tonygiotta
Well-Known Member
- First Name
- Tony
- Joined
- Aug 21, 2018
- Threads
- 15
- Messages
- 459
- Reaction score
- 665
- Location
- Turlock, CA
- Vehicle(s)
- '18 Firecracker Red JLUR
- Build Thread
- Link
- Occupation
- Fire Captain
- Thread starter
- #16
*December 22nd, 2018
Well... Wife and kids headed out of town Wednesday afternoon, providing me with a day and a half of "me" time before I had to go back to work. What better way to spend it than wrenching on the Jeep, right? Started working on it late afternoon and continued late into the night on the first day. Second day was an all day, late night affair. Today I am back at work and am tired, achy, and only partially done with the rear end. Haven't even touched the front end yet.
So, what happened? Some extra hardware, a bunch of missing hardware, no overall hardware inventory list, and pre-release instructions that didn't really go into much detail about which pieces of "supplied hardware" went where caused confusion and provided the first challenge. The real issue though was bracket fitment. The instructions indicated some bending/cutting of the pinch seam may be required so I was prepared for it, but it needs to be done in small increments, in a very tight space, with very limited access for tools. Even after clearancing the pinch seam, the passenger side bracket solidly contacted the body and the driver side made minor contact. I ground down the driver side bracket and had to cut a pretty good chunk out of the passenger side bracket to finally get it to fit in there. Also drilled a couple of small holes so I could remount the wiring clips that were originally attached to the factory shock tower.
I must have installed/removed each bracket at least 10 times during the fitting. Mind you they don't just slip into place. They need to be manipulated just right in order to get them under the wheel well liner, around wiring, past the fuel fill hose, under the trimmed pinch seam, and into position surrounding the factory shock tower. I then needed to remove them one final time to repaint them due to the cutting, grinding, drilling, and scraping damage I had inflicted upon them. This was a long and painstaking task, but I was pretty proud of how it turned out when I was done.
I called EVO a few times throughout the day and they were very helpful. They shipped out my missing hardware (as well as my backordered limit straps), answered some questions for me to confirm that I was proceeding correctly, and assured me that it would be OK to trim my brackets. Said they hadn't run into my issue with the 10 or so kits they had installed thus far, but that they weren't surprised as there are bound to be minor variations in dimensions between different vehicles. He also said they'd update the CAD drawing to reflect the needed design modification.
I'll post a few pictures when I get a chance. I started out taking lots of pictures, documenting the steps as if I was putting together instructions. However, as my progress got further and further off track, I started giving up. The whole experience was really pretty frustrating at times as I wasn't expecting a high-end (read expensive) "bolt on" kit to require this much fabrication on my part. I'm really hoping the front end install goes much smoother. Regardless, I still thoroughly enjoyed my "me" time...
Well... Wife and kids headed out of town Wednesday afternoon, providing me with a day and a half of "me" time before I had to go back to work. What better way to spend it than wrenching on the Jeep, right? Started working on it late afternoon and continued late into the night on the first day. Second day was an all day, late night affair. Today I am back at work and am tired, achy, and only partially done with the rear end. Haven't even touched the front end yet.
So, what happened? Some extra hardware, a bunch of missing hardware, no overall hardware inventory list, and pre-release instructions that didn't really go into much detail about which pieces of "supplied hardware" went where caused confusion and provided the first challenge. The real issue though was bracket fitment. The instructions indicated some bending/cutting of the pinch seam may be required so I was prepared for it, but it needs to be done in small increments, in a very tight space, with very limited access for tools. Even after clearancing the pinch seam, the passenger side bracket solidly contacted the body and the driver side made minor contact. I ground down the driver side bracket and had to cut a pretty good chunk out of the passenger side bracket to finally get it to fit in there. Also drilled a couple of small holes so I could remount the wiring clips that were originally attached to the factory shock tower.
I must have installed/removed each bracket at least 10 times during the fitting. Mind you they don't just slip into place. They need to be manipulated just right in order to get them under the wheel well liner, around wiring, past the fuel fill hose, under the trimmed pinch seam, and into position surrounding the factory shock tower. I then needed to remove them one final time to repaint them due to the cutting, grinding, drilling, and scraping damage I had inflicted upon them. This was a long and painstaking task, but I was pretty proud of how it turned out when I was done.
I called EVO a few times throughout the day and they were very helpful. They shipped out my missing hardware (as well as my backordered limit straps), answered some questions for me to confirm that I was proceeding correctly, and assured me that it would be OK to trim my brackets. Said they hadn't run into my issue with the 10 or so kits they had installed thus far, but that they weren't surprised as there are bound to be minor variations in dimensions between different vehicles. He also said they'd update the CAD drawing to reflect the needed design modification.
I'll post a few pictures when I get a chance. I started out taking lots of pictures, documenting the steps as if I was putting together instructions. However, as my progress got further and further off track, I started giving up. The whole experience was really pretty frustrating at times as I wasn't expecting a high-end (read expensive) "bolt on" kit to require this much fabrication on my part. I'm really hoping the front end install goes much smoother. Regardless, I still thoroughly enjoyed my "me" time...
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