These photos show completion of the first step, which includes the following:
.. Green Diesel hot tune
.. Sun Coast torque converter with Transgo kit
.. Front hitch
.. Warn RockCrawler (red) 9000 winch (50 lbs) on receiver mount (photo not included, will post later)
.. Major trimming of all wheel wells including removal of plastic well liners and pounding down of everything that could be pounded
.. Front wells cut back at rear of wheel wells (see photos) - these gaping holes will be capped with steel sheet (use caution as there are wire bundles behind the covers on both sides)
.. Front plastic fenders trimmed up to curve line (see photo), and front bumper plastic trimmed, with lower air dam removed
.. Rear plastic fenders trimmed about half-way up, rear doors trimmed a little at rear
.. All wheel wells painted flat back with undercoat and bed-liner paint
.. Removed window washer reservoir (I plan to trim it up and find another location somewhere under the hood)
.. 33x10.5x15 BFG KM2 tires on Craga 15x7 Streetlock steel wheels
The result so far, as you can see, look pretty good. There is NO LIFT on my KJ, but the tires clear by a couple of inches even at full turn, and there is 4 to 6 inches of vertical up-travel before they would rub. I do not know whether the wheels would rub under full articulation. Frankly, I don't care because next week the KJ will be lifted and so I figure if the tires clear reasonably well now then I will have no problems when lifted.
I made a costly mistake
(probably more mistakes than I know yet actually) in getting 4.5" backspace on the 15" wheels. Even with some minor grinding on the front brake caliper castings the wheels would not clear, so I installed 7/32 spacers (they just slip in between, no bolts). However, between the crappy out-of-roundness of the Cragar streetlock wheels and the additional out-of-roundness caused by the spacers, I have very poor wheel balance and will be changing out the wheels for the plain D-window Cragar soft 8's in 15x7 with 4" backspacing. Based on my experience I suggest anyone looking to go with the 15" steel wheels stay on the small side of 4" backspacing (i.e., 3.75 or 4), since the 4.5 did not work at all for me.
I will post again in a week or so after the additional mods are installed:
.. Supersliders
.. 4" JBA lift with adjust-a-strut front suspension
.. Steel front diff with 4.56 gearing and electric lockers front and rear
.. JE Reel front CV shafts
.. Bilstein shocks front and rear
.. Full skid protection underneath
.. getting those holes at the back of the front wheel wells capped
.. Safari snorkel