[reidbarton]

Hey all! I've been wanting to start a build thread for my 2017 Diamond Black Crystal Pearlcoat Limited 4x4 for awhile now and today is finally the day. This forum has been pivotal to the progress of my build so I cannot thank everyone enough for the amount of useful information I've gained along the way. I hope that you enjoy my build!

Current mods:
- 10% tint on the side/rear windows, 35% tint on the windshield
- Gloss black "Jeep", "Limited", and "4x4" badges
- Gloss black grille rings, fog bezels, lower front fascia, rear bumper step-pad surround, and tail light bezels
- Lamin-x tinted tail lights, rear reflectors, and 3rd brake light
- XenonDepot 5K HID kit for low-beams and LED kit for fog lights
- DeAutoKey LED reverse bulbs
- Color-matched mirror caps
- Bora 1.25" spacers
- Color-matched OEM door handles
- Eibach Pro-Kit lowering springs

Future mods:
- 22x10 Factory Reproductions FR70 "Black Machine Face" Hellcat Replica wheels wrapped in 305/35R22 Lionhart LH-Five tires and black lug nuts
- OEM gloss black roof rails
- Gloss black 3M vinyl-wrapped window trim
- OEM black chrome exhaust tip
- Painted brake calipers with "Mopar" heat-resistant decals (unsure on caliper color currently)

Pics to follow shortly!

 

[reidbarton]

Here she is the day she was delivered - this was around October-ish of 2016 if my memory serves me right. Had around 500 miles on the dash at this point!

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First thing's first, I had to get darker tint of course I ended up going with 10% tint on the side/rear windows and 35% on the windshield! Came out very nicely IMO and helps a ton during those hot summer days.

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Next up came blacking out the majority of chrome on the front and rear end. This was done by replacing the grille rings, tail light bezels, rear bumper step-pad surround, and "Jeep" badges with OEM gloss black replacement pieces. Because a gloss black "Limited" badge isn't made OEM, I decided to order a pair of gloss black "Limited" and "4x4" badges from eBay so that they would match one another. You can see that they are slightly different in size than the chrome ones, but without a side-by-side comparison they look OEM enough to me. The OEM fog light bezels only come unpainted so I had them professionally painted gloss black.

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I then had my tail lights, rear reflectors, and 3rd brake light tinted with Lamin-x "gun smoke" film and installed Bora 1.25" spacers all around. I also installed a XenonDepot 5K HID kit in the low-beams which made a HUGE difference in light output!

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The chrome lower front fascia began bugging me so I opted to remove it and have it wrapped in gloss black 3M vinyl rather than downgrading to the textured piece or shelling out ~$400 for the unpainted fascia. Turned out better than expected!

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It was time to upgrade my reverse bulbs, so I went with DeAutoKey LED reverse bulbs. Man, these things are like headlights! I also purchased some white mirror caps off of a forum member and had them professionally color-matched to my body color.

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Last but certainly not least, I upgraded my fog lights to the XenonDepot LED kit to match my low-beams. XenonDepot lighting is no joke either! My chrome door handles were also replaced with body-colored OEM handles from JustForJeeps to almost complete the de-chromed look. Most notably, I had the Eibach Pro-Kit lowering springs installed to give her a slight drop. The final pic is how she sits currently!

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As for my future mods listed, they will come with time as my paycheck allows :lol: However, I do have the Hellcat reps ordered and they should be delivered tomorrow afternoon! Pics to come of those of course! Let me know if you have any questions about my build, I'd be happy to help.

 

[reidbarton]

Nice job. Did you track how much money and time you have invested? Also, the backup lights, were they difficult to install? Where did you pick them up? Thanks.

Appreciate it! Unfortunately I haven't kept up with how much I've spent on time and money so far. As for the reverse lights, the outer lamps are very easy to access. To access the inner lamps requires removing the lift-gate panel which is held on by clips; a trim tool and some patience is all that is needed for this. Once that's removed it is a simple bulb swap. Here's a link to the kit I ordered - Complete Reverse LED Kit for the Jeep including including SRT, overland, Laredo, limited | deAutoLED. Quite pricey for a set of LED bulbs but IMO they are way worth it. My first-ever build before this was an '07 Chevrolet Avalanche and I learned over the years that doing it once and doing it right is more cost-effective in the long run, at least for me. Thanks for checking out the thread :thumbsup:

 

[reidbarton]

Are going to paint the wheels too? Looking great so far

Thanks man! I've seen you around while lurking in various threads and you have no idea how helpful some of your posts have been to my build, especially those regarding the Eibachs. If you're asking about painting my stockers, I won't be painting them as my 22x10 "Black Machine Face" Hellcat reps will hopefully be in Monday (FedEx has been giving me the runaround). Other than using black lugs and replacing the center caps with OEM gloss black Jeep caps, my 22's will look identical to the pic shown below. I went with machine-finished wheels on my previous build (also shown below) and really dug the look. While I do plan on blacking out the remaining chrome accents, I want the wheels to add some contrast to the rest of the black. There's no doubt that the completely "murdered" look is killer, but I personally find it a bit overplayed so I want to do something slightly different. Anyways, I'll keep this thread updated if my 22's ever get delivered lol :lol:

 

[reidbarton]

Well, after FedEx delivered my wheels/tires four days late... they're finally in! They were delivered on Tuesday and I anxiously installed them shortly after. Just getting around to posting pics as I wanted to get her cleaned up a bit first. I'm very happy with the outcome! I'm now thinking more and more about leaving the chrome window trim as it seems to tie into the wheels nicely although the wheels aren't chrome. Lmk what y'all think!

22x10 Factory Reproductions FR70 "Black Machine Face" Hellcat Replicas wrapped in 305/35R22 Lionhart LH-Five tires.

 

[reidbarton]

Did you paint the door handles black? Truck looks great.

No I didn’t, I ordered OEM handles from JustForJeeps that came painted in my body color. Install was a PITA but I love the look!

 

[reidbarton]

Looks good. Are you running spacers with new wheels?

Thank you! No I am not, the new wheels have the proper offset (+45) to account for the spacing issue and therefore sit completely flush with the fenders. I removed my spacers and sold them to a forum member recently!

 

[reidbarton]

So a couple of weeks ago I decided to order a set of OEM gloss black Jeep center caps to replace the chrome blanks that came with my new wheels. I snapped a few (very crappy) pics while installing! Once all of this spring pollen is gone I'll give it the detail it deserves. But for now...

 

[reidbarton]

Looks great, what are you planning for the rest of the textured plastic pieces? I couldn't stand the contrast, so I used SEM Trim Black Euro Jet and painted them...definitely makes it flow a lot better.

Thank you! I would love to color-match the textured pieces but if I were to do it I’d want to purchase the overland pieces unpainted & have them professionally sprayed (because I’m very OCD lol). By going that route it would cost me a lot in OEM parts/paint labor so for now I’m going to leave it as is...

 

[reidbarton]

Your ride looks great! I normally like the chrome trim but your pics are making me rethink that.

Are you satisfied with the XD LED fog lights? Are they close in color? Your pic makes it look like the fogs are a bit more white. Could be my computer screen.

I’ve been researching fog light options for mine and am toying between the SRT LEDs or another solution like XD.

I appreciate it! I love the XenonDepot LED fogs, but I will say that you are right about them being a touch whiter than the XenonDepot HID lows. Not quite as apparent in person but if I could do it over I would’ve bumped my HIDs up to the next color temp. The difference is minimal enough that I’m not going to unless a bulb burns out or something. Other than that, output is fantastic on both kits and I’m very impressed with the amount of usable light my Jeep throws now.

 

[reidbarton]

For those still interested in my build, I installed some new goodies recently! First up was replacing the chrome side roof railings with the OEM gloss black Altitude ones. These were ordered from JustForJeeps and were a very simple swap since I already had the functional roof rails. Excuse my silly window reflection in the pics lol.

My second recent mod was FINALLY installing the gloss black vinyl pre-cut tail light borders sold by @SRTNinjaUSA on Instagram. I can't speak highly enough about this guy, his products, and his obsession with his new Trackhawk. Good stuff. Anyways, this was my first time working with vinyl and I was a bit nervous but I think it turned out pretty great! I may have found a new hobby... haha. Enjoy!

 

[reidbarton]

Huge wheels without a BBK installed looks clown-carish. Really need big brakes for this setup to look classy.

Appreciate the feedback. While I agree a BBK would definitely look better, I can't justify shelling out the amount of $$$ for one solely for that subtle touch of "class" it would add. At that price point it simply doesn't make sense adding a BBK for performance purposes on anything other than an SRT or Trackhawk in my personal opinion. Could I benefit from the addition of a BBK? Probably - but I really haven't noticed much of a change in braking since the wheel swap, and as a grocery-getter it seems unnecessary to me

 

[reidbarton]

Revival??

Yo! New here....would've started a private conversation but couldn't figure out how....Just purchased a 2017 limited JGC, coming from a wrangler....a couple of questions about your ride:

1. How did the 1.25" borlas do with the 20" factory rims? Were the tires outside, even or on the inside the top of the wheel well?

2. Did the alignment get everything back to factory spec after the eibach pro springs?

Your new updated ride today is sic, looking to do much of the same!

Thanks!

The 1.25” bora spacers were pretty much dead flush in my opinion! Alignment came out money after installing the Eibachs, it wasn’t an issue at all

 

[reidbarton]

A fellow Arkansan!! Very nice ride man, it's a completely different vehicle now, in a good way of course! You've really made a lot of progress. She looks beautiful!

I just gotta..... GO HOGS!!!!

Yessir, us Arkansas guys gotta stick together! I'm from Central AR but I was actually just up in the 479 for the Razorback game... WPS! Thanks so much for the ride compliments, it changed a lot from stock but has changed a lot since my last set of posts. Updates with pics to follow soon, went a different route!

 

[reidbarton]

Decided to change things up with the build about a year ago but I'm just getting around to updating this thread! Had a bad snow a couple winters ago and the 22's limited my 4WD capabilities so I went the lifted route. I chose to revert back to the stock 20's and wrapped them in 275/55R20 BFG All-Terrain tires. Had the 2.5" front/1" rear Rough Country lift kit installed to add to the aggressive look. No clearance issues whatsoever and I'm very happy with the outcome! I loved the lowered look on 22's but this setup has proven to be much more practical and still quite comfortable as well.