Finishes and upgrades...

Last time I posted about my JKS sway bar disconnects, 

I mentioned that they needed some sort of holder when disconnected.

I was rummaging through my spare nuts and bolts box the other day, 

and came across the perfect solution.

There were two matching bolts that came off my last jeep,

and they were about eight inches long, 

the bottom half of which was not threaded.

I decided to chop them to length with my cutoff wheel

and then drill a hole in the end to hold the retainer pin. 

Once done with that I welded them to the frame,

and the problem was solved.

Here are the new holders with the disconnects in the connected position.

You can see it poking out just below the bend in the sway bar.

Here it is in the upright position.

The next thing on the project list was trying to figure out a way to mount my axe and shovel.

On the last jeep, I used a few sets of Quick Fist Grips

to mount my axe, shovel, portable CO2 tank and flashlight.

I have two sets left that didn't go with Big Black when I sold it, 

so they were going back into duty on this new project.

The logical place to mount them was the rear tailgate.

Unfortunately, only the axle fits back there, 

the shovel is far too long and will need to be mounted somewhere else. 

That will have to wait until I figure out where that will be.

For now, here is how and where the axe is mounted.

I knew I needed some rear corner protection as well.

Since my rear bumper idea won't go all the way out to the edges of my rear corners,

I didn't want to come down hard on a boulder

and smash my rear panels up.

Enter Gen Right Shorty TJ Corner Guards.

I picked these bad boys up from Sam at SamCo Fabrication.

Sam and his shop are top of the line. 

He is a great guy with serious skills 

and races competitively in his custom, hand built, from the ground up Trophy Truck.

He knows his stuff and got me a ridiculous deal on these guards.

Thank you, Sam.

The install was nothing if not really simple.

All I had to do was remove the tail lights, rear license plate,

and driver side fuel filler housing.

All of those parts were used to hold the guards in place,

as well as a ton of rivets around the outer edges.

I decided to use larger rivets,  so I had to drill the holes out slightly, 

but other than that, they simply bolted on up. 

I think they turned out great

and they will add a ton of protection out back.

Overall I am very pleased with all the current mods so far.

I need to figure out what do do about rock sliders,

and get cracking on the rear bumper/crossmember build.