2023 JLUR Cyked Build Thread

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Figure I'll create a thread and start with what I've done so far as meager as that is, adding what I can do the community. I'll try and document things that I've done, lessons learned, how I might do things different given the chance, links to products/tools/etc. while trying to avoid the rest of the fucking owl as much as possible.

More to come.

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[cyked]

General

 

[cyked]

Bumper and winch

• Metal Cloak frame built bumper with skid plate and fair lead
• Smittybilt X2O Gen 3 12k winch
• Factor 55 flatlink
• Badlands 3/4 D Ring shackles

I snagged an image from another post someone had of the parts because I didn't take any pics while unboxing. I might end up doing a video, not sure yet. I have zero editing experience and my computer doesn't really have the horsepower for it.

Parts list

1. Front face plate
2. Fair lead
3. Bumper brackets
4. 46" end caps (note Metalcloak has wider end caps that you can mount the factory fog lights in)
5. Winch plate
6. Optional skid plate (helps protect the electronic sway bar disconnect I believe if you have a Rubicon)

Installation - if you go through the Metalcloak (MC) instruction PDF for the install and the video from MC you'll notice some differences. One I recall offhand is the one of them appears to show 2 bolts used to mount the winch plate on the under side of the frame and the other shows one. Mine came with 4 bolts so I used two on either side. I think the other is the orientation of the brackets are different between vid and PDF.

Removal of factory (plastic) bumper. First, unclip the factory fog lights. The bumper itself is fairly straight forward, but the instructions are not explicit, only showing the removal of the outside nuts as they are the easiest to access. There are 8 nuts to remove total, 4 each side. Remove the outside ones. From there I dicked around trying to remove the 4 inside nuts from underneath, which was not easy and didn't work for me. So what is easier is removing the small trim piece on top between the bumper and grill. It's held on by those little plastic retainer clips. Once the trim piece is removed you can access the remaining bolts from the top with a socket wrench and small extension.

This is what the frame looks like after you remove the pumper.

MC Bumper install - Keep following the instructions. One additional thing I'll note here, the instructions say to cut off a small amount of metal on the inside from the frame. I did do this and painted to prevent rust, but with the Smittybilt winch there ended up being zero fitment issue, so not necessary for me in the end.

Bolts circled in red are the factory bolts you reuse, the left side being the side I had issues with getting the bracket in place AND the bolt reinstalled.

The issue I had was getting the brackets in place AND the bolts (page 7 section 2 J, K, and L. I could get the brackets in place between the bumper and frame OR I could get the bolt in (J), but not both. Honestly, this bolt doesn't seem to provide much. For K, I installed two bolts in this location using existing holes and there are 4 bolts per side securing the bumper. I could have left this smaller bolt out, but decided against that. I used what I had on hand to widen the hole to make the bolt fit.

Image with bolt (J) in but the the bracket won't fit.

Image with both brackets in place, but I can't get the bolt (J) in on the passenger side.

2 bolts from K in the instructions installed on the underside of the bumper and frame

Installing the winch - I went to Ace and grabbed some better bolts/nuts than what Smittybilt provides. Couldn't find any square nuts, but the ones I grabbed are just as wide as the square nuts and didn't spin while tightening.

Install instuctions are fine here on out I think. You do have to have the winch mounted to the plate with just the winch plate installed because because the bumper cover plate will cover the bumper area from underneath where you accss the bolts securing the winch.

The cover is secured using the largest bolts up front hand tight while you secure the cover plate from underneath back side. Once the 4 bolts securing the cover plate are in you pull the bolts from the front, place the end caps, install all 8 bolts/nuts and tighten.

Installing the fair lead - If you purchased the optional fair lead from MC, this is installed last. It comes with allen head bolts and acorn nuts to attach. All images I've seen have the acorn nuts on the outside, although they do protrude from the fair lead. I don't think this is an issue, you probably shouldnt not be winching at such an angle that your cable/rope would rub. In my instance there simply was not enough clearence to get a allen wrench inbetween the winch and bolt. I was able to insert the bolt from the outside and hold the acorn nut in place with a standard wrench and tighten it.

Shackle mount locations - I bought 4 different shackles from 4 different manufacturers and none fit. I noticed that the inside diameter was slightly smaller from the outside measurement where you insert the shackle pin. Outside was .87 and inside was .86 using a caliper. I ended up going with the Badland shackles and returning all the other sets (including very expensive Crosby shackles that wouldn't fit). I shaved down the pins to fit and hit them with a bit of spray paint.

Optional base skid plate - I haven't installed yet.

Winch cabling - I'll update with details later on how I ran the pos/neg cables from the winch to the battery. For now I'm just using a wing nut to attach pos cable when needed. When not connected the pos cable is covered in a plastic sheath.

 

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I installed Metalcloak full skid plates and the rear diff skid as well. It helps to have a floor jack and another set of hands, even if it's just someone helping hand tools sort of thing. Where ever possible, install hardware hand tight. I ran into an issue where I think the XF case and oil pan skid connect getting one of the bolts in. For me it didn't matter if things were finger tight or not, there was a large enough gap I had problems getting a bolt in a stripped it. So I ended up muscling in a hardened steel bolt.

 

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Speakers

I replaced the front 3.5" and the sound bar speakers with JBL speakers. The components are the JBL Club 64C and I used the JLJT pods to mount them.

The front speakers are a breeze. I ordered from Crutchfield so I got all needed wiring harnesses. For the sound bar you pull everything out, the instructions specify to reinstall all the screws that hold the factory speakers, so I did. I did put in some polyfill.

EDIT Jan/25

Ended up blowing a tweeter fairly early which crutchfield replaced. Did it again many months later (both actually) and decided to go back to factory speakers in the bar. Mainly because the woofers are worthless, hardly audible. It's the same for the factory "woofer". If all you're doing is replacing speakers without changing the wiring/crossover setup I would only recommend replacing the fronts.

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