BeeBee's Build Journey

[M_Pluto]

So On August 2, 2022* I placed an order for a MY23 JLUR with a manual transmission in Earl. I'll include my build sheet for anyone who is interested in seeing my options. I should note though, that I've since revised my order to exclude the all-weather mats, but I have yet to get the revised order sheet back from my dealer. After talking to my dealer about it, they aren't getting deleted, but he will give me a discount on the mats.

I left the dealer on with a VON in hand the day I ordered. As of Aug 19, I have yet to receive a VIN, though I was advised by my dealer that I should expect expecting the VIN anywhere from 4 weeks to 3-4 months, and roughly 6 months for arrival.

And so, the wait begins.

*Made changes to my order and added Dual top & 4.88 gearing on Aug 10, 2022, effectively restarting the clock on my order.

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[n8billings]

We've ordered close to the same Jeep!

 

[M_Pluto]

Hokay, so now that the introductory stuff is done, I'll move onto talking about what direction I'm gonna take this build. The short answer is: hell if I know. The long answer is hell if I know, but I do know the following:

1. This will be my daily driver before anything else. I ain't made of the kind of money to own more than one vehicle.... I'm not even sure how much longer my 02 Protege is gonna last TBH, hopefully long enough for my baby beast to arrive.
2. Because this is my main source of transportation, I'm gonna start off being as practical as I can in how it looks/feels/rides and it's over all use. No lifts planned or any crazy mods planned at the moment.
3. I do hope to do some light to medium off-roading to start, see how I do on the trails, but I'll probably be doing more camping off the beaten track to start. I need to get to know the girl, not jump right in bed with her.

As things stand right now, my current shopping list that I'm slowly formulating and attempting to sort out what will be my immediate "needs", my "wants", and my "nice to haves, but not super important" things. Unlike @MeatRack I have yet to put together a spreadsheet, filled with costs and notes, but I do have a mental list I'll put down here.

Immediate Needs help (either purchased immediately or have on hand at delivery):

1. Winter tires (35's)
2. Second set of rims for winter tires for easy/fast changeover of summers to winters
3. Weather mats, either Mopar, weatherTech, or whomever else, might even just get something cheap from Canadian Tire to start and figure out a long term solution. (see below for why)
4. Seatbelt harness for my baby girl, pictured in my profile. Might also get for family dogs that I frequently chauffeur around as well?

Secondary Needs (purchased a few months after my bank account has recovered from the shock of being drained for the down payment):

1. 35" Summer tires.
2. Spare 35" winter tire (would rather not run a 33" summer spare in the middle of winter with a set of 35"s... should probably also look into spare 35" summer tire as well...)
3. hinge gate reinforcement (Currently trying to decide between Terraflex & Rugged Ridge, anyone have some input on them?)
4. Spare tire mount (again, either terraflex or rugged ridge, more than happy to have some input)
5. Some kind of step/ramp for easy access of the vehicle for a very special senior German Shepard who would otherwise need her ass end lifted into the car!
6. a basic recovery gear bag with rope, first aid kit (level 2 min), and other stuff I'll need which brain is currently farting to remember. As I don't plan on going anything beyond serviceable FSR in the first year-ish, a winch has been delegated to a further into the future purchase.)

Primary wants (First year purchases ):

1. Tube doors, either Rugged Ridge or Mopar, prefer Rugged Ridge, but my purchase will most likely depend on availability, order time, import taxes & shipping (if order from US), and domestic availability.
   • I'm currently debating/looking into painting the tube doors to match the body colour, as I think it could look pretty rad....
2. wireless CarPlay (through trawling the forum I've learned it's possible, just gotta read up more on it, how much parts will cost, and what it takes to install)
3. JL Tazer mini? (still need to learn what it is and if it would be useful for my use case)
4. 67designs w/JL Rail Mount (MagMount?)

Secondary wants (to be purchased when there are available funds at some undetermined time in the future):

1. Lizard Skin Sound Deadening & Ceramic (white) bedliner so the carpets can be torn out & the tub bed-lined (highest priority on this list).
2. Higher powered amp & bigger bass, I want something that will make a person cream themselves.
3. Some kind of aux. lighting, need to spend some time thinking about configuration & what will best suit my needs
4. that dual battery system [Genesis Dual Batteries] that stops you from draining your battery to the point your engine can't turn over.
5. door sill guard
6. grab handles.
7. A dedicated toolkit for body/exterior mods.
8. door hanging kit for when I switch between factory & tube doors (DIY maybe?)
9. some kind of hardtop hoist or way to store hardtop so that it doesn't just lie on the ground waiting to be wrecked.
10. some kind of rock-rails with a step that doesn't mess with clearance? More research needed.
11. Winch & full recovery kit.
12. some kind of headliner?
13. tailgate table?

Pipe Dream Purchases:

1. Ursa Minor J30 camper top. (~$13,540 USD ≈ $18,411.29)
2. Alpine Restyle i509-WRA-JK (~$3,700 CAD)

 

[M_Pluto]

We've ordered close to the same Jeep!

Oh awesome! What did you get different?

 

[MeatRack]

Nice write up and good logic. Look forward to following your build.

 

[n8billings]

Oh awesome! What did you get different?

Just a lot less. Ha! The only options I added were trailer two and 4.88 gears. Now we wait.

 

[M_Pluto]

Just a lot less. Ha! The only options I added were trailer two and 4.88 gears. Now we wait.

Oh cool, do you plan on doing a lot of aftermarket modding to your jeep?

 

[n8billings]

Oh cool, do you plan on doing a lot of aftermarket modding to your jeep?

Not a ton. 35’s for sure. Likely bumpers and winch. But who knows. I’ll likely go crazy with all the options.

 

[M_Pluto]

Haha, I am able to afford tube doors for the first summer I have my jeep, it's the one mod I have on my list that I am really looking forward to..... mostly because where I live, it's only street legal to run a vehicle without doors if it came from the factory without doors (an older TJ or YJ thing I'm told?). So tube doors is the closest I can get.

 

[Hit&Crawl]

Here is a Jeep build list with costs and notes as your inspiration and guide, I love the way you have categorized your upgrades into primary and secondary upgrades. Rugged ridge over the Mopar middle tubes bowing out all day. Watching out for this thread; looking forward to the community and your Jeep Wrangler build.

 

[letsassume]

Can’t go wrong with the 67d jl rail mount. I currently have the magmount G3 and while it’s neat, I run various combinations of case on/off, apple wallet attached, and I wirelessly charge. Currently, if I’m using the magmount, I’m taking my phone out of its case to place it. If I get around to it, I’ll be buying the universal g2 instead.

Just something to think about while you wait.

 

[M_Pluto]

Can’t go wrong with the 67d jl rail mount. I currently have the magmount G3 and while it’s neat, I run various combinations of case on/off, apple wallet attached, and I wirelessly charge. Currently, if I’m using the magmount, I’m taking my phone out of its case to place it. If I get around to it, I’ll be buying the universal g2 instead.

Just something to think about while you wait.

Chances are, I'll send up buying both tbh

 

[M_Pluto]

I should note though, that I've since revised my order to exclude the all-weather mats, but I have yet to get the revised order sheet back from my dealer. After talking to my dealer about it, they aren't getting deleted, but he will give me a discount on the mats.

Some context on this, originally I wanted to delete the mats because from what I've seen on parts of this forum, ordering Mopar add-ons from the factory can often be something that will hold/delay your order back. Also, I looked online at Mopar's Canadian website, and the mats are about $100 less. So I texted my dealer, and asked for them to be removed. He replied eventually telling me that if I really wanted the mats removed, they could do it, but it would essentially move my order to the back of the queue, and restart the clock on my order. OR they could just take the difference of the cost from Mopar off my mats, begrudgingly I chose the latter.

 

[M_Pluto]

Update on my order: earlier this week on Tuesday (08/23) I got news that I had reached C status..... Yesterday (08/25) I was passive aggressively told by my guy at the dealer to stop bugging him for updates.... Kinda irritated because I haven't bothered him more than 2x per week. It was usually only once. Oh well.

 

[M_Pluto]

I have some updated thoughts on mods after doing a lot some a little bit of research, though more work is to be done. I begrudgingly welcome input.

Before I dive into stuff below, I do have a bit of good news:

1. I settled on a name fo ray jeep! BeeBee (aka Baby Beast). It's given me some ideas for decals & different avenues to decorate my jeep...
2. I went to my mechanic shop and asked them for a ballpark price what it would cost me to borrow one of their guys for a couple of hours to tag along on my purchase and do a once over on the jeep. The cost? A box of doughnuts for everyone and a free ride behind the wheel of my jeep for who comes along. I figure it's a pretty good deal. Also, it's good business for them as they are where I will be taking my jeep for regular servicing & repairs. Basically anything mechanical or electrical I'll be taking to them.

Primary wants (First year purchases ):

1. Tube doors, either Rugged Ridge or Mopar, prefer Rugged Ridge, but my purchase will most likely depend on availability, order time, import taxes & shipping (if order from US), and domestic availability.
   • I'm currently debating/looking into painting the tube doors to match the body colour, as I think it could look pretty rad....
2. wireless CarPlay (through trawling the forum I've learned it's possible, just gotta read up more on it, how much parts will cost, and what it takes to install)
3. JL Tazer mini? (still need to learn what it is and if it would be useful for my use case)
4. 67designs w/JL Rail Mount

1. I found out that I can locally source Rugged Ridge tube doors! Which is excellent news, as I was looking online for ordering & it looks like in addition to the cost of the doors, I would be looking at ~$250 USD extra on top of my order to cover import duties, taxes, & shipping... So I will be sourcing locally as much as possible. Support local businesses, right?
2. Still need to look into this, as looks like it's possible that some of the threads I was looking at originally are a bit out of date with parts/instructions as newer (better?) stuff has come to market since the JL first came out.
3. Haven't looked into this much, other than seeing a lot of jeep owners include it as an early purchase for their builds.... I should probably find out why.
4. Not gonna lie, I am debating buying a new iPhone 14 when they come out next month just so I can use the mag mount

Secondary wants (to be purchased when there are available funds at some undetermined time in the future):

1. Lizard Skin Sound Deadening & Ceramic (white) bedliner so the carpets can be torn out & the tub bed-lined (highest priority on this list).
2. Higher powered amp & bigger bass, I want something that will make a person cream themselves.
3. Some kind of aux. lighting, need to spend some time thinking about configuration & what will best suit my needs
4. that dual battery system that stops you from draining your battery to the point your engine can't turn over.
5. door sill guard
6. grab handles.
7. A dedicated toolkit for body/exterior mods.
8. door hanging kit for when I switch between factory & tube doors (DIY maybe?)
9. some kind of hardtop hoist or way to store hardtop so that it doesn't just lie on the ground waiting to be wrecked.
10. some kind of rock-rails with a step that doesn't mess with clearance? More research needed.
11. Winch & full recovery kit.

1. After visiting about 6 different local shops, and calling an additional 4 who all turned me down to do an install of lizard skin I finally found a guy to do it for me! YAY! I will no longer have to to the teardown myself (which is great, because from what videos I've watched on this, it is something that requires a little more OCD and a little less ADHD). I've also found a sort of local place to source it (I mean, it's a 5 hour drive away, but the fact that I can get it easily in province is something to be celebrated, because they also charge about $100 less than the prices I was seeing in Bezos-land)
2. This probably a year 2 or 3 project TBH. Unless the alpine bass is extremely shitty. I really do want a cream yourself bass though. Cannot understate how much I love a deep seat vibrating bass.
3. Still need research.
4. Genesis Dual battery! I've looked into it some more, and while it does have some really cool features, after some more digging I found that if I either hook anything up using the factory aux switches or the rear 12v power supply, they drain power from the designated "crank" battery. I'll have to do some more research here to see if there is some workaround for this, and how doable/easy it is. If it's too complicated there's a good chance I'll just let this mod go.
5. Looking at the weather tech clear film solution right now, as they list their prices in CAD and have free shipping in Canada. Ya'll yanks have no idea how much of a big deal the first one is.
6. Will probably go with a cheap Bezos-land purchase here. Don't see the need to spend a lot of $$ on something name brand and fancy.
7. Anyone have suggestions as to what I should include in this?
8. I don't know who I am kidding by saying I'll go DIY, I'll likely be lazy and end up spending money to get a kit. I like the ones that have door latches included to keep them from swinging out.
9. I gotta talk to my dad about helping me build an extra shed for my jeep & a place to stash my jeep place. If I can get a simple 3 sided carport built of some sort built for stashing stuff, I can probably get a hoist. If not, I'll have to get some sort of cart solution. Worst case scenario, I place some blankets on the ground & wrap it with a tarp (though I would really rather avoid that last one, as it is a desperate measures solution thing to do).
10. I'm currently looking at the RedRock ones for now, but I can be easily swayed to something else if an argument is made. I just like the look of the RedRock ones. *shrug*
11. Anyone have any suggestions as to what size of winch I should be getting (ie, what is the load limit?). I've heard a few different numbers be tossed around, but I'd like some input on this.

Pipe Dream Purchases:

1. Ursa Minor J30 camper top.

1. I'll need either a winning lottery ticket or a sugar daddy (or sugar momma, I am not picky) to get this one. Please feel free to DM me if you would like to make an offer!

As for making it to the end of this post, here have a cookie and a doughnut!

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