06 Grand Cherokee Build

Well, I had the Coopers installed on Monday. Cooper AT3 LTs in a 245/70R17. Slightly taller than the option tire for the 06 Grand and it fit nicely. I was a little worried about the upper post and thought I might have to trim it, but there's plenty of room. I also finished my first full tank with them on and managed a little over 15mpg, after adjusting the mileage for the extra size. Not great, but I think I can tweak my driving a bit to get a little more out of it. These tires are not noticeably louder than the street tires, so that worked out well. So far I'm satisfied and will take them off the beaten path over the weekend.

Meantime, I also received my Belly Guard from 4XGuard. Definitely a nice piece of armor. It's a simple install and while ratcheting combination wrenches helped immensely, it was still awkward as all get out. This will complete the skid guard portion of my upgrades. I still need to delete the side step brackets to get my clearance back, but I'll post about that when it's done.
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I deleted the iArmor step brackets last week. I did some drilling on them to cinch them up to the pinch weld. I had intended to do some reinforcement on the opposite side of the weld, but it turns out the thing is pretty solid already. Next time I get out to Grand Lake, I'm going to get the jeep resting or rubbing along the rails to test them out and see how they do. Overall, I think it's a pretty decent non-lifted setup.
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I also swapped out the halogen fog lamps with some amber LEDs, and re-polished and coated all my lenses today.
 
Not in terms of overlanding. I did do some upgrades in the interior and it may be a good segue into all the changes I've done in there. While the exterior changes have been functional in some way, the inside is more aesthetically oriented. If I'm going to commute long distance or otherwise engage long trips, I want the interior of my vehicle to be a nice place to be.

This WK is a Laredo, the base model, but did feature leather seats and sunroof. It had the factory amp upgrade, but the standard stereo. I found a double DIN dash panel and upgraded to a Sony WX920BT receiver. This gives me Bluetooth capability. This week I replaced the door handles with the chrome replacements, as both front handles had broken. The factory plastic becomes extremely brittle with age, and these will crumple easily in your fingers as you try to remove the old ones. I also sourced used wood paneling on eBay to replace my center dash and shifter bezels. Altogether it's a bit more posh.

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I've also got a cloth cover for my center armrest. The pocket is home to my phone. The WK has lots of nooks to put things, but I suspect that they were all designed for circa 2006 flip phones.

Next major project is purely mechanical. I'm going to have to tackle the exhaust manifold bolt and gasket fix for the 4.7. Not looking forward to it at all, but several of the bolts have sheared on each side and you can hear that the gaskets are shot from the exhaust noise.
 
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