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Chocolate Thunder’s Most Excellent Build Thread!

72Blazer

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🤔 shoot me a PM with info and price on the track bar once you get around to it.

excited to see the end product and those 40s
 
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Chocolate Thunder

Chocolate Thunder

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🤔 shoot me a PM with info and price on the track bar once you get around to it.

excited to see the end product and those 40s
Uh, 37s! You trying to break my axles?

The track bar is great, it just touches the MC diff cover just a little bit or else I’d keep it.
 

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After you change the track bar (assuming you are switching to metalcloak), would love to know if you see a difference.
 

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Chocolate Thunder

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After you change the track bar (assuming you are switching to metalcloak), would love to know if you see a difference.
I’ll give my thoughts but since I’m changing so much at once it’ll really be impossible to isolate it and say what difference changing the track bar alone makes. I’ll have different springs, shocks, track bars, control arms all at the same time.
 
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Chocolate Thunder

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Ordered MetalCloak 2.5” lift last Saturday. Arrived today. Thanks for the fast shipping @Metalcloak.

I have to see how quickly my local powder coat guy can get them turned from gold to gloss black, like they should be.

I can tell that the MC track bar isn’t nearly as thick and heavy as the SteerSmarts one it’ll be replacing.
 
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Chocolate Thunder

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UPS came today. These will be getting 37” tires. I’m still trying to decide which ones though. Anybody have suggestions? Certainly not a mall crawler but not hardcore either. No snow, limited mud, more rocks and dirt off-road. Many more miles on pavement than off it, but it’s not a daily driver.

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I was almost ready to pull the trigger on a set of Nitto Ridge Grappler 37s to go on these wheels (thanks to a lot of useful information from forum members here and other Jeep owners). Then came Black Friday deals @Northridge4x4 that has a set of Milestar Patagonia 37s for less than the 35” ones cost that I currently have on my Jeep. Too good to pass up. I’ve had mine for over 20K miles and I’ve had no issues, on or off road. My last wheeling trip 4 of the 5 in the group had them. They seem to be the ultimate “love them or hate them” tire. Maybe I’ll try something different with the next set.
 
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Chocolate Thunder

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So the powder coater called today and had my MetalCloak lift parts done a day early.
Jeep Wrangler JL Chocolate Thunder’s Most Excellent Build Thread! 53959BBC-6A91-4F84-AD0E-38457E3F977C


And UPS delivered my Black Friday purchase tires a day early too.
Jeep Wrangler JL Chocolate Thunder’s Most Excellent Build Thread! 9B641C7A-9016-4D75-B933-0402BB5CFFBC


I even managed to get to Discount Tire in time to get them mounted on my new wheels.
Jeep Wrangler JL Chocolate Thunder’s Most Excellent Build Thread! EBF70234-CF5B-4B19-B0F4-238903681C2A


I-love-it-when-a-plan-comes-together-1.jpg
 

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So the powder coater called today and had my MetalCloak lift parts done a day early.
Jeep Wrangler JL Chocolate Thunder’s Most Excellent Build Thread! I-love-it-when-a-plan-comes-together-1


And UPS delivered my Black Friday purchase tires a day early too.
Jeep Wrangler JL Chocolate Thunder’s Most Excellent Build Thread! I-love-it-when-a-plan-comes-together-1


I even managed to get to Discount Tire in time to get them mounted on my new wheels.
Jeep Wrangler JL Chocolate Thunder’s Most Excellent Build Thread! I-love-it-when-a-plan-comes-together-1


Jeep Wrangler JL Chocolate Thunder’s Most Excellent Build Thread! I-love-it-when-a-plan-comes-together-1
IMHO...... that’s how MC parts should look right out of the box...... good job.
 

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IMHO...... that’s how MC parts should look right out of the box...... good job.

I would have painted mine too, except that I didn't want to wait... or the added expense. Ah well, covered in dirt now.

Really need temps to come back up so I can wash her off. lol
 
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Chocolate Thunder

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I would have painted mine too, except that I didn't want to wait... or the added expense. Ah well, covered in dirt now.

Really need temps to come back up so I can wash her off. lol
I really wish MetalCloak would give the option of their signature gold zinc coating or just regular old black. But it’s their thing; I get it. It has cost me almost $400 getting the lift parts, skids, and diff covers powder coated. Not to mention having to disassemble and reassemble everything.

I’ll get the new wheels/37s on this weekend. Not sure if I’ll be able to get the lift installed but I hope to.
 

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I really wish MetalCloak would give the option of their signature gold zinc coating or just regular old black. But it’s their thing; I get it. It has cost me almost $400 getting the lift parts, skids, and diff covers powder coated. Not to mention having to disassemble and reassemble everything.

I’ll get the new wheels/37s on this weekend. Not sure if I’ll be able to get the lift installed but I hope to.
Yes, an option for powder coating to match their sliders... would have been great.

The gold is their thing though, as you say. I prefer that over the obnoxious branding though. At least I can get a rattle can out and make a change if I really don't like it. The rust protection is appreciated. :dunno:
 
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Chocolate Thunder

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12/26/2020 27,207 mi

I haven’t done a great job of keeping my build thread updated. Here’s the latest.

I started back on 12/5/20 upgrading wheels, tires, and lift. Lift installation took me about 9-11 hours spread over 3 weekends. I don’t work fast and I had lots of starts and stops for various reasons.

I replaced the 7.5”x17” +44 upgrade Rubicon wheels with 8.5”x17” +12 Mopar off-road wheels. Changed out the 315/70/17 Milestar Patagonia tires with the same ones in3 37/12.50/17 size.


I also took off my Dynatrac Endurosport 2” lift to replace it with MetalCloak’s 2.5” GameChanger lift. Actually I purchased a set of 6 slightly used MC arms from a member here and added them with the True Dual lift which saved m hundreds of dollars. I gained much more than 1/2” in height and a lot of articulation.

I installed a Mopar tailgate reinforcement along with the Teraflex Alpha tire carrier to handle the added weight of the bigger tires.


I’ll add more pictures of it all later.

Jeep Wrangler JL Chocolate Thunder’s Most Excellent Build Thread! AA355072-3A86-4F46-8AEF-072EEDCC1271


Jeep Wrangler JL Chocolate Thunder’s Most Excellent Build Thread! DBD0C8F1-1F2A-48F2-8D3F-5B12D36EADE1


Jeep Wrangler JL Chocolate Thunder’s Most Excellent Build Thread! 35AD0F24-F63F-4052-B11F-818EBC670DFF


Jeep Wrangler JL Chocolate Thunder’s Most Excellent Build Thread! 43C4529C-E22E-4071-A087-6C33AE201DF1


Jeep Wrangler JL Chocolate Thunder’s Most Excellent Build Thread! CB22BF36-D333-43FC-97E1-0FB6FFC88672
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