I'm hoping they come out with that color 'Eagle Brown' (EJS) color for 2023...Looks a little like this great old color.If I buy another CJ-7 I’m making it as clean and simple as can be like this. This would be a great carryover to a new one as well.
Did you make the decals for the slotted rims? Very nice btwCool build! I too am going for a retro vibe with mine. I looked for some mid-late ‘70’s inspired decals but couldn’t find any that I liked so I went with early ‘70’s style stripes. I plan to make bumpers that look like something from that vintage with KC lights.
Looking forward to updates!
Gregj
Those wheels are Mopar Preformance wheels that I painted black, didn’t really like the gray. I ordered the sticker for the wheel from a vendor, I don’t remember which one but will look for them later. Thanks.
Gotcha! It caught my eye because I have the same wheels, and some sort of accent would be sweet. As you can see I sorta leaned into the grey... I'd definitely be interested in learning about your method for painting the rims.
We had the Mickey Thompson wheels on our JK—such awesome look. I’m looking forward to seeing your build.Now with the retro theme set, I needed wheels to match. I liked the Mickey Thompson Classic IIIs as well as the American Racing Ansen 969s but they were discontinued. Ultimately, I went with the Quadratec soft 8s because the gunmetal picks up on the gray highlights in the grille and headlight surrounds of the Rubicon package. So, a bit of modern color on a classicly styled wheel. Keeping added rotational mass to a minimum with the new wheels and tires was a major priority and the biggest reasons I stuck with the K02s. There are probably some other A/Ts that are better are certain things but for an overall solid tire at a light weight it's really hard to beat the BFGs.
Edit: I got curious when they arrived and threw one on our shipping scale. Dead nuts at 24.00 pounds with the full cap installed. So, just about 2lbs or so heavier than the factory Rubicon wheel. I'll take that.
I imagine they are replacing the hinges, but are they replacing the doors/hood as part of the repair? The doors look pretty bad.
I over geared for sure. The jeep was far more streetable on 4.10's and 38's than it is now on 5.38's. It's in 8th gear by the time you get to 50mph and has nowhere to shift from there. We went from average 17.5mpg to 15...or less. You can forget about cruising 85mph on I5 and keeping up with the flow of traffic, as your pushing 3k rpms and getting 12 mpg in return. It's no quicker 0-60mph than it was before the regear. The only place that it's better is off road, in high range as the 4-1 transfer case didn't need any more gearing than the 4.10's provided. Did it shift between 7th and 8th frequently before? Absolutely, which is what it should do with a double Overdrive 8 speed. 4.88's may of been better than the 4.10's, swinging all the way to 5.38's is 100% not an improvement over the stock gearing.
I'm not sure what their fix will be but I do agree the doors are awful. My plan was always to run the half doors in all but the coldest months. It would be my preference that they just replaced the full doors. It wouldn't hurt my feeling to get a new hood as well. We, the body shop manager and I, went over the tailgate thoroughly and did not see any signs there. I'm definitely disappointed that I have to wait a few more weeks because I've been busy gathering parts the last few weeks to bring this all together as quick as I can.
All those great 4x4s from the late 60's into the 70s and 80s have exploded. I'm a huge Scout fan and I can't believe what they're going for these days. It's actually cheaper to mod my Rubicon with CJ vibes than to build up an old school ride the way that I'd want to?
