Pockets are on their way to empty...2007 Jeep Wrangler

I've wanted a Wrangler since high school (part of the 'farm kid from the "city"' package, I suppose) and on July 3rd made it happen. I drove 2 hours north with my 2017 Expedition and came back with a 2007 JKU and I couldn't be happier. On the drive home, my right front blew out in spectacular fashion, and there was no jack or tools in the Jeep, so I waited in the middle of nowhere, reluctant to call my dad for help, for about 40 minutes before someone stopped to help. Got it home, ordered new tires and started planning. 

Friends of mine own the local Jeep parts/merch store as well as an offroad park and they were opening the park for a couple hours on the 4th. I had no spare, and my right front was noticeably smaller than the rest of my wheels/tires, but I went, anyway, because I'm responsible, or something. My stock-height Jeep did great, only needing recovered twice from being high-centered and never from being buried. 

Since then I've gotten new tires (obviously) with tread that's far more 'tread-y' without being loud, then new wheels, because the wheel of the tire that blew? It was warped. I swapped the front bumper for one with recovery hooks, still looking for a rear and spare mount. Then this past weekend I spent Saturday-Monday installing a 2.5" lift to help avoid high-centering, especially when I go to the Badlands this fall with some new friends. 

I've had the Jeep for 2 weeks and already I've learned a lot about it, and about myself. It's the first vehicle I ever bought alone -no one looked it over, no one else's name is on it - and I'm determined to do the repairs and upgrades with minimal help. 

So I needed to refinance my Expedition, for...reasons, and I figured that, if I was going to take the credit hit, I might as well see what's around to possibly trade it in instead. I looked around for a bit and found a Ram pickup that looked promising and decided to see what else was at the same dealership. If I was going 2 hours away to look at vehicles, I needed to have options in case my first choice fell through. That's when I noticed a 2009 JKU Rubicon on the lot for about the same price as the pickup, but it was a manual, and it was a Jeep. I wasn't crazy about the color (that wine red color), but the price was right and it looked to be in good shape, so I made plans to head up to Ottawa IL on Monday 7/3. I called first thing when the place opened and let them know I was coming to look at the Rubicon and would be there in 2-ish hours. They hadn't checked online sales, yet, though. 

I made the trip, pulled in and didn't see it anywhere. I went inside and asked only to find out that it had sold online the day before, and they didn't know that, yet, when I spoke to them. But again, I had already looked at the inventory, I knew what else they had, which, other than the Ram, included several other Jeeps that caught my eye. I asked about another wine red JKU, but when I got close to it, it was rusting out BAD behind the rear bumper. Then I spotted a black one that wasn't yet on the website, and if you don't know how I feel about car colors...I really only like to have black, white or gray, and in that order. Color on vehicles is not my thing, never really has been, except for Acadia Green on Subarus...

I took it for a drive, higher miles than I wanted, but it was the 3.8l which I knew had some quirks, and was underpowered, but reliable, the transmission, meh, tiny detail, and sure, some of the underpinnings were fairly rusty, but I didn't plan to leave it stock very long, anyway. And bonus, it had 4 new tires and the spare wasn't in bad shape. What missed my attention in the moment was that the spare was smaller in both wheel and tire size, and this would be important later...

So, I went for it, dropped my vehicle payment by over $100 in the process, and walked away with a Jeep, something I've wanted since high school. I traded my 2017 Expedition with power all-the-things, remote start and the ability to tow my camper for a 2007 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited 'X' model with manual everything. I had them show me how the top worked, left it flipped back, put my hair in a quick braid and it was done. I stopped to have lunch with a friend in the area before heading home. 

Driving home, I realized that not only did I love it, even without cruise control (nothing like a 2-hour drive home to really test that) but that, the way the wind wrapped around me with the top back and the windows down, really scratched the motorcycle itch, and I let myself just be in the moment for the entire drive, like I would if it were a motorcycle. That is, until I was about halfway home...

With an hour to go, I noticed it had started to pull a little bit, so I slowed down, gave it a trip through the invisible slalom, it felt ok, so I continued on. About a mile later I crossed some railroad tracks, and no more than cleared them and *bam* the right front blew in spectacular fashion. Now, I had driven up there in my Expedition, and this was the first time I was on my own to buy a vehicle, grabbing the minimal tools that I have was not something I thought about... I  pulled off to the side of the road, in the middle of nowhere, to get to work, opened up the back, lifted the floor.............no jack. No tire tool. Nothing. This wasn't good. It was also like 96* in the shade, minor detail. 

I decided to give it a half hour before calling for help. I was still an hour away from home, which would be 90 minutes from my dad, and, since he would have to get my Grandma together to come with, I was looking at closer to 3 hours before he got there if I needed him. Thankfully, right as I was about to call him, someone stopped; a diesel mechanic, with tools. 

We got the tire changed, the old one put in the back, and I was back on my way home, carefully. 

I finally got home, mildly upset that I was going to have to buy tires immediately, something I hadn't budgeted for, but I still came home with a Jeep. I decided that there was no way I was going to trust the other 3 tires, plus I didn't recognize the brand, so 4 new it was, one of the old-new ones would become the spare and the others would go into the garage as backup spares. It's a Jeep, and I have no plans to make her a pavement princess, so I think having extra tires around is probably a good thing. It was late, everything was closed, so I hopped on Walmart to see what I could find that wasn't going to break my wallet. I picked a set of tires and made the appointment to have them put on that Saturday, but there was a problem...

The problem? My friends were going to open the Jeep playground for a bit on the Fourth, and here I was, 3 18s and 1 17, no spare, and feeling salty. I decided to go and, if nothing else, just hang out, say 'hi' to people, and show off my new, yet-to-be-named, baby. If you don't have a season membership to the park, they ask that you meet at the shop by a certain time to pay and convoy out, so they don't have to deal with cash and releases at the entrance. I arrived at the shop, paid my fee, looked at my friend and said "I don't have a spare, so I'm just here for funsies and to hang out," he asked why, I repeated the 'no spare' part, and added the '17" vs 18"' part, and he asked 'why' again and reminded me that SOMEONE would have a spare to get me home...

It was the most fun I've had in a REALLY long time. It was the first time I had been in the driver's seat while playing offroad, and the first time, really, I had been offroad since I was a small child (my dad had a '79 F150 with a 6" suspension lift, 6" body lift and 44" tires, that's the first truck I remember). I learned just how much of what I had learned from driving Subarus and riding dirt bikes/quads translated to this, which was a lot, I learned that getting stuck was just another part of the fun, I made some new friends, and I learned that the plastic 'skid plate' under the front bumper? Yeah, it doesn't take too kindly to going face-first into a mud hole, and would get left behind when you came out of the same mud hole. I also learned that I didn't have recovery hooks, front or rear, but it was ok. 

A couple of days later, I got a FB message from one of the people that was at the park inviting me out that evening to a Jeep club gathering at a restaurant, which I happily accepted. By the end of that first week I had put my head together with my friend to come up with a lift setup that would be fairly sturdy, reduce the frequency of high-centering, and buy me some time to save $$ for the more costly upgrades while I took care of other things that needed to be done. 

seconds after losing the plastic skid plate, but I didn't know it was gone, yet. 



That's me getting un-stuck on the left from the same section where I had lost the plastic 'skid plate' earlier, also moments after we all realized that I didn't have hooks. 

After being at the Jeep playground, I knew I needed some upgrades, my tires were already taken care of, and the ones I ordered had a lot more bite to their tread, and were actual A/T-Trail tires, so that was handled, but I had to do something about this high-center problem. I started researching lifts and quickly realized that there were eleventy-quadrillion opinions on what was a good brand, what the cutoff height was for steering upgrades, etc, and I was in WAY over my head, so back to my friend's shop I went (the Outpost). I asked for help and he quickly told me that he doesn't get involved in planning lifts because of the aforementioned variances in opinion, but for me, he would help, knowing I wouldn't come back and be angry when something wasn't what I wanted. 

After a loooooong talk about what I was looking for, what the budget was, and what he had seen and heard firsthand from other Jeep people, we placed an order with quadratech. I wanted a lift that would reduce the risk of high-centering, give me a little more room for suspension travel in the future, would hold up to trails and the like, and would give me time to work on the loose nut behind the wheel before getting really stupid with it, and be minimal on the wallet. I decided on a Rough Country 2.5" lift with shocks, new rear end links and adjustable trackbars; front and rear, along with terraflex brake line 'brackets'. I also grabbed a set of JL hood latches, and my headlights were due in that same day. 

I went home, installed the new latches and headlights and anxiously awaited my tire appointment, which would be the first of MANY. 

Obviously before the headlights and latches. 

The tires.....oh the tires....I went to my tire appointment all excited to leave with decent steering, and RELISHED the drive home, plus, look at that tread....

BUT, when I woke up the next morning, the same right front that had blown, was flat. I reinflated it and went about my weekend, only to have it go flat again the next day. I took it back to get looked at and learned that the wheel itself was warped and the bead wouldn't set fully. SO, I put the 17" spare back on and began looking for wheels. I got lucky and found someone selling a set of 18" takeoffs from an anniversary-edition Sahara. One of them was a little beat up, but it was all 5, none were warped, and, for $100, I wasn't going to complain. 

I picked up the wheels, went BACK to get my tires remounted again, and finally left with 4 matching wheels/tires and a full-size spare. 

I also picked up a take-off front bumper, with recovery hooks, for $50. A swap that should have taken an hour, at most, took 4 hours because the bolts were too rusty for my weak self to get with hand tools, apparently. And one of them was so corroded that even getting red-hot wasn't doing the trick. I finally got it swapped, decided that the front plate was only going back on if I got stopped for it, and continued to read about how to put on a lift, because suspension is something I've NEVER messed with, and I was, and still am, determined to do all of the work to this myself. And I do mean MYSELF. 

Also, yes, those are the headlights that give Jeeps a bad name, but I took the time to properly aim them at time of install, and again after the lift went on. If anything, they're a bit too low, but I would rather not be a bad Jeep person. 

During all of this time (a whole week), I had a bit of a poll going on FB to help me decide on a name. We were down to Jeep-a-Saurus Wrecks, Mud Buggy or Cute-a-Saurus Wrecks when the name hit me like a punch in the gut and made me bawl in a way I haven't in a long time. 

10 (maybe more) years ago, a few friends and I were reading the Divergent series, and one of those friends commented on FB that I was Erudite (the genius faction), which I was glad for the compliment, but my best friend chimed in with, "No, Roz is straight up Dauntless," (the faction that's a little edgy and charged with being the fighters/enforcers). Later that year, in a conversation with someone else that I considered a best friend, Kira, who would become one of the 22 a day, was trying to convince me that she would be ok hiking in Tuscon, where she lived, alone. She was going over the safety gear that she had, her experience, and then said, "Besides, I'm Formidable as berkeley, I'll be ok" and Formidable as berkeley became a mantra for both of us, and still is for me. 

Dauntless, without fear, unable to be intimidated, Formidable as berkeley. 

That was it, that was her name: Dauntless. Not only was that her name, but reflecting on the word itself, it continued to become more and more applicable to what she is and this moment in time. Not only that, but I can't help but think that Kira would be cheering everything about my Jeep, but that she would also be on the first flight here to get first dibs on Chewie. Hence, the emotional breakdown. 

I bought vinyl in the most perfect colors, picked a font that lived up to the name, and put the vinyl cutter to work. I even went so far as to attempt to layer for the first time, and didn't do too bad, IMO. I had also been struggling with color plans since pink and teal are my favorite colors, but every girl that drives a black Jeep uses those colors, but that berry purple is available in a lot of accessories...purple it is. 

I forgot to include a picture of my Jeep full of wheels. At this point, this was the happiest drive I'd had with it, heading home with non-warped wheels and knowing they were getting mounted the next day. 

Sidenote: The back window of my soft top is in horrible shape. I've tried lemon Pledge, although I didn't really put any 'elbow grease' into it, it helped some, but not enough. Any suggestions?

Fun project!  My wife has a 2021 Wrangler Unlimited and she swears it's the last vehicle she wants to own.

As far as the back window, there are cleaners made specifically for plastic.  I have used Plexus in the past with good results.  You can't use regular cleaner as the ammonia damages the plastic.  Plexus is plastic polish so it cleans and removes minor haze.  It's worth a shot.

Enjoy the new rig!

This is awesome!  Great read, keep it going!!

The Dauntless Jeep Engine 

For windows like that, I use Novus plastic polish. There are three levels of it. Works on plastic headlights too. 

Jeep = Just Empty Every Pocket. Lol. Ask me how I know...

I like those Sahara wheels, shaping up nicely!

Laufenn is a Chinese tire brand.

Just say no to Chinese tires.

octavious said:

Jeep = Just Empty Every Pocket. Lol. Ask me how I know...

Just Exchange Every Part. As well.

In reply to AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) :

That's kind of what I assumed, and I've seen enough camper/rv issues with chinese-manufactured tires to stay away. 

In reply to Loweguy5 :

I have the windows (and front doors) off at the moment, so I was able to scrub the back window a bit more and got it looking a lot better. We'll see once it goes back on, but looking through it on the floor it looks pretty good. I did add the cleaner you mentioned to my list of things to try, though. 

In reply to John Welsh :

I honestly didn't know that was a thing, and somehow that makes me even happier with the name :) 

OK, so we finally have tires that are all the same size and all holding air, we have a name, what's next? A lift, of course! (no you didn't miss it, to this point, fluids/filters hadn't been done)

(I don't want to hear opinions on the lift I chose. It was an informed decision, and that's all there is)

Once again determined for the work on this to be mine as much as humanly possible, I made a plan. I started reading and watching everything I could on doing a 2.5" suspension lift with shocks, and felt pretty confident. I got the call that the parts were (mostly) in, clocked out of work early, and excitedly went to pick them up. The only thing missing was the front adjustable trackbar which was backordered, but, in theory, shouldn't be a big deal, at least in the short-term. On Friday, 7/15, I bit into the very first suspension thing I had ever done, and it bit back. HARD. 

After spending, literally, 6 hours trying to get the lower shock bolt to break loose on the left rear, the first spot I tried, I was beyond frustrated and beginning to feel like I had made a major mistake. I had a moment of cussing and crying then pulled my brain back together and considered everything I knew and the resources that I had. I had tried copious amounts of PB Blast, LOTS of passes with the torch, I even went and bought a cordless impact (no compressor), and still hadn't even gotten a hint of movement. So, I made the phonecall that I didn't want to make: I called my dad. Dad is a retired body repairman, he has the fancy tools and the big compressor. He also has a garage that I can work in, which means the bugs won't chew on me all night long. 

I put the tires back on, got it off the jackstands, packed up the parts and my tools and went to my parents' house. What everyone had said would be 1-2 hours on the rear and 2-3 on the front had now been an entire day of stress. I got to my parents' house, got unloaded, rear off the ground, tires off and called it a day. 

The next day was far less frustrating, other than having to hunt for metric tools when my dad retired from Ford and has almost exclusively SAE, but that just made things a bit more entertaining...or something. The best moment of the day was when the 3/4" drive impact broke that stupid shock bolt loose in seconds. The second best was when my cousin (he was helping my dad with something else, meaning I was mostly on my own for this) walked over, put his foot on the axle, and the spring popped into place. Then a few seconds later, the same on the other side. I got the wheels back on and started taking the front apart. 

(I'm fairly certain that those are the original rear shocks. They were ROUGH)

I had been warned that the top shock nut on the front was going to be a nightmare, and it definitely was, and was one of the moments where I was glad to have my dad's experience right there. He came out, looked at the fender well, cut out a piece, handed me a wrench, and, while it was slow going, I got it free. The other fender well was shaped a bit differently, and the nut was more stubborn, so I needed help again. Not so much guiding help this time, but actual help, because I didn't have any strength left in my hands. My dad cut out the same spot on the fender well, and got the spring out before handing me the keys to his Flex for the second night in a row. 

The last morning I got there so amped, expecting that the hard part was over and everything was going to go back together like the rear did...HA! The passenger side went right into place, but the driver side? There just wasn't room for the spring to pop in. I went to O'Reilley's for a spring compressor, but had never used one before, so I didn't know that I actually needed a strut-spring compressor, so that was no help. I had my entire self (and I'm not a waif) on the axle and it wasn't moving AT.ALL. I kept saying 'how about this,' 'how about that,' and all the while my dad was saying 'just disconnect the driveshaft.' ALWAYS listen to Dad. You would think I would have learned this by now, but no, I fought it pretty intently. Disconnected the driveshaft, the spring slipped right in with plenty of room to comfortably line it up in the channel. 

Again, we started putting it back together, which went great until I grabbed the Teraflex flexible brakeline 'brackets' and looked at the bracket my brakeline HAD been connected to under the springmount. That was a thick piece of aluminum that had obviously been clamped around the brakeline without any intention on it ever coming out, but it had to. OK, 2 pairs of vice grips, and brute strength it was going to be. It took time, and my wrist is still a bit (a lot) messed up from it, but it got done. Once that was done, I once again thought this was it, this was the moment, when my dad went "OH E36 M3" and my heart sank. We were each working on a side, and he was getting the top shock nut started when he dropped it. He dropped it, but it was nowhere; we didn't hear it hit the ground, couldn't find it with a magnet, it was just gone, and while my dad has an EXTENSIVE spare fastener collection, it's all course thread and SAE. His neighbor, though, is a retired machinist, so he made a phonecall, grabbed the shock and went down the road where the neighbor had just what was needed. 

I got started again on the shock, got it done, and finished putting everything back together. The wheels went on, headlight angle was checked, and out of the garage it went! I haven't felt that accomplished about a car-related project since I pulled my car out of the paintbooth in high school. I also have never worked that hard in that short of a time, in my life. I'm bruised, quite literally, from head to toe, still, but it's done. And while I had help, my dad was VERY quick to tell me that he didn't help, he advised, loaned tools and was an extra hand once I had it going, so I still did it myself. I not only did suspension things, I did hard suspension things that required problem-solving for things that I didn't plan for, and this was the outcome: 

​​​​​​​ 
I'm 5'3" on a tall day, there are no rock sliders/running boards on my Jeep and the bottom of the door now sits about 30" off the ground. I'm told watching my little "grab the rollbar and swing in" move is entertaining. 

Oh, I almost forgot...This is from that first day at the Jeep park, 7/4, mine is the very first Jeep. Bone-stock, worn out, unproven, on a spare dramatically smaller than the other wheels/tires and no backup spare. 

https://www.facebook.com/reel/659840102718703

OK, so looking back through pictures, the lift install was actually far more of an adventure, and part of that adventure is losing her mind playing with her own shadow behind me...

But I know there will be questions about what the lift consisted of, soooooo: 

2.5" Rough Country springs
Rough Country shocks
Rough Country adjustable trackbars, front and rear (front is back-ordered at present)
Rough Country rear sway bar endlinks (rear got moved to the front) 
Teraflex flexible brake-line brackets

Also on order is a new draglink, which will probably be here today. 

(My dad should really clean up the side-by-side better before he brings it in, look at that mess ;) )

I decided to go with RC because I plan on lifting it a bit higher, and didn't see the point in investing a ton into this lift when I'm just going to be taking it off in a couple of years. Also, no matter what people say about RC, they've been around for a VERY long time and have a ton of parts on the road. That wouldn't be the case if they were the trash that everyone likes to say they are, IMO. Are they the best? No. Am I going to go jump my Jeep with it? Nope. But it gets the centerpoint higher to prevent getting hung up, especially if I end up going on the Badlands trip this fall. 

Next year I will start making upgrades TOWARD a bigger lift, the end result of which is likely 3+ years down the road, because expensive, and because there's a lot that has to come first, including a lot of time spent on my own knowledge and driving skills. 

Anyway, so about midway through the second day working on it, first full day at my dad's, he came in the garage and told me there was a kitten stuck in the pond, I could probably get to it through the neighbor's property, and he had already let the neighbor know I'd be over. I walked out of the garage to look and heard it's sad, scared cries, grabbed the carrier and towel my dad had already gotten out and made my way to it. The poor thing was terrified, and had gotten itself stuck on a log in the pond and didn't feel confident to make the jump back to shore. I could just reach her, though, so I grabbed her and put her in the carrier to get her set up, temporarily, at the house so I could take her to the humane society the next day. At least that was the plan....

I would like to introduce you to River (Amelia Pond -> River Song -> River Tamm), who is clearly, 100% going to find a new home, because I don't need another cat.....yeah, nope. She isn't going anywhere. 

In reply to RozCougarMorbidcamp :

that is *not* the face of taking a cat to the humane society. :-)

nice work on the Jeep!

In reply to AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) :

It certainly is not. Her tucked into my hoodie napping away is also not taking her to the humane society. She's here to stay...

In reply to RozCougarMorbidcamp :

Great work on the jeep.

Often, fate puts a cat right where it needs to be for you to find them.

How's the new suspension ride?