Project Wicked Jane

[keithal]

Awesome Jeep man! Seen your vids and came to this forum to check out your build.

Just wondering how do you subscribe to threads on this forum? Thanks!

you cant
the way it was setup caused problems with the site i believe

any threads that im relly keen on i just add to web browser favourites so i can find them easily

[luckyme]

Awesome Jeep man! Seen your vids and came to this forum to check out your build.

Just wondering how do you subscribe to threads on this forum? Thanks!

Cheers mate! As above, no option to subscribe Are you from NZ?

[shortylux]

Cool truck.
Nice to see a shiny arse Jeep wagon actually going off road.
Where is the sand vid taken?

[luckyme]

Cool truck.
Nice to see a shiny arse Jeep wagon actually going off road.

Thanks mate, wish i'd have a coin for every time people said to me "Don't take it offroad, its a very nice wagon"
sure sure...piss off
she was made for this

[_R700_]

Awesome Jeep man! Seen your vids and came to this forum to check out your build.

Just wondering how do you subscribe to threads on this forum? Thanks!

Cheers mate! As above, no option to subscribe Are you from NZ?

No, I'm from Perth, Western Aust. I'm on the Aus Jeep forum, but saw your vids on youtube. You guys sure have beautiful scenery and locations to go wheeling, love the forests. Would love to one day head down to NZ for a holiday and check it all out for real.

[luckyme]

Awesome time few weeks back, more up on Youtube

[luckyme]

Fabricated and fitted lower spring retainers to the front as almost lost the coils a while back when had the swaybar disconnected on some decent off-camber track




And for good measures some top retainers as well





To get the springs out had to jack Jane up pretty high, just managed to fit in the garage, not much room to spare

[luckyme]

New fiberglass flares arrived, took 3 business days door to door from Poland. Excellent customer service from the polish dude

[basics]

shit thats quick. watch out for trees and banks now

[luckyme]

watch out for trees and banks now

yeah...people keep saying the same thing for a while now... new flares wont change that, and they are pretty beefy. And still have to put the rubber extensions on to cover the wheels, so there's enough soft stuff to take the grunt

[yeti]

ah they will just buff out when it happens.....

how did ya find them way over there

[luckyme]

how did ya find them way over there

Me being from Hungary the good old KGB connections to Poland
Nahh, once upon a time there was a company called Iceland Offroad, who made these flares. They were awesome, but price was over 1K USD and delivery times well...many had experienced over 6 month! No need to say they went bust fast and easy, but before that some fella in Poland bought a set and made some moulds of it and started selling replicas for a fraction of a price. I've followed the story on the WJ forums and here we are

[yeti]

them jeeps be everywhere .....

[luckyme]

Awesome trip to Waiuku forest with Auckland 4WD club



Then came the butterfly effect experience...
Details to come

[yeti]

righto time to explain butterfly thingy ......

[luckyme]

righto time to explain butterfly thingy ......

yeah, about that... remember this?

Upper bushing of front axle has shown some signs of wear for some time... I'm sure OME design is good for on road use, but offroad killed the rubber thats the only one bushing that stayed OME after the lift kit, all others been replaced with IRO stuff. Being the point that stops the axle wrap thought it'd be a good idea to replace it with something better, so went with home made propylux and double stainless casing around it. Will see if it lasts longer than rubber

new vs old



in place

The good news is that the bushing held up very good but when I was climbing *cough*...bouncing up some fairly steep bank with pedal to the metal the high tensile bolt decided to shatter to pieces. This caused the front axle to rotate and slide forward while fully flexed out, because of that the drive shaft pulled apart. And just for good measures the only original spring retainer(that i thought, why would i replace it with my own one a few weeks back ) broke off allowing the spring to pop out. Well, the landing after that not pleasant and fairly loud

The good folks from Auckland 4WD Club managed to put the spring back in while is was busy pulling out the driveshaft. Managed to pull the axle back into position with a ratchet tie down, chucked a screw driver through the now empty hole, tied it up with some wire and added some finishing touches with electrical tape.
Not saying it was a pleasant drive home, but we wobbled home safely.

the fix

[yeti]

that should last ......sorted...

[_R700_]

Hey,

What is the brand, size and offset/backspace are your rims?

Also who is the new company making the iceland flares, do you have a link?

Thanks

[luckyme]

Hey,

What is the brand, size and offset/backspace are your rims?

Also who is the new company making the iceland flares, do you have a link?

Thanks

Rims are custom made locally mate, by the Steel Surgeon in south Auckland http://www.thesteelsurgeon.co.nz/
Had a good chat with Carlos there and he fabbed up some 15x8s with the biggest negative offset he would safely do. He is an active stock car racer and does most of the rims plus extra stuff for them too.
Can measure one up if you are that keen
Flares are from ebay http://www.ebay.com/itm/JEEP-GRAND-CHEROKEE-WJ-1999-2004-FENDER-FLARES-WHEEL-ARCH-EXTENSIONS-/320775010147?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item4aafae3763&vxp=mtr
Most suppliers are located in Poland. I have talked to all I could, I've found "ts-tuningschool" the best. They range from google translated gibberish english to decent ones

[churchill]

Hey man. With that bush you made is there some sort of spacer on the central crush tube to allow for flex or does the upper control arm touch the side of the stainless outer bush?

[luckyme]

Hey man. With that bush you made is there some sort of spacer on the central crush tube to allow for flex or does the upper control arm touch the side of the stainless outer bush?

I've chucked on some HD spacers ~5mm thick on both side cos with no steering damper I had decent horizontal movement going over bumps at highway speed

The IRO auxiliary damper kit should arrive in a few days

[tomsoffroad]

Just an idea....... do you think the bolt shattered because the bush doesn't have enough flex? Its hard to tell how hard the bush is though, could be wrong.

[luckyme]

Just an idea....... do you think the bolt shattered because the bush doesn't have enough flex? Its hard to tell how hard the bush is though, could be wrong.

Yeah mate, thats what I blame too not my heavy foot

Im getting some flex joint with the damper kit from IRO in a few days, will see if that helps.

Thanks for the input though, always good to hear seasoned opinions, and I love your work, shame you are not up here

[_R700_]

Hey,

What is the brand, size and offset/backspace are your rims?

Also who is the new company making the iceland flares, do you have a link?

Thanks

Rims are custom made locally mate, by the Steel Surgeon in south Auckland http://www.thesteelsurgeon.co.nz/
Had a good chat with Carlos there and he fabbed up some 15x8s with the biggest negative offset he would safely do. He is an active stock car racer and does most of the rims plus extra stuff for them too.
Can measure one up if you are that keen
Flares are from ebay http://www.ebay.com/itm/JEEP-GRAND-CHEROKEE-WJ-1999-2004-FENDER-FLARES-WHEEL-ARCH-EXTENSIONS-/320775010147?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item4aafae3763&vxp=mtr
Most suppliers are located in Poland. I have talked to all I could, I've found "ts-tuningschool" the best. They range from google translated gibberish english to decent ones

Thanks for that info!!

Great find on the flares, I may get some now that they're so cheap

If its easy enough and you don't mind, I would appreciate if you could get measurements of the offset/backspacing of your rims. I like the look of the rim, not the usual round hole/D-hole/sunraiser rims, so I may hit up your fabricator about getting a set for me as well .

Thanks.

[luckyme]

Sweet I measure up the spare and chuck up the details soon.

[_R700_]

Any updates?

Love this WJ!

[luckyme]

Hi fellas,

It's been a while, life has thrown me a few curve balls hence the lack of posts. Happy to say that Jane is going hard even in the soft stuff

Updates, etc coming soon, until then enjoy this vid from last weekend

[4x4part]

hey man hows the truck going