Did some stuff...
Picked up an OEM, hard-to-find Mopar rear tire carrier assembly at junkyard a few weeks back. It was in crappy condition, rusty, and missing several pieces of hardward and brackets - including the rubber grommet on the hatch assembly and the 2 main bolts and bushings that hold the thing onto the lower mount. These parts are VERY expensive from Jeep ($26/bolt!) so I decided to make my own setup with $10 in shoulder bolts and brass bushings from McMaster. Also improv'd the plastic bushing piece with some Chevy Truck energy suspension bushings that I found at a local auto parts store. Had to do some dremeling, cutting, and widening the hole to work, but it worked out.
Also did some reinforcement of the bumper in addition to the OEM brackets. A few 10" lag bolts from the outside of the lower mount running back to the frame crossmember.....
All in all, I think it turned out good and lets me take the spare off the roof, where it's PITA to get to and makes it so the Jeep can't come into the garage because of the height. Also having it up top makes the jeep lean more into turns, which annoys me considering the sloppy handling already
Also moved my CB antenna from the roof to the rear carrier. When the carrier is open, the antenna is out of the way of the hatch. Still have to run the wire back there. Also you can see my license plate lighting that I rigged to make it legal....
before:
after:
Also, finished stripping and painting the Canyon wheels. You can see the original condition, stripped down to bare aluminum, and painted in these shots:
also doing my Maxima wheels (from a G35 coupe), since two of them were curbed last summer trying to avoid an idiot who stepped out into the road in front of me
Picked up an OEM, hard-to-find Mopar rear tire carrier assembly at junkyard a few weeks back. It was in crappy condition, rusty, and missing several pieces of hardward and brackets - including the rubber grommet on the hatch assembly and the 2 main bolts and bushings that hold the thing onto the lower mount. These parts are VERY expensive from Jeep ($26/bolt!) so I decided to make my own setup with $10 in shoulder bolts and brass bushings from McMaster. Also improv'd the plastic bushing piece with some Chevy Truck energy suspension bushings that I found at a local auto parts store. Had to do some dremeling, cutting, and widening the hole to work, but it worked out.
Also did some reinforcement of the bumper in addition to the OEM brackets. A few 10" lag bolts from the outside of the lower mount running back to the frame crossmember.....
All in all, I think it turned out good and lets me take the spare off the roof, where it's PITA to get to and makes it so the Jeep can't come into the garage because of the height. Also having it up top makes the jeep lean more into turns, which annoys me considering the sloppy handling already
Also moved my CB antenna from the roof to the rear carrier. When the carrier is open, the antenna is out of the way of the hatch. Still have to run the wire back there. Also you can see my license plate lighting that I rigged to make it legal....
before:
after:
Also, finished stripping and painting the Canyon wheels. You can see the original condition, stripped down to bare aluminum, and painted in these shots:
also doing my Maxima wheels (from a G35 coupe), since two of them were curbed last summer trying to avoid an idiot who stepped out into the road in front of me