Jeep Garage  - Jeep Forum banner

My 75th Anniversary "Detour"

3K views 11 replies 6 participants last post by  Victor1960 
#1 ·
Back in 2012 I bought my first Jeep Grand Cherokee, and being in Houston TX I opted to get the 4x2 version. I got a fully loaded metallic black Summit. I lowered it on Eibach springs, 22" SRT replicas, AFE cold air intake, billet tech. catch can, Diabosport tuner, and a cat back exhaust. It looked great and sounded great and I received a lot of compliments where ever I went. Then I had the opportunity to buy a Viper but I had to sell the Jeep to make that deal happen.

Well a few years later (I still have the Viper) I came back to get another JGC. This time I went for a 2016 4x4, Hemi, 75th anniversary Limited JGC. I love this one even more! So once I finally decided that I wanted a 75th Ann., I couldn't find one locally. I ended up finding the one I wanted (Limited, Hemi and no quadalift) about 2hrs north of Houston. I didn't waste anytime and made "B" line straight to that dealer. I picked it up on a rainy Saturday morning so it was hard to really give the paint a thorough inspection but I figured it was new so it should be fine......right? Well one week later when I was doing a full paint correction I noticed that the front passengers fender had a big but difficult to see paint flaw. basically looks like a big bubble......where the paint didn't adhere to the metal or primer. I took it to my local dealer in Houston and they're going to fix under warranty.

I've been waiting for them to schedule my Jeep for paint and during that time the front leading edge of my hood took a direct hit from a big rock or something big (big chip and dent!). :mad: Now I'm considering replacing it with a SRT-8 hood and having it all painted at the same time. I'll probably have to delay the paint work for a while now due to some existing road trip plans and I'll need to decided if I want to order the new hood or not.

Also during that time I installed the RRO 2.5" lift, and 275/55 R20 Toyo Open Country AT2's, BORA 1.25" wheel spacers and a few other simple interior upgrades (Jeep slush mats and proclips dash mounted phone mount). I did a bunch of research on tires because I wanted them to be quiet on the road because its my daily driver but with aggressive styling and I didn't want them to be excessively heavy. I decided on the Toyo tires and I couldn't be happier.

I had a local shop install the lift because I just didn't have the time to attempt it and I figured they would knock it out and do it right.......wrong:(. LOL! I had a slight issue that they took care of right away; the front drivers inner CV joint boot got torn and all the grease leaked out. They got it in the shop right away and replaced the entire half shaft free of charge.

I'm still waiting on my "Knuckle bone" spare tire hitch mount from Detours off-road hardware. It should be delivered any day now. I also have a matching 75th ann. 20" wheel and another Toyo tire mounted and waiting to be installed on the new mount.

I was planning to install the Lockpick Air V2 so that I can install a back-up camera mounted to the spare tire mount but I just found out that its "not compatible at this time". Guess that mod will have to wait a bit longer.

I plan to update this post when I install upgrades and modifications.

The pictures are from the day I picked up the Jeep (in my driveway) and the other is the day I picked it up from being lifted.
 

Attachments

See less See more
2
#4 ·
Looks great! What exhaust did you install & how did you like it??
 
#8 · (Edited)
Well, over this last weekend I finally had the opportunity to take Jeep off road on a little "Detour". A friend of mine was putting on the 3rd "Beach Invasion" on Galveston island and told me to come check it out. I really wasn't sure if I wanted to make the 1 hour trek from North Houston to the island. I also didn't want to drive down by myself so I talked my 11 year old son into going. He wasn't all that thrilled and I didn't even know what to expect but we both ended up having a great time. When we first showed up around noon, there was a BUNCH of trucks and Jeeps there. Most of them were just parked along the ocean and chilling. We went straight to the dunes to play. Now the dunes weren't very big and it was kind a tight twisty area......basically there was some trails between the tall grassy areas that most people tried to avoid. I'm not new to playing in the sand dunes, I use to go to Silver Lake Sand Dunes in Michigan all the time, but I was new to the Jeep and the sand mode. WOW! the sand mode made it so easy! We saw so many people getting stuck and we never had a problem. Heck I was even driving thru the holes they made right after someone drug them out. :lol: We had a great time and I'm thinking about going back this weekend when there are less people around.:thumbsup:
 

Attachments

This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top