't getting much warmer around here anytime soon!
TrailRidden
New member
nice job on those skins. How'd that nut insert tool work out for ya?
Ddays
Hooked
Thanks! That tool is awesome man! I'm looking for places to use nutserts now! I realize $70 is $70, but doing the nutserts without this tool flat out sucks. I've done a couple in the past and it's the main reason I didn't consider the skins when I first started my build. Anyone thinkin on doing the skins without it, DON'T!
TrailRidden
New member
haha, nice! I've been thinking about skins so that's good to know. Don't you just love amazon? :brows:
dcbjk
Caught the Bug
Nice coming together pretty good
