Raising Seabass

[jlbanzet]

I’m about 1 1/2 years into my build, but I’m going to start this thread from day one and add to it until I’m caught up for anyone interested.

June 2020, I brought home my 2016 JKU Backcounty. 95k miles. Lived in Oklahoma at the time but would be making the move to Colorado the next month. It was time to sell the old Dodge and be better suited for adventures in the mountains. I bought it with 33 Toyo open country tires on a 2.5 puck lift. Still had stock shocks because Oklahoma I guess. Some random front bumper and uga-buga grill.
I figured this would get me by for a good while until I met Bierpower at work. Not only is he a fantastic mechanic, he’s also extremely helpful at showing me how to spend my money. So the Jeep has come a long ways in a short amount of time.

 

[Bierpower]

I forgot just how bad that grill was.

 

[jlbanzet]

Disclaimer: your will hear Bierpower’s name A LOT. He has done the majority of the work on my rig. I’ve learned a ton by working with him. Also, he just has great tools
That’s said, my first modification to Seabass was a disconnecting sway bar with the manual bypass i got from Bierpower. It was nice to be able to flex a bit, but I still had the stock shocks limiting my travel.
Shortly after I upgraded to 35” ridge grapplers. Also upgraded the rims since I absolutely hated what was on it. Factory tire carrier replaced with Evo Pro Series hinged gate carrier so as not to send a tire bouncing down the highway.

 

[jlbanzet]

Bumper and armor came next. Plus probably one of my favorite aesthetically pleasing mods, swapping out uga-buga grill for factory correct dragon grille. The silver really stands out, but it’s still so much better than what was on it.
Chopped the front frame cross member for the Evo Quarter Pounder and stinger. Installed Evo radius fender flares. Learned a valuable lesson on what temperatures are too cold to paint at. Fenders we’re all painted up and started the clear coat just for the clear to wrinkle up on me. I was too angry to do it again, so Bierpower stripped them and painted them for me (he was smart enough to wait for warmer weather). Also, if you have a black Jeep, Rustoleum black is basically paint match

 

[jlbanzet]

Some basic trail necessities came next. AnyTone 10 Meter Radio and ARB twin Innovative JK 4 tire system. Radio works great for its size except for the small speaker. 4 tire system installs under the passenger seat and tee’s to both sides. Airing up and down is so easy now. Plus it’s fun to turn the compressor on when someone sits in the passenger seat
Also, after installing the fenders, we did away with the rear bumper. That also called for 86ing the stock exhaust. Install Dynomax Super Turbo muffler after running exhaust open for a couple of weeks. 3.6 with no muffler isn’t the most aggressive sound out there if you were curious.
Also did away with the china light bar and pods that came on it.

 

[jlbanzet]

Finally! The next step was my favorite yet. No more puck spacers with factory, worn out shocks neutering my travel. Upgraded to the EVO King coilovers. Man did this change the game for me. Bierpower and I seemed optimistic about the time frame of the install at first, but after a Saturday and Sunday of working until midnight, the sheer joy of having coilovers quickly turned to just happy to be done.
But it was well worth it. The trails became much more enjoyable and the rig much more capable.

 

[jlbanzet]

Needed some recovery gear. Went with an Warn EVO 12S.
The move up to the coilovers created some death wobble. Picked up a Synergy track bar and sector shaft brace. Also replaced worn out factory stabilizer with a new bilstein. No more death wobble.

 

[jlbanzet]

So the wiring job done by the previous owner wasn’t exactly top notch. Random things were just cut out. Some type of horn and interior lights plus random switching under the steering column (most likely a kill switch). Bierpower isn’t one to do any type of job and not make it as quality as possible. So we cleaned up all of that wiring nightmare and I went the extra step and installed a Switch-Pros 9100. Excellent product. Also picked up a pair of KC Flex Era 3 pods for the A-pillar since I trashed the Amazon special lights that came with it.

 

[cozdude]

I clicked on this thread at first cause I was expecting to read tips on how to raise seabass…… boy was I wrong

 

[Bullwinckle]

I clicked on this thread at first cause I was expecting to read tips on how to raise seabass…… boy was I wrong

…and at that moment your dreams of owning a seabass farm on the coast were but a haze…

 

[jlbanzet]

Riding higher on the coilovers needed a new front drive shaft. 1350 Extreme Duty from Adams has worked great. Got it installed just in time for Black Bear, Engineer and Imogene.

 

[Mike Pierson]

Wow, nice transformation!

 

[jlbanzet]

Wow, nice transformation!

Thank you! Still some big changes in the works.

 

[jlbanzet]

Ran with no third brake light for a while after installing the EVO tire carrier. Picked up the EVO license plate relocate kit and a Rigid chase light. Bierpower helped me mod the plate holder to mount the chase light and also installed a plug for when the spare has to come off. I was really happy with how it turned out.

 

[jlbanzet]

Upgraded the Rubi sliders to the EVO pro series bombers and added the EVO High n’ Tight rear bumper. A heads up when installing the bombers, make sure you don’t have any straps covering up bolt holes while installing. Thought we had extra hardware when we just a missed couple holes. We felt very intelligent after that discovery .
Anyways. Install was pretty easy on both. Bombers seem plenty sturdy, but haven’t got to test them out yet. High n’ Tight bumper really adds a ton of clearance to the back. Love how they turned out.

 

[jlbanzet]

So this is where I’m currently at in the build. I’m happy with how Seabass has turned out to this point. But now that Bierpower is making some pretty big changes, I couldn’t get left behind. So I decided to make the jump to one tons and 40’s. Picked up an 05+ Ford Super Duty front and Chevy 14 bolt rear (Will need disc brake conversion). Will soon start cutting and cleaning these up. Plan is to go 5.38 with ARB lockers. I also finally got a daily driver so I can stop putting the miles on the Jeep and let it sit while we work on it. Big undertaking, but very excited. We’ll see how much work Bierpower actually let’s me do on it.

 

[Billy Joe]

Nice build. Seems like a beast.

 

[Bierpower]

Since this hasn't been updated in 9 months I throw up an update.

We started getting the front truss welded on this weekend. Lots of welding.

 

[jlbanzet]

 

[jlbanzet]