Hi, my name is Kevin and I meant to start a thread like this over a month ago. I’ve spent most my time searching old posts and the build threads are my favorite so it’s about time I contribute. I have a little catching up to do so the first few posts will be what I’ve done over the last month and a half.
In mid-January of this year I bought myself a 2006 Jeep SRT8. It’s Inferno Red and had a little over 69,000 miles on it. Bone stock. I drove five hours in the fog and rain to go pick it up and drove five hours back in a blizzard to get it to Omaha. It has a set of Blizzaks on 18 inch rims and the stock 20’s.
Upon arrival, there were a few things that needed to be fixed. The hood strut was shot and it was obvious the previous owners did not care to see the 6.1L. A $13 new strut was installed and the games had begun. My dad helped me power wash the engine and we found ourselves with another 6.1L to play with.
I should have taken a before picture because you would’ve been offended, but here is the after. Completely stock.
I spent the first couple days cleaning and detailing the Jeep. Also tried a lot of different techniques to get the painted on pinstripe off and found out that it was going to have to be wet sanded and buffed.
Stock exhaust tips took about an hour to clean.
Even started pulling some of the interior out for deep cleaning.
I started acquiring some parts to give the Jeep a good tune up. A few spark plugs, oil, filter, 180* thermostat, rear liftgate struts, and some other odds and ends.
Another one of the first repairs were the bump stops.
Once I found out that all you have to do is get on the internet and click a button, parts started arriving like gang busters. New intake, new exhaust (Corsa), mid-pipe (Magnaflow), and a tuner.
The change out of the exhaust went well. The rusted bolts were a pain but we got them all out without snapping them.
I made my own little hidden catch can setup. Nothing against the fancy catch cans but I like the clean look and have a less is more attitude.
I started with an oil catch can I got from Jegs and painted it black.
I attached the mount to the side of the intake box.
With the intake on you really have to look to see anything is different and the catch can is completely hidden by the intake tube.
Just took this picture. This is after about 700 miles. This thing is working like a champ. Not easy to get this picture by the way.
A little more about me: I’m 38 years old and don’t like to leave anything alone.
Here’s my trash can.
Here’s my 22.
My computer.
My frig. Ok, not really. I bought a roll of magnetic sheet and took a bunch of decals and turned them into magnets. That way I can move them from tool box to cabinet to wherever without problem. I have commitment issues…
A little more about me: I’m 38 years old and don’t like to leave anything alone.
Here’s my trash can.
Here’s my 22.
My computer.
My frig. Ok, not really. I bought a roll of magnetic sheet and took a bunch of decals and turned them into magnets. That way I can move them from tool box to cabinet to wherever without problem. I have commitment issues…
The stock 20’s were curbed real bad and were not going on in the condition they were in. It was January and I figured it was a good time to repair the wheels so off they went. I took them to a local place and decided I wanted the PVD black chrome finish which meant they would have to be sent off for coating.
I should have taken better pictures of the before.
Curb rash gone:
I sold the Nitto 420S’s that were on them and called Skip for a set of 275/315 Vred’s.
Once the wheels returned.
I cleaned up the sensors and threads, ordered some black sleeves and valve caps.
Back home with tires mounted.
Needed to make the SRT stand out a little different on the wheels so installed the decals.
The center caps were sent off for coating and should be making their return trip right now.
Subscribed! Great work so far man. Like others have said, awesome color choice with the rims. Looking forward to seeing your other plans unfold on this Jeep.
Somewhere along the way, an entire Kicker system showed up one week and the next weekend it was installed. Still undecided on the headunit. There is a lot I don’t like about it.
But with the added sub, I quickly realized that the Jeep is not as solid as I thought. I spent a good four hours today working on the liftgate. I'm going to try to limit myself to 10 pounds of sound dampening on this Jeep. We'll see how it goes.
Here is my workstation today including lunch.
And this is what I worked on. The liftgate didn't have a single piece of sound dampening on it from the factory.
mine had the deadening material on the actual panel, i have two tens and you can't hear any rattles inside or outside the car, they are pretty solid trucks
There was no deadening material on the panel either. The liftgate is solid now. No more rattles from that but I am chasing them to other places now. I did an area on the roof right behind the DVD player and that took care of another spot. Now it seems the next one is on the passenger side rear corner. I'll have to crawl back there some time to see if that's where it's at.
I’m not sure how the 2006’s differ from other years but the subwoofer mounting wouldn’t even come close to fitting. First thing wrong was the mounting hook bracket was not sized right. The hooks were about two and a half inches to close. So I cut the bracket in half and spaced them as far apart as the sub would let me which worked for the back of the seat but just barely. I thought I was good there and then tried to mount the sub. With the hooks fully seated the sub was a good two inches off the floor. Well crap! Looks like I’d have to move the mounts up a ways to get it to work like everyone elses. But then I realized that I couldn’t use the privacy shade with the subwoofer in place and I didn’t like that idea at all. I sat on it for a few weeks with a bungy cord holding the sub in place. This weekend my dad and I redid the subwoofer mount by moving the hooks to the other side and then making a couple spacers to mount the sub at the correct angle. First we needed a spacer about a half inch thick on one side to get wires off the floor. The we needed a spacer on the other side to get the correct angle so the back lined up with the seat correctly so the hooks would perform as designed. After playing around a little bit and some paint, bingo! Now the sub is installed the way I wanted it. I also pulled the speaker out and clocked it 180 degrees.
This picture shows the mounting blocks before paint and mounting hooks moved to other side.
How it looks with no privacy shade.
A look at the sub with mounting block before paint from under the privacy shade.
Camera a little lower than chest level to see the mounting block.
Not a great picture but shows there is clearance for the privacy shade.
Mounted solid and able to be hidden.
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