New here names Mark,

Ran into (Rudy) today and bought some rubi wheels from him, got to talking and he pointed me in this direction.

I have a 1998 ZJ Laredo with a 4.0L 2" BB and 245/75/R16 MTR's & JKS Quick Disconnects. As well as a Rugged Ridge Crossover-Steering Kit w/polybushings to kill dead spot., Solid Dif covers F&R.

Me and my father are currently working on a 2001 TJ and are doing a 07 GM 5.3L w/ 4L60E Transmission Swap.
She aka "The Soiled Dove" has been under the knife for the better part of a year now. We are upgrading anything we see posing a trail disaster.

The TJ has way to much to list lets just say the only thing that hasn't been touched is the paint where the body lies on the body supports..

1.Raptor Lined Body Armor (Color matched Smittybuilt Full Corner Guards)
2. Raptor lined bumpers F&R
3. Raptor Lined Frame and under wheel wells.
4. Chromoly Axle Shafts w/ Spicer 760x in the D30 Aussie Locked,4.56 Gears.
5. Ford 8.8" Rear end 4.56 gears, upgraded 3/4 ton break calipers.
6. 2007 GM 5.3L w/4L60E Tranny w/ 23,XXX Miles
7. Novak Adapters for Transfer Case, and Hugger Headers.
8. CV Driveshafts F&R
9. Mega Short Shaft Kit on the Np231
10. Art carr gate shifter
11. Custom exhaust for the lift and engine swap
12. Rough Country 6.5" Long Arm Lift
13. ROK-MEN Gas Tank Skid plate
plus tons more and too many hours of blood sweat and tears.


I currently am building bumper for TJ's made out of 1/4" Steel, welded through clevis mounts, and a flush receiver (for better Approach & Departure Angles), and finally 4 coats of black raptor lined. Started to build them just for my dad and then had alot of friends interested, due to every company only making a 3/16" max thickness bumper. (Which me and my dad have personally seen bend break or even worse rip through the support tabs on top and bottom of front mounting hardware when hitting a tree or boulder on the trail...like our smittybuild bumper did.So I made about 8 of them and have some 4 left that I will be putting up in the for sale section later after I take some more pictures.

I hope to get to know more of you guys on here, and make some meets and trail rides.


And now for some pictures of my ZJ I'll take some more of the TJ or maybe my dad will post when he creates his account, He's Mark Sr. Im Mark Jr.








I'll Take better Pictures tomorrow sadly enough this is before the lift, and new shocks, with disconnects.



Thanks Yall,
Mark

Welcome, Mark. Good to have you with us. That ZJ looks real clean. I'll bet the TJ is sweet. Looking forward to those other pictures. Hope to meet you soon at a future event.

WELCOME!!!

Welcome

welcome! I am a newb on this site as well....but been on other Jeep board for a few years now. Feed the addiction!!

Hey Mark,

Glad you joined up, look foward to seeing you and your dad at one of the future event. Welcome.

Rudy

The Cherokee's are taking over! Welcome! Great to see another 4 door with a steel roof!

Welcome!!!

Thanks guys been wrenching and burning in alot of new parts on the jeep (TJ) this past two days with my pops, I promise updated pictures tomorrow!

Appreciate it,
Mark

welcome. lets see some pics of that TJ !!

Welcome from another newb here!

Hello and Welcome!

Welcome it is good to see another father and son interested in jeeps, my son has a 2010 jk and I have a 1995 YJ hope to see Y'all soon.
David

Welcome!

So here is just a quick assortment of pictures from the TJ work progress, honestly me and my father aren't photographers. We usually remember to take pictures when things are either half way done or finished...

Here is when we first got her




Didnt even drive it, due to all the work needed on the suspension and one guys interpretation of "Piecing together a lift kit using aftermarket short arms and OEM arms.. As well as the wonderful surprise when we drained the radiator, putrid river water that was in there for who knows how long. So after about a hour of arguing what we were gonna throw in it after pulling the 2.5 out, we decided to stray from my 4bt/4L60e swap idea to the 5.3L/4L60E Swap... Which is fine I'll put the diesel in my ZJ :-)




So we then got into the whole "I gotta raptor everything" scheme of things, which turned into Color Matched Full Corner Guards, Black Rock Sliders, Hood Vent, Safari Doors, front and rear bumpers, and dash/Tube to come next. Dash will be shot in black raptor and tub will be Color Matched Stone White. Seats are gonna be Smittybuilt Suspension Seats.

We also got into POR-15, due to the fact the jeep was obviously left in a river or something by the previous so called "jeep owner" pfft.

POR'd the frame and complete underside of jeep after about a accumulative 30 hours of cleaning the inside of the frame and underside of jeep+ axles.

We then sprayed Lizard Skin Ceramic Coat 5-Coats on firewall and down into tranny tunnel continuing to the complete underside of the jeep. Which was followed by the Sound Proof Lizard Skin Coating of 7 Coats Same area. We will spray both again in the inside of the tub, my father is a sucker for a quiet riding jeep . I sold him on it after building most of my Drifting 240sx's and coating the entire inside with both for nice quiet riding.





Then we put in the SYE on the np231, tackled rebuilding the 4L60E and putting in the transgo HD shift kit, the beast carrier, with a Corvette Piston as-well.







Then we started to tackle the lift kit this weekend and naturally I only took before pictures haha, but we still arent done yet. Here is how she sits now.











And then finally the pictures of the bumper I built for my dad and some friends out of 1/4" Steel.




Well guys like I said, it's been a on going onslaught of work on this TJ. Which was bought for the price of a rusted 1995 Ford Taurus, only on a decision of a father looking at his son and saying "You ready to make a soiled dove a lady son?" As you can see we didn't back down from the challenge ;-)

Thanks alot guys,
Mark

Damn! great work and great looking welds!

Dangit, man. That thing is gonna be fit for transporting the POTUS once your done. I've never heard of POR until this thread. Sounds like some good stuff. They offer a bed liner product too. Intriguing.

Great job. I can't wait to see it when she's finally a lady.

Well Thanks Guys Appreciate it, Chris we need to do some 4-Door wheeling soon bud.

Just picked up 7 York 210 Compressors @ Pick-n-Pull gonna throw some on-board air on the TJ, and start to fab work off a Kilby Enterprises Kit for my ZJ. Basically its just moving the Alternator down and the York in its place.

We will put a 5 Gallon Tank in the TJ. I'll fab up a mounting shelf to fit behind rear seats, with the idea of keeping it high enough, to be able to store whatever underneath it.

And Hook-Em I highly recommend POR-15, and the Lizard Skin and U-Pol Raptor. Great products!