Scout - A 2008 JKU Sahara DD slow build..

Escher

Escher

New member
Dubbed Scout by my wife - and I like it as well.

We had been jeep-less for the last 6-7 years.

Long story short, when we started talking about having kids - and realized how much room our three dogs (at the time) took up, we decided to sell our '99 TJ and get a '99 Grand Cherokee. Unfortunately, that did NOT go well - we ended up with a total lemon and ended up putting about $7K into it over the course of two years.. finally trading it in (for $1k no less... ugh!)... and we became a minivan family.

Then we had our kiddos - Izak showed up in '09 and his sister Aryanna in '10 - yes, we planned it that way! But now the kids are older and Izak is in a booster and his sister probably in the next few months.

So - I was driving a 2011 Ford Focus, and was just south of 90K... So it was time to find something new as the warranty on the focus was about to expire - and frankly, I never bonded with the car. It was a means to an end, but definitely not anything that I enjoyed driving.

I have always driven the econobox/high MPG car in the family. When we had the Jeeps in the past, my Wife drove them as her commute was much shorter than mine.

Well, I will be 42 in May - and I decided that you know what - I make enough and can budget for the extra gas costs to drive something fun if I can find a used vehicle and keep the payment reasonable... as long as I can manage a warranty - we just don't have the cash to absorb a major driveline failure.

At the end of the day, I decided to stop my my local Chrysler dealer and found the perfect Jeep - it was $10K less than the other 2008's on the lot due to high mileage (Scout has 166K currently). Long story short - We negotiated a decent payment and rolled in a 250K mile warranty!

This is Scout the day before we picked him up:

Izak with the new jeep before purchase. by Christopher Purdy, on Flickr
 
First updates - New shoes..

The tires that were included were better suited for the dragstrip as they were pretty near slicks...

So - we had to get that remedied right quick!

I went with 33" duratrac's:

JK-1 by Christopher Purdy, on Flickr
 
Goals

As I said in the thread title - this is my daily driver, and we aren't a huge off-roading family. That being said, we do have a family cottage in northern MI that we go to every summer, and there are literally hundreds of miles of snowmobile trails and ORV trails, so we do enjoy that. Just no serious rock crawling or mudding.. I know - famous last words, right? :)

So my goals for Scout are as follows:
Moderate size tires with a very aggressive tread pattern that also have excellent snow and ice traction. Seems like the Duratrac's were the best bet here.

Small lift (2-4 inches) to allow for articulation with the larger tires. Most likely just a leveling kit or similar.

Probably some wheel spacers to give a bit more aggressive stance.

Front bumper with a brush guard / short stinger

Rocker protection of some sort

Various cosmetic upgrades - black grille, black hinges, short antenna, Soft top.

Sound system upgrades - new head unit, new speakers all around.

...and I'm sure I'll fine more to do as well... :)
 
Short Vacation - to work on Scout!

I took today off as I wanted to hit a couple problem areas right away...

Hinges and Thermostat.

Scout had the typical hinge cancer - serious galvanic corrosion - and my kids couldn't open the doors - heck, I barely could!

So I decided to take matters into my own hands.

First - Let this one sink in for a second - Let's see if you can make the connection:
Hinges and grille update by Christopher Purdy, on Flickr

Do you get it?

Well - if you don't - I'll fill you in - the Milk jug. The material used in them is HDPE - High Density Poly-Ethylene.... and it makes a great bearing material.

So - if you don't want to shell out $50 bucks for the delrin insert kit - you can make some bearing material out of an old milk jug.

I use a wire wheel to get all of the old paint off the hinges and then I painted them with Rustoleum bedliner.

Hinges and grille update by Christopher Purdy, on Flickr

Getting them apart was a bear! I had to beat them apart using a piece of aluminum stock, but after a couple of hours they all came free. - anyways, I digress..

More on the bearings:

Hinges and grille update by Christopher Purdy, on Flickr

Make sure to cut a long enough piece of milk- jug so that when you work the hinge back together, some material gets trapped between the body-side hinge and the door side hinge. You can then trim the material back a bit with a sharp utility knife.

Hinges and grille update by Christopher Purdy, on Flickr

Now - to do this properly - you really need to clean all the corrosion off the back of the hinges as well, and make sure that side gets painted also - or else you will get more galvanic reaction and more corrosion.

Why didn't I do that? Well, two reasons - first, this HAD to get done today, and I barely had time to let the bedliner cure as is was - so I may hit them again over the summer... or maybe just send them out to get powder coated - or maybe I'll just buy new door-side hinges all together... But for now - this was a good stop-gap.

I also know that I need to touch up the forward edges of the body-side hinges as they didn't get much paint... but once again - I just didn't have time... I'll get back to it at a later date.

My doors now swing closed under their own weight... perfect!
 
Nice job, how far north is your cabin? Spent a lot of time in the manistee national forest area growing up and found a guy on here that lives in manistee. There are a lot of Michigan members
 
JKbrick said:
Nice job, how far north is your cabin? Spent a lot of time in the manistee national forest area growing up and found a guy on here that lives in manistee. There are a lot of Michigan members
Click to expand...

Thanks - Our place is located on Lake Huron, about half way between Rogers City and Cheboygan - near the M68 and US23 intersection.
 
Escher said:
Next up is a new audio system.. Stay tuned..
Click to expand...

Ohhh I totally forgot about this... DOH!!

So - I swapped out the factory head for a Pioneer DEH-80PRS. I also swapped the factory fronts for a set of Pioneer component speakers.

The nice thing about the 80PRS is that you can use it to bi-amp component speakers... you can assign the crossover points and slope - its a VERY Hi-FI head unit if you are into audio.

I then added a 10" sub with Kenwood amp running at 150W bridged and got rid of the factory sub. For now, its just a plain jane Sony Xplod sub in a generic box I picked up at the local pawn shop for next to nothing. I'll be throwing in a Pioneer Champion 10" sub shortly (Or an Infinity Kappa Perfect 10.1 if I can find one).

Pulled the sound-bar speakers as the head doesn't run a rear channel if you use the bi-amp option. Which is fine - the sound is the best I've heard in a vehicle... it approaches similar levels of quality to what I'd look for in my home Hi-FI.. Yes I'm one of THOSE audiophile guys.
 
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