2004 Rubicon Brute 35's Sunburst Orange w/ Highline

[Cannonball]

Okay for the most part it's done!
2004 Rubicon donor vehicle complete frame off and rebuild/resto. 4.5" RE suspension w35" Dick Cepek Mud County II's and Highline fender kit. Custom highline front bumper. Rockhard Front Sport cage and Hushmat and hush mat extreme sound deadening and custom head liner keep the Pioneer head unit and MTX components with 6x9's and Kicker subwoofer in the factory enclosure powered by an xtant amplifier sounding great. Kilby on board air with tank located in the rear frame extension. Reflex bedliner and TruXedo tonneau cover. 4.56 gears return it to the factory ratios with the 35's. Paint is 2009 Sunburst Orange. Wrangler Power Products 160A alternator and dual optima Yellow Top batteries.

Auto-Dynamics and Cannonball Motorsports in Manitowoc WI did the build. And we all had a blast building it together! The AEV products were fantastic as was all of the tech support.

Cannonball

[Cannonball]

A few more pictures..........

[Cannonball]

Started with a rollover...........

[Da Bear]

Nice work!!!

Very clean and well put together....I love the interior touches!!!

[Cannonball]

Thanks! I really appreciate the compliment! Its a daily driver now and soon it will be pushing snow too, ya It's all set up for a 7' Meyers Snow Plow too. All wiring has been integrated into the factory fuse box using the empty spaces. I did have to add one small AUX fuse box at the fire wall for the phone and other electronic two way gear....

Lots of hours spent wiring and reworking the factory harness too. the OE air locker air pumps have been relocated to the ABS tray under the hood for protection and ease of service too. Not a lot of room under the floor anymore for them with the addition of the Nth tummy tucker either.

Entire under body and inside tub has been sprayed with "Raptor" coating hard as nails and tough a great base for the Hushmat. It rides so quiet you cannot even hear the tires. The frame have been sprayed with KBS rust blast "zinc coat wherever welding or bare metal showed. then the frame was scuffed and sprayed with 3 coats of Rust seal by KBS (a POR like product) and then 2top coats of BlackTop by KBS a UV resistane OE matt black protective coating. Inside the frame was then treated to liberal coats of wicking rust sealer coating too. It has to last a while so we paid attention to details along the way from start to finish. Wisconsin winters can be hell on a vehicle.

Ill see if I can find more build pictures and post them up.

Cannonball

[AEV Dave]

Really nice. Can't wait to start my new Brute project, sucks not having one. Hey where did the bolt on tow loops on the rear come from?

Would also be nice to see the Brute next to your Scrambler for reference.

dh

[willwantsajeep]

Def. One of my favorites. Your attention to the details is outstanding. Congrats!

[Cannonball]

I would love to take a pic of them both together but the Scrambler is now in Costa Rica where it sees use in the winter. I got the rear hooks from by brother he didnt use them on his Fj Criuser. Ill see if he remembers where he got em from. they are tough as heck 5/8" plates. Dave notice the extra rib I added to the rear hinge uppers. After doing the lower gussets I felt the upper needed some thing more too.

I can tell you the scrambler had more power but I did a lot of motor work on the 4.2 adding Hesco parts and EFI. But I hear a HEMI may be in my future too once I get tired of the 4.0 lol know anything about them? I really had wanted to do the 4.7 but everyone talks me out of it.But the ride in the Brute is light years better and it has Air Conditioning too!

Thanks for all the kind words, it would not have been possible had it not been for such a great kit as the starting point.

CB

[willwantsajeep]

maybe those clevis tow things are from: http://harshterrain.com

[forsakenfuture]

I your Brute is awesome.I love clean Brutes that look like they rolled off of the factory.

[Cannonball]

Thanks! Thats the goal I had in mind. There isnt a day that goes by that someone doesnt stop me and say "I didn't know they started making these again?"

I love factory looking projects from wiring to welds and everything between.

CB

[08SaharaM6]

Very nice, love the color.

[AEV Jim]

Very very nice Doug! I think others have already covered the specific compliments so I'll try for a new one: I like how you managed to use both the BRUTE and RUBICON stickers and did the lower-contrast dark grey color...though I would have put Rubicon on the hood and Brute on the (Brute) bed...;)

We can help with adding those two missing cylinders...;)

You should consider doing a thread on the forum with all of your anti-rust treatments - including where you got them, how they go on, your real-world experience over the years, etc. I'm sure there's lots of people on here that would love more details about that...because you're right: all of these super-special Jeeps we have deserve to last longer than normal!

Again nice work, good to see you can't stop building Jeeps...just stay out of Porsches, okay?

Jim

[Mediarocker]

I'd love to learn more about your wiring setup. I'm wanting to do something similar in my TJ for lighting.

[Cannonball]

Jim, My thinking on the stickers was this........ the vehicle is now a Brute with a Rubicon package...... the Brute stickers fit the contour of the hood better because they are shorter and the rubicon stickers because of the length work with the longer rear bed....

So the Brute sticker was placed first with the rubicon sticker trailing it.

In all actuality I had a very hard time deciding myself. Part of this decission was based on what others had done and wanting to be different.

I will start a post on the KBS products I used on the frame. It is like the POR stuff but in my opinion light years better and better suited for frame protection. The stuff when applied properly is tough as a rock and yet easy to spray or brush.

Media Rocker. the wiring is not as you are probably thinking it is......

I have retained the factory fog light switch on the directional stalk for the replacement Hella Fod lights.... then I added another factory TJ light switch in the empty dash switch space and wired it to the Driving lights. I used the empty space in the underhood fuse box for the relay and ran everything through it. I have this circuit wired to my snow plow relay change over light module also. All I have to do is pull the 10 amp relay fuse in the fuse box to switch the driving lights over to plow lights and still use the same in dash TJ light switch. Its a dual purpose switch and is easy to change over as needed.

The other three switches I cut into the dash were tricky because the factory locker switch is pretty wide in back. Measure twice and cut once! These switches are for : My Plow Light Strobe (weather proof plug in the left front box corner) I attatch to the roof and drop the cord under the tonneau and plug in. The next switch is for a switched 12 volt weather proof marine plug in the right rear bed corner for summer 12 volt cooler and winter a powered salt spreader. and the third switch is for my Kilby Air compressor. When activated it also through a relay sends 12volt power to an under hood solenoud dashpot to hild the throttle linkage at a preset(manually adjustable) fast idle about 1300 rpm. I will be adding a Mobi-Arc welder and a hand throttle for welding amperge adjustments under hood too.

Oh and Jim, I cant stay out of Porsches but I did learn not to drive them off road anymore, lol.

Cannonball

[Cannonball]

Just replaced the front axle housing..... I bent it last winter with snow plow on a huge dip in the road over a period of 5 weeks.....

Used EVO tube sleeves on the new housing with more button welds and added my own "C" gussets. Don't think its going to bend ever again.

I added the AEV 16" Big brake kit too now and what a difference it made. Now it stops like its on 29" tires again.

Going into the 3rd winter with it and I cant wait for a foot of snow to play with it in! I love my Brute and will drive it until I die!

CB

[forsakenfuture]

Got any new photos to share?

[Cannonball]

Unfortunately all of my build photos were wipped out on a hard drive crash and Im still trying to recover them. As for the brakes and the tube sleeves I got so into it it was done before I thought about grabbing the camera.

The brake swap is straight forward and takes as long as it would to swap knuckles and put it all back together. AEV did a great job with Parts and application. It stops super now and I am so glad I went the extra mile to use their parts.

CB