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After bleeding the brakes, priming the fuel pump, and putting the tires on it was ready for it's maiden voyage down the driveway.
I didn't want to go very far without a muffler and driver's seat ;) I now spent a lot of time finishing up the little things like shifters, seats and hood.
With the main part of the project now done, I'll stop counting the days (especially since I've already spent way too much time on this) and just show the finishing touches.
The exhaust presented a good challenge as the muffler's old space is now taken up by the upper control arm. At least with the 2" body lift I was able to put the muffler above this arm and pass a pipe above it. The old muffler hanger was re-used and mounted to the higher tub floor. I welded a flange to the catalytic converter as close as I could to place it as far forward as possible. A mandrel bent u-bend pipe (shown below) was cut and welded to connect the cat and muffler around the suspension. I had to modify my Borla muffler's output pipe and put a straight pipe out to the side.
The skid plate had to be cut to clear the rear control arm mounts. I had a lot of space between the plate and the tranny so I added some re-inforcements. This winter I'll build a higher skid plate.
For a simple sway bar setup I bought a Currie Anti-Rock sway-bar. The only problem here was where to place the axle side mount. Stock TJs have them coming up behind and above the tie rod, but with my high steer setup it would make for very short links to the sway bar which would limit adjustments and travel. I opted to place the mounting bars provided by Clayton's in front of the tie rod and drag link. This will unfortunately make them vulnerable to rock damage, I might have to add reinforcements later.
Next up was a winch plate and bumper. The winch plate was made from 1/4" plate, and the bumper from 2.5"x5"x3/16" tube. It's all one piece, the bumper tube stiffening the winch plate along with a piece at the back. I didn't bother with D-shackles on the bumper, I'll use the after-market tow hooks instead.
For rear tow points I installed tow hooks to the frame. I drilled my own holes through both sides and put a plate with welded nuts on the back.
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