Lil Sports guide from Marketplace Mojave to a Raptor hunting journey

[Bdoza10]

A build thread was never something I thought of doing when my fiancé bought her jeep. But there’s part of me that feels like now it serves as a thank you letter to the jeep community that helped us build it into what it’s become. My formatting is gonna be a bit wonky, I’ll try and clean it up as I go.

My now wife needed a commuter, and is pretty budget conscious. Starting with a little preloved sport, the cheapest one we could find with heated seats and a lifetime power train warranty (we always joked it would be something our future kids would end up driving). she used to eek 28mpg out of little thing commuting 45min each way everyday. At first we had modest plans to upgrade it (wheels, and a small lift) once she stopped commuting. Well 30,000 miles later and a new job quite literally across the street. I finally got the green light to start building our jeep.

It has since evolved into something to keep up with my parents and friends out in the desert. Most of which are in side by sides, or on dirt bikes mostly can am x3’s and a few rzrs. My wife used to keep up with them on her dirt bike but this desert season we were expecting the arrival of our first born. So my plan changed and i decided to turn her jeep into our prerunner that could keep up with our rather fast group.

At first it was just replacing what was worn out brakes, wheel bearing, adding “steps” is what she asked for…

First up was sliders off marketplace. I wanted her to find the limits of the lil sport safely and the bare pinch weld down low felt cheap. Best to cover that up with LOD Destroyers I found on marketplace for $300.

We really did wheel a ton early on, I wanted her to see the limits of her jeep.

next her stock shocks had reached their due date. I was able to convince her a set of Mojave shocks in Arizona were worth the road trip. We ended up only paying $300 for a set of new take offs. The Mojave shocks had less than a 1000miles on them. The shocks are super easy to get on a wrangler. Just some bronze bushing from Amazon that I found on this forum and some washers in the rear to space them out. We have put over 10,000 miles on this set up beating the ever living snot out of it.

Getting the shocks on was super easy thanks to this forum. Also seeing how undervalued and misunderstood they were was also apparent.

Getting them to work well was a bit of a process. But our house hold motto is “trust the process”.

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[Bdoza10]

We rode around with the Mojave shock damn near bottomed out for a month while I gathered some more parts. And my wife fell in love with her new go kart. Being in the final bypass stage left us with a race car. Zero roll through any corner or on ramp. From that point on we decided to keep her new charming driving dynamics.

I decided Mojave shocks needed Mojave wheels. With our narrow sport axles the offset was a major part of that choice. I managed to snag a set with no miles and the nubs still on them for $1000. My wife was in flight and expecting me to pick her up from San Diego airport. The seller was kind enough to meet me at a parking lot near the airport and we swapped all the tires on there while my wife was taxiing down the run way. They were so pumped on the idea of our build the father son duo actually pitched in on the swap and also kicked a few shekels off their asking price.

Our old and low carport is both a godsend and a pain. We’re constantly questioning if the next mod will put us over our height limit

 

[Bdoza10]

I wanted to check stance and get an idea of what ride height those Mojave shocks would start to work best at. So a teraflex spacer lift for $50 and a favor from my cousin in La to grab them for me saved the day.

Granted getting them under the jeep took the better half of a day figuring out how all that went together. The spacers were for an 1.5in lift which put us just above the bump zone on our new massive shocks.

The rear took twice as long as the front

for a sport car setting this worked really well

Cutting off the brake line bracket was terrifying at first.

After lifting the jeep it got a tad twitchy and I wasn’t stoked on that new trait, so back to my market place archives I went and found some arms I had been eyeing for a few months.

I found some metalcloak arms that were listed as fully seized non-adjustable and needing a rebuild. They were about 200miles away but by sheer luck of months of low balling the seller, they drove the arm up to us for the low low price of 400$. If there seems to be a theme with the price you’re seeing my wife’s budgeting at work, and our deal was I could spend whatever I wanted as long as it was all money made off selling things on facebook marketplace or here

While we didn’t mind the gold, given the chance I figured it best to add some personal touches while we had them off the jeep.

Please if you put your own metalcloak arms together yourself. Add some anti seize, I know everyone chirps about never needing to adjust your arms down the road but. You never know what kind of deals you might run into down the road that might make you want to change your setup. More on that down the road

Un-pro tip with setting up metalcloaks arm. Don’t use their measurements when hacking together misfit parts. I used teraflex and evos numbers and our ride quality increased exponentially. We put each set on two at a time to get a feel for how the jeep drove with each addition. Plus it made the whole process seem less daunting. I just swapped them when I finally had time after work but only 20-30mins of work each time. But for about a month we drove around with just the front lower arms while I contemplated what exactly I should set the jeep up at considering I’ve gone off the deep end with my Frankenstein lift

 

[Bdoza10]

I found a synergy steering brace brand new for $150, when I went to pick it up the seller had a garage full of random parts, he worked at a dealership that returned most the jeeps back to stock before sending them to auction. He offered me a metalcloak track bar for $20 and I scurried home with my new haul that was starting to slight creep up in budget.

I also stumbled upon some fox bumpstops that had popped during a rollover. They just needed new seals and some love. But we were back into the budget thanks to scoring those for $200. A $200 professional rebuild and we were on track to be a full Mojave dupe.

 

[Bdoza10]

At this point my wife started pitching in her marketplace money as well and we really got rolling. We found a fox ats stabilizer for a ram 2500 basically brand new for $140. They use the same tie rod and it allowed me to mount it above the axle. Synergy’s bolt was the first new part I bought for her jeep and shocker… it didn’t fit without some milling.

 

[Bdoza10]

Confident after testing the jeep in our local whoop section and trails not far from our house. we really started to beat on this little jeep. But we were adding parts slowly to see how each new addition changed the feel.
with a spacer lift, Mojave shocks, bumps, steering brace, metal cloak track bar, and lower front arms to start we went razor chasing.

double duty carrying my bike and all our camping gear made us glad to have the Mojave shocks in the rear. Especially if you’ve made the trip down south hwy 86 around the salton sea

A trip down to ocotillo seemed like a good way of shaking lil sport down.

At this moment my wife was completely sold on what we had been building. The jeep cruised through whoops with the pack of sxs and bikes. Everyone kept crawling around it asking what we had done to keep up with the group.

We probably could’ve stopped the build here and been content. But now she had the bug too.

 

[Bdoza10]

Adding the rear arms allowed us to cycle the suspension without rubbing the fenders. I pushed the axle back slightly and was immediately impressed by how it freed up the rear end. Felt like we dropped tire pressure by 5-8psi. A much smoother more plush ride.

Pismo trip to see how she would do in the dunes and how we might as well use that deepsleep jeep mattress my wife found on marketplace for $40

we ran into a ranger/prerunner meet up out in Pismo and the lil sport kept right up, at this point the 2.0l is really growing on me. We’re light but punchy. The jeep just floats over the sand up there.

Next was my wife’s obsession with happier campers, so we crossed that off the list with a trip up to ridgecrest to chase my parents and friends around. A whole weekend on smashing around In rocks. And rougher testing to see if she had more to give.

Without a tuner our jeep did feel a bit sluggish with the new larger heavier tires. But I managed to talk our dealership into doing a transmission reset during my oil change. I purposely timed it when we had the camper behind our jeep. The results were phenomenal, our shifts are crisp and firm. We rev pretty deep before each shift keeping a very spirited driving experience.

Happier campers are not for sub 40° temps but we really enjoyed the interior Lego blocks

A trip into randsburg showed us how capable our jeep had become.

. azusa canyon all for my wife to decide she also needs a matching samurai to go with her jeep.

 

[Metalcloak]

Fun build! Love it!

Of Note... our control arm numbers are a generic starting point based on our coil heights... we recommend doing an alignment once installed, especially with different coils, to ensure the rig is dialed in for the best ride quality. - Matson

 

[ObiMatt87]

Great build rundown! Thanks for sharing your fun story. Love how it turned out. (So far...)

 

[crux360a]

" And my wife fell in love with her new go kart. Being in the final bypass stage left us with a race car. "
I've never heard anybody refer to their jeep as a go kart!

 

[stretch-bsn]

Dang man great write up and pictures…and awesome you are doing a purpose built rig for your needs and environment! I love it!

I’m quite jealous that you found LoD destroyer rock rails for $300!!!! WTH man!!!! .

 

[Bdoza10]

Fun build! Love it!

Of Note... our control arm numbers are a generic starting point based on our coil heights... we recommend doing an alignment once installed, especially with different coils, to ensure the rig is dialed in for the best ride quality. - Matson

I definitely started with your numbers im pretty sure Ive memorized your instructions by heart now. I appreciate how through and clear they were. And thank you for building such beefy beautiful parts. I can’t recommend your arms enough. I’ve convinced three of my friends to switch over so far. And you’ll see down the line some of the people I’ve bought parts from have been converted. We added each pair individually, my wife and I are both in agreement that with each set the suspension freed up (which I felt was critical for the Mojave shocks working so well early on with their stock valving on our lite 2.0l sport) also the road noise felt muted just a tad more with each addition. We live near some of socals worst roads and we always pick the jeep first to go anywhere. Your shipping was super fast too which allowed us to make some very important trips for us. While I rebuilt the arms I honestly didn’t need to, each one I took apart could’ve easily gone on without needing a refresh. Thank you.

They make these 3.0’s float over every bump, my wife goes up and off curbs purposely now.

 

[Bdoza10]

With a small teaser of where this build went, some important changes were made in this build.
First gen was just the Mojave shocks
Second was our metal cloak arms
Third would be finding ride height and hydraulic bump stops

Fourth is the addition of some synergy one inch springs.

I might switch these out for 2in the future if i ever catch a set for sale.

with the help of Roth shocks out of brea,ca I was able to nail down a target spring rate and these hit the nail on the head with a featherweight jeep. I found these on the forum here after 6 months of hunting and $170 in shipping they really tied the ride together. All in I paid $370 for the springs which wasn’t far off half the cost new but all the money I had in my market place funds at the time. There’s also a large part of my that likes saving parts from the shelves. Lord knows I’ve got plenty on my shelf I’d like to find homes for.

 

[Bdoza10]

" And my wife fell in love with her new go kart. Being in the final bypass stage left us with a race car. "
I've never heard anybody refer to their jeep as a go kart!

To this day our main goal is that our jeep stays perfectly flat in any corner. We rotate weekly runs to Big Bear or lake Havasu so we spend a lot of time behind the wheel on curvy uneven roads. My most his youth wheeling gutted track cars as his daily’s absolutely fell in love with our sporty jeep. You can chuck it sideways at 60 and it will skid the tires before it leans over.

My cousin and his girlfriend joined us on our Pismo trip and had rented a dune buggy to follow us around. About ten minutes into our exploring the dunes they lost power on a climb and slide into a bowl. The cvt belt broke a clutch bolt and down they went. Their replacement was slightly better but still struggle to keep the jeep in its sights.

Safe and stable are top priorities and light weight and low center of gravity seems to help those qualities. I would rather keep it mid travel and small tires than chasing it around the freeway. It’s a riot to wheel. We have 60mph winds in our area being blown around is no fun. This sport is rock solid in the winds. No hands on the wheel straight as arrow. Driving dynamics come first for us, and we verify every change we make along the way in hopes on not getting too lost on set up. I have an alignment rack available to me but we haven’t put the jeep on it yet, mostly doing all of it by feel and a tape measure for now. maybe someday I’ll throw it on just to see the numbers but for now I’m enjoying the process. I’m a one man assembly crew. And this is our first jeep but we build a lot of other things that have some crossover knowledge

 

[Bdoza10]

Dang man great write up and pictures…and awesome you are doing a purpose built rig for your needs and environment! I love it!

I’m quite jealous that you found LoD destroyer rock rails for $300!!!! WTH man!!!! .

I watched them sit on marketplace for well over two months. Thought worst case they say no they needed a few bolts but I have an ace hardware across the street from my warehouse And I was really worried my wife would smash her rockers and doors. She tends to hit stuff out in the desert

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