Project: Brutus

I've always enjoyed build threads, seeing where people take their vehicles and what they do to them. This is mine.

Currently Done:

Metalcloak Gamechanger 3.5" Lift ARB Edition
Metalcloak Overline Fenders
Metalcloak Inner Fenders
Offroad Heroes Cargo Top
Custom Tire Carrier
Procomp Series 97 Steelies
Toyo MT 35x12.5x17
Superchips Traildash

Future:
Forced Induction (RIPP or Prodigy.. researching this)
Fully built (Truss, gusset, sleeve, RCV axles) Dana 44's or Dana 60's, 4.88 gearing.
Winch
37's
Metalcloak front + rear bumpers
Metalcloak Rock Rails

It's humble beginnings at a Honda dealership, traded in for who knows what.

Details:
2012 JKU Sport
38,000KM (I'm Canadian) on the clock
Stock

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First time finding mud and having the soft top on, I knew I needed different tires.

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In hopes of finding bigger tires at some point, I chopped up my fenders for flats and made a stubby front bumper. I rocked this for a bit even just to differentiate myself from every other soccer mom out there.. looking back on it now, it looked atrocious with stock tires.

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Shortly after I ended up finding 35" Toyo MT's for a killer price - all in I paid $1200 for 5 tires @ 90% and brand new Procomp steelies.

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At Christmas I found out my wife either REALLY loves me or just wanted me to stop spending so much time researching Jeep parts every night. I was obsessed with looking at lift kits, and was ready to work on the side to make up the necessary money needed. But she bought me the full lift that I had researched to death and dreamed of daily..

Full Metalcloak Gamechanger ARB Edition. I understand the 6-Pack shocks don't hold up AS well in our environment up in Canada due to the constant grit/salt/snow and changing climate. In addition I bought a driveshaft from Adams Driveshaft who I will undoubtedly deal with again, great company and phenomenal pricing.

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Up on the lift..

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All finished up

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Parked beside a stock Jeep for comparison..

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I lucked out HARD. Full Metalcloak Overline set with inner fenders for sale in my city. Rare to see this stuff go up for sale.. the catch? It was bedlined and looked terrible.

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I found a product called "Aircraft Remover" - you brush it on, and you watch it bubble. Scrape it off after then sand down the bare steel. I put about 45-50 hours into cleaning these up.

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But the results were worth it.

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Stripped down

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Completed front

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Rears in progress..

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And finished up

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First beauty shot in a while.

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Around this time I also bought the Offroad Heroes Cargo Top and had a custom tire carrier built and powder coated. It's sturdy as they come and built for up to a 37" tire handling it with ease. Slightly hesitant to go to 40 as that's a lot of weight to lift up there in case of a flat.

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One of my first LEGIT off-roading adventures, this is near Drayton Valley in Alberta, Canada.

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[IMG][https://scontent-sea1-1.xx.fbcdn.net...=565DD37F/IMG]

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TORE Park

At an Off-road park near my place..

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Saved for future additions

I don't know what all the "saved for future additions" posts were, but....

WHOA that is a crazy pile of work.... The truck is beautiful with that mud paint job you put on it.

I love to see guys who pour their hearts in to their rigs....then wheel them hard.

Its a fine line, where you have put too much effort into a rig, then you start to worry about sliding it into a tree, and then all the work is for nothing. There is nothing that cannot be fixed or cleaned or replaced. You have to take jeeps to the limit. Thats why we spend the money.

did you paint the flares or powder coat?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JeepLab

I don't know what all the "saved for future additions" posts were, but....

WHOA that is a crazy pile of work.... The truck is beautiful with that mud paint job you put on it.

I love to see guys who pour their hearts in to their rigs....then wheel them hard.

Its a fine line, where you have put too much effort into a rig, then you start to worry about sliding it into a tree, and then all the work is for nothing. There is nothing that cannot be fixed or cleaned or replaced. You have to take jeeps to the limit. Thats why we spend the money.

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Rather than having information on Pages 1,13,18 and 20 for people to sort through I like having it all in one spot - I'll edit the posts as I go with the future mods as I do them, just how I like to organize things :)

It's been a lot of elbow grease, and I wouldn't have it any other way. I have put so many man hours into this thing to both save costs (Not to cut corners) but it's really helped me get to know her too.

And I agree. I have a hard time accepting the fact that some of the more adventurous trips will put some permanent scars on her, but as soon as I'm driving.. it's worth it. I just know that once I get home, I'll fix whatever happened to the best of my ability. She's not a pavement queen, but I don't abuse her like a corner girl either.

And those fenders are all powder coated. I was going to go with POR-15 for everything, as it's an easy touch up, but the finish was not good enough for me.

Subscribed.

What did you scrape the flares with? Ive tried to remove rhino liner before and gave up. that stuff is terrible.

I used the "Aircraft Remover" product, brushed it on with a regular paint brush and then used a metal paint scraper to remove it once it started bubbling. At times I found it would need to be layered on twice, but rarely any more than that. 15-20 minutes sitting there and you can literally watch it bubble up ready for removal.

Afterwards I used an orbital power polisher with 180 grit sand paper to remove the remaining little bits and that cleaned it up to the nice polished look.

Went back out to TORE again last night, took my fenders off for the first time. I had to put Anti Seize on the bolts, so I figured I may as well try the run without them anyways.

Same amount of mud on the vehicle after.. just happens a lot quicker lol. Definitely see the benefits of running with no fenders on trips requiring maximum clearance.

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I'm trying to grab a few of the videos taken too, there was one massive hole I'm pretty stoked I got through.

Otherwise.. I need to remove a few of the bump stops provided by Metalcloak to maximize on performance without the fenders.

A few more

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This is something someone suggested to me that I NEVER thought of before to clean it up. I've been experiencing some good vibrations on the road recently, and I figured I had some mud in my inner tires. I didn't expect this much, but there was about 5lb of mud per tire putting them out of balance. Anyways, toss a sprinkler under your rig and let it do the majority of the work.

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Disclaimer: Empty parking lot, useless rear corner. Very back.

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that mud hole is calling my name! the shot with the truck in the ditch with the one light mudded out is my favorite.

You look like you could use a front bumper upgrade. I suggest poison spider BFH front bumper with no barwork. Just the plain slab of steel. Super minimalist. I think it personifies your jeep well.

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A lot of those holes were a lot more surprising than usual lol. I have a few facebook videos, not sure how to upload them on here though nor get them onto youtube. I'll figure it out.

Two things..

Here's a video from that day of a bigger waterhole.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLKX...ature=youtu.be

And after that, it was time for a good power polish. Winters coming and I wanted her to look as good as possible.

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Feels nice, I do love black vehicles and I love clean vehicles. As much as I enjoy the mud, I make sure she's taken care of for the long haul.

And I've never TRULY understood differentials, but I have a better grasp now. I built this diff to mimic my Dana, it's almost the same size as the Dana 30 lol. I was going to build a scale model jeep with working diffs, but at almost 1:1 I don't have enough room nor enough K'Nex.

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What's next for this monster?

i love k-nex.

whats the tire carrier? and does it fit in a garage door?

First thing is cash flow... A few more priorities take precedence over the jeep right now unfortunately.

But fafter that will be a roof rack and false roof. The same guy who built my tire carrier will be building those.

I lost a lot of cargo space when I went with this specific top - the roof rack designed for my setup will increase what I was capable of before seven fold..

And I don't know about where you guys live, but some days I'll wake up to a foot (At worst usually 3 feet) of snow on the ground - which is a lot of weight for a soft top to handle if it's outside. So the plan is to build 3 panels - simple rectangles. One to cover the cargo area, one to cover the rear passengers and one for the front. I'm thinking aluminum tops covered in either black vinyl or powder coated. I'll bolt those to the cage and body in pre existing holes, put insulation on top, and then cover it with the soft top. It will be insulated and way harder to break into, both goals of mine.

Otherwise I have a guy wanting to do some shots of her tonight, so hopefully I'll have those to share soon - oh, and I started talking to the owner of Trail Jeeps in Colorado about a prodigy stage 2 turbo setup with a custom tune.. But that's a goal for the future :)

P.s. - the tire carrier is custom built and depends on the height of your garage. 7" doors and it's too close for comfort, and I'll be upping the tires to 37s as well.

Just a quick update, since I've had nothing to update lately.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxgbxnLpxhM

Had a little fun out at the nearby off-road facility.

The other thing I wanted to try out.. my soft top has been so incredibly dirty lately. Trips to the car wash, hand scrubbing with soap and water - nothing pulled the mud out. So I picked up some Duplicolour Fabric Paint to see how that would help out..

On the left is the deeply engrained mud etc.. on the right, freshly painted.

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The other thing I didn't like was the grey interior, so I sprayed that too.

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It turned out incredibly well - the darker the interior, the happier I am. Looks stock, no blemishes at all. I'm pleased!

Now if only I was having the same turbo issues UselessPickles is..

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But that's for the future.

Otherwise, here's 3 beauty shots:

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Sweet Jeep. I love build threads.

that rear bumper brings me back. I had my rear bumper chopped just like that for a looong time. Ended up with the nemesis aluminum bumper.

Ha, I know, the front and rear bumper definitely need to be updated. Unfortunately until I have the funds to do that, I built this jeep to keep me and my tinkering habit preoccupied.


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Heres a stupid little update, but at least it's something.

I'm tuned via the Superchips Traildash. My problem was that the '12+ have stupid dash mounts - the 07-11 were much cleaner. Also, I do want to leave my vehicle doorless in the summer and it's a quick grab. Not that it's much use to anyone else, I still didn't like that.

Since I have no use for a rear view mirror, and the traildash will be getting a backup camera and acting like my rear view mirror.. this is what I did:

Rear view mirror and trail dash mount

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Taken apart

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The ball on the traildash is smaller than the one on the mirror, to overcome this I simply used double sided 3M tape to make a greater width.

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Tidied up

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Mounted

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The cable fit TIGHT against the window since it's a straight plug and not a 90*, but it was a simple run and the length was perfect. It's out of the way, doesn't take up any more space, and I can take it down as I please. Looking forward to running the rear view camera for better safety backing up - having the tire mounted the way it is negates any use of the mirror.

I may try and find a different method to mount the ball - make it larger. I feel like it's a bit hack to just expand the diameter with tape, but it works and allows me to still move the unit around. Although some JB weld or something to make it a fixed unit is a possibility.