I have found that all of my great ideas for winter modifications I have found one major flaw, money, don't have as much as I need to do all of the modifications during the winter so I need to eliminate or modify my upgrades. The original list included:
1. rear bumper with tire carrier and equipment carrier.
2. replace the CJ roll bar with a YJ family roll bar and reinforce it and add a front hoop.
3. fuel injection conversion on the 4.2L with a 4.0L HO head and complete wiring harness.
My thoughts are that I get a full roll cage built by Evolution or someone else as I am taking my son with me next year wheeling and maybe modify the stock tire carrier to hold a 35" tire for a partial season or one season.
I have also purchased racing seats and need to find a set of 3 point racing harnesses. and will need to modify the cage I get to accept the racing harnesses and then I need to ensure that the rear seat will accomodate a child seat and I will be putting anchors behind it as well.
I also need to figure out storage for the CJ, it is at a premium, and now that I will be required to add the rear seat back in, I am really looking to get creative with storage, I am thinking of mounting a sheet of plywood across the rear that is reinforced with a steel plate to anchor the child seat to and then building a box that will slide in and out of from behind the seat for tools and recovery equipment. I am also thinking of hardmounting a couple of small tool boxes on the wheel wells for small tools and what have you. I also am looking for a center console that might also hold a few other things as I am going to mount my CB abd radio in an overhead console to get them out of the way.
As you can see all of my ideas have a price tag attached to them and I have been given a smaller budget than I anticipated.
I also have a bunch of general mechanical issues I need to take care of as well and the allocation of funds from the wife is about half of what I want.
I feel safety is a priority and that is why I am leaning towards getting a full roll cage similar to the Evolution cage first and get creative with the rest. I am looking to spend around $400- $500 on a roll cage for the CJ and I already have the full kit to do the FI conversion, all I need is a gasket set and a fuel pump.
I was hoping to sell off the parts as I take them off, however, selling old CJ parts doesn't seem to go over too well as nobody generally wants them. I will post them obviously as I take them off, but Iwill prolly just end up taking it all out to Jeepstuff to get rid of it.
** P.S. The wife has already spent the money we are getting from Ralph and some of it has already been allocated to the Jeep fund. **
Topic: Debate on which upgrades to do..... (Read 1188 times)