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Ryan Kovac photos
Project New School/Old School
1. Not just a pretty face. With Warn products you know this thing is a capable off-road machine.
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Ryan Kovac photos
Project New School/Old School
2. Rancho lower control arm Skids are ready to take on the rocks. Skyjacked dual steering stabilizers were installed to help control the 35-inch MTZ’s.
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Ryan Kovac photos
Project New School/Old School
3. The Rough Country 3.5-inch lift gives this Jeep the perfect stance.
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Ryan Kovac photos
Project New School/Old School
4. Smittybilt SRC rock sliders and SRC rear bumper tie in well to give this JK some extra protection.
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Ryan Kovac photos
Project New School/Old School
5. Now that’s a nice rear end. ORFAB gate plate and custom powder coating give this Jeep a unique look.
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Ryan Kovac photos
Project New School/Old School
6. White walls out on Mickey Thompson Classic lock wheels.
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Ryan Kovac photos
Project New School/Old School
7. The coil springs and pitman arm were powder coated red. The front and rear control arms were painted to match.
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Ryan Kovac photos
Project New School/Old School
8. Here you can see the MBRP off-road exhaust with the muffler relocated in front of the axle.
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Ryan Kovac photos
Project New School/Old School
9. What are those - Brembo’s on a Jeep? No, that’s MGP caliper covers. From three metres away who can tell the difference.
By Ryan Kovac
Dan and his son Jamie came to Off Road Addiction with a great vision of what they wanted their 2009 Jeep JK to become. They wanted a very clean classic look but with some real capability should they choose to take it on some trails.
After sitting down with them we came up with a plan. For extra height we turned to Rough Country and their 3.5-inch lift kit, this is a fantastic entry-level lift. It includes front and rear coils springs, rear coil correction plates, fixed front lower control arms with factory rubber bushings for a smooth ride, dropped pitman arm, front and rear track bar brackets, rear sway bar bushing, brake line drop brackets and four premium N2.0 series shocks. We also added a Skyjacker dual steering stabilizer kit to help control the 35-inch tires. This lift rides great every day while being tough enough to tackle the trails and mud holes. Rough Country believes in the handling and off road capability of this lift kit so much that it backs it up with a 60-day money back guarantee less shipping and duty.
We had various parts powder coated and painted red and black to give the jeep that classic old school look. To continue the old school vibe we went with Mickey Thompson classic lock wheels in 17x9 with 4.5-inch of back spacing. These wheels were wrapped in 35x12.5x17 Mickey Thompson Baja MTZ tires with white letters out of course. We looked at having the brake calipers powder coated red, but MGP caliper covers proved to be a much more cost effective option with the added benefit of keeping brake dust off the wheels.
To back up the lift, rims and tires, we added some performance with a K&N 57 series generation II cold air kit. To help the extra air exit an MBRP off road exhaust in stainless steel was installed. Then to get every thing working in harmony the obvious choice was Bully Dog GT for Jeep. This unit has many features including power tuning, specific off-road tuning, tire size and gear ratio compensation, TPMS adjustment, idle up for the Warn VR8000 winch we installed, real time engine monitoring and many more features.
For some trail protection a Warn stubby front bumper was filled with Warn 3.5-inch lights and bolted in place. It’s topped off with the aforementioned Warn VR8000 wired to an Optima yellow top battery. Rancho front control arm skids were utilized to protect the new Rough Country control arms. Out back an ORFAB gate plate helps protect the tailgate and a Smittybilt SRC rear bumper and SRC tubular rock slider round out the body protection.
Ready, willing and able this JK captures that ever-classic Jeep style. It will look great at the beach or cruising down the highway just waiting to turn off the road and go exploring. All the parts used to build this jeep as well as many more can be found at store.offroad-addiction.com now shipping Canada wide.