Buzzdoc's 2021 JLUR build

[buzzdoc]

I picked up my factory order sarge green 2021 JLUR about 3 weeks ago. My family had a couple of CJ7s when I was a teenager, but they were hunting vehicles for navigating our hunting club which was in a flood plain. When my oldest turned 16 at the end of last month, I turned over my 9 year old diesel F250 to him. My middle son turns 16 in 2 1/2 years, so I wanted to get something that I would either pass on to him or trade in for something that he would drive without losing a bunch of money on a trade. A Jeep fit that description perfectly.

My original plan was to buy a used JLUR, but with the used car market as crazy as it is, it was cheaper for me to factory order what I wanted instead of buying used. I ordered my MT JLUR on 05/25 and picked it up on 06/23 just in time for my son to turn 16.

The Rubicon is far more Jeep than I plan to use. Most of my off-roading will be mud and fairly easy trails, but I want to equip it to have the option to do more complex trails if I get to that point.

So here goes. As she sits in the dealer lot.

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[buzzdoc]

I love the history of Jeep, and 2021 being the 80th anniversary makes this Jeep even more cool to me. My first mod was to remove the factory Wrangler Unlimited stickers and add 80th anniversary badges. I even added the smaller one (albeit still pretty big) to the center console.

 

[buzzdoc]

I replaced the factory rock sliders with Fab Fours sliders/steps. Even tho I didn't have to remove the body mount bolt just behind the wheels, reading the experiences of snapped bolts gave me a little heartburn. I bought a cheap ($180) induction heater from Amazon and used it on the two body mount bolts I did have to remove on each side that use blue locktite. While it was probably not necessary, It sure made me feel better about removing those bolts. They came out very easily with a slow, gentle impact wrench.

The only trouble I had with the installation were the front two pinch seam bolts on each side. They were slightly out of line and took a small amount of grinding and a ton of fiddling. I love the look. I bought some Black Oak LED rock lights as these rails have mounts for 3 on each side, but I doubt I'll ever really use them, so I left them off. I'll fight installing them later if I decide to use them.

The second picture also shows the window tint although it's hard to really photo well or appreciate in the photo. The front windows are the darkest legal here in GA. The rear windows are damned near limo tint. All the tint has the nanoceramic for heat reduction, so I also had the tint put on the windshield as well. The windshield has the lightest tint available and is just to help with heat.

 

[buzzdoc]

I love the look of the factory Wrangler, but my only complaint is the red accents. They are OK, but I'm just not a huge fan of red on a vehicle (probably something about being a Georgia Tech fan in a sea of UGA fans). I spent last night de-reding the Jeep. The Trail Rated badge and Jeep badges were a huge pain to get all of the adhesive off. I used Goo Gone automotive, WD40, alcohol, and a crapload of elbow grease, be finally got it all off. I was afraid the Rubicon hood decals would be a huge pain, but they came off very cleanly with little residue. The Trail Rated badge slipped a little and is slightly crooked. I bought 2, so I'll have to see how much it bugs my OCD before I fight removing it and screwing with the adhesive again. It certainly wont be changed tonight.

Here she is partially naked.

And now fully clothed once again.

 

[buzzdoc]

I have Fab Fours bumpers for the front and rear waiting for me to get time to install them. I have Black Rhino LEDs (floods on the outer and spots on the inner fog lights) and a 30" Black Rhino in the middle. As you can tell, I'm a big fan of Black Rhino products. A Warn Zeon 10S is installed as well. I have a feeling this will be a royal pain in the ass to install. I plan to use my cherry picker and some extra hands when I get the install started.

 

[rcadden]

Looks great. I'm with you on the red - where did you get the new Trail Rated badges from?

Also, I'm curious as to what you plan to do about the red in the interior? That was honestly a big part of why I didn't get a Rubicon - from my research, the best/cheapest/easiest way to get rid of *all* of the red accents (including the stitching) was to have ordered tan leather (so you get grey accents/stitching) and then use Katskinz or something to go back to black leather. Total cost was ~$4K, which is kind of ridiculous.

 

[buzzdoc]

Looks great. I'm with you on the red - where did you get the new Trail Rated badges from?

Also, I'm curious as to what you plan to do about the red in the interior? That was honestly a big part of why I didn't get a Rubicon - from my research, the best/cheapest/easiest way to get rid of *all* of the red accents (including the stitching) was to have ordered tan leather (so you get grey accents/stitching) and then use Katskinz or something to go back to black leather. Total cost was ~$4K, which is kind of ridiculous.

I gambled on the dark saddle interior buying it sight unseen. A buddy has a white 2018, and I was afraid the color would be the same as his tan interior, but it is noticeably darker thankfully. I am very happy with the dark saddle color.

As for the emblems, I ordered them from mopargenuineparts.com

Jeep emblem- 5043159AA
Trail rated badge- 5043160AA
Hood decal- 68M45WUPAB

This link should get you all three items.

I'll try to edit this post later to turn them into hyperlinks when I have more time. These are all standard on the 392, so that's where they come from.

 

[21SargeJLUR]

As for the emblems, I ordered them from mopargenuinepaerts.com

Jeep emblem- 5043159AA
Trail rated badge- 5043160AA
Hood decal- 68M45WUPAB

I'll try to edit this post later to turn them into hyperlinks when I have more time. These are all standard on the 392, so that's where they come from.

i have the same jeep color scheme, and share your feelings about the red. thinking i may do the same. thanks for the part numbers on the emblems/badge/decal!

 

[ThirtyOne]

Looks great. I like the Rubicon red accents. And I like Sarge green. But I don't like the two together.

 

[buzzdoc]

I replaced the funky little shelf thingy in the back with actual cupholders from Quadratec. While it will be unusual for me to have all 3 of my boys in the backseat of the Jeep at the same time, I couldn't for the life of me figure out any use for that weird little shelf it came with. And who has ever complained about having too many cup holders? Getting to the 2 screws up on the inside was a pain in the butt with by big hands.

I also constantly have index cards and other pieces of paper I have to keep up with for work. I was putting them in the top of the center console, but I found that less than ideal. I installed a Gibson Leatherworks cell phone holder to help contain my crap. So far so good.

Edit: I also have a 67 Designs series 55 rail that is great so far that I use for my phone. I am waiting on an adapter to mount my radar detector to the rail also.

 

[buzzdoc]

I got my Fab Fours rear bumper installed yesterday.

Overall, the install was pretty straightforward. The cheap plastic factory bumper is exactly that- cheap plastic. The hardest part of the install was getting the backup sensors out of the old bumper and installing them in the new bumper. There are 10000 little screws holding the plastic bumper together, and you have to completely disassemble the bumper to get the wiring harness with the sensors out. I used a putty knife to remove the bracket for the first sensor which is welded to the plastic bumper. It worked OK but did not remove it as cleanly as I'd like. The others came out perfectly using a sharp 1" chisel, and came out much easier. The second challenge was placing the sensor brackets on the new bumper. The two center sensors below the tire were difficult simply because there isn't much room to get your hand in there. The install kit came with 3-5 minute epoxy to attach the brackets to the new bumper, so you don't have a ton of time to work. It actually came with 2 pack of epoxy, but I didn't see the other pack until later. I had everything set up and ready to go, so I got them on before the epoxy cured.

Actually installing the bumper went very quickly. Everything lined up well and went right on with the help of my 13 yo son (who hopes to get this Jeep in 2-3 years).

If I have a complaint with this bumper, I wish they would've designed the license plate relocation plate differently. The plate reuses the LED light from the original bumper, but it just attaches to the bracket. There isn't a shroud that it sits in or anything. What you would think the light would mount in based on the photo (at least I thought it mounted inside there when I ordered it) is just a unnecessarily large cover for the wiring. From an aesthetic standpoint, that cover looks good, but I wish they would've integrated the light a little better.

I am still very happy with the look of the new bumper. Here's to hoping the weather hold out so I can get the front bumper installed today. I think it will be challenging as the winch sits very close to the mounting bracket holes. I'm afraid I'll have to unbolt the winch and move it around to get the bumper mounted. There isn't a whole lot of room in there to start with, and dealing with it on the front of the Jeep will probably be a struggle.

 

[buzzdoc]

I installed my Valentine One today. Kudos to whoever it was on this forum that mentioned tilting the windshield down just a bit to run wires along the dash. I removed the passenger dash speaker and used some string trimmer cord to help snake the wires down to behind the glove box. Wow that's a little bitty speaker. I pulled the accessory switch wires up there as well so everything is behind the glove box now.

(Kindly ignore the disaster that is my garage. I have 3 boys- whatcha gonna do?)

 

[Punknhed]

Good looking Jeep. you could consider painting your dash to match the green. I think that would look really really good. I did mine orange and love it.

 

[JimmyB]

This build gives me moderate regret not getting the Sarge Green - you basically did everything I was thinking about doing looks-wise to get rid of all the red. Love the Jeep and the build it looks awesome!

 

[buzzdoc]

Good looking Jeep. you could consider painting your dash to match the green. I think that would look really really good. I did mine orange and love it.

I agree that it would look really good. Something I’ll seriously consider down the road.

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