Crayon Sky Music

I am looking to beef up my jeep on a budget. What should I do?

I own a 2003 stock jeep wrangler, with the sports package. I want to make it more aggressive, but I am on a High School budget. Some basics I want are front bumpers, exhaust, armor (not skid plates), wheels and tires, auxillary lighting, winches, CB radio, fender flares. I also want a suspension, nothing too agressive like a 6″, but somthing that will affect the look, I was looking into a JKS ACOS suspension, but I didnt knowif there were others out there that might be better. I also thought about seats and 5 point seatbetls. Another idea was to rhino line the tub, I could either pay tohave it done or do it myself. This jeep will be used for some offroad use, but it is also my only vehicle anddaily driver. Whill any of this bring up my jeep’s value.
Thanks

Everything you want to do can be done a high school budget but it will depend a lot on you and how much work, time and effort you are willing to put in to it and especially whether you want nothing but the best top-of-the-line parts or are willing to truly work on a budget.

Things like armor, bumpers and so on you can do yourself if you’re willing to make the effort to meet the right people and learn some skills. If you are actually in high school does your school have a welding program? There may also be free local programs that teach welding or just hook up with someone who is wiling to teach you. We have a group that gets together out here and we build bumpers, cages, armor, etc all for the price of the stock (bumpers cost us about $40 and half a day’s work). Head over to Home Depot or someplace similar and pick up a sheet of diamond plate, take your time cutting it, make your own bender and make some body armor, spray can it black or spend the money on the polished steel stuff.

A suspension lift is easy on a budget, there are junkyard lifts that can be safely done for under $100 that will give you the lift you want, work well on and off road but don’t expect your Jeep to ride like a Cadillac. And keep your total lift below 4″s, go any higher and your costs go much higher.

You want seats for a 5-point harness head down to the local wrecking yard and pick up some seats out of a Celica Supra, they are already slotted for a harness and will fit in a TJ with some mods to the mount.

Head to Wal-Mart and get a decent CB radio for about $40 (or look around for a good used one) and while you’re there grab a set of off-road lights for $20 a pair (not top of the line Hellas but they work and look decent enough on a budget) and get a can of bedliner in the auto paint aisle for $75. Do a good half-day’s work on the prep, lay the liner down and you’ve saved several hundred dollars. But good prep is the key.

And again, hook up in the local Jeep community, there’s people who would be more than happy to help you out with spare parts, wheels, tires and lifts, winches, everything you want,it’s all sitting on the garage floor from when someone lifted their Jeep higher got bigger tires, a bigger winch, all of it. There are Jeep parts galore out there. And check Craigslist too, a jeep builder’s friend. Great deals there and you can meet some great Jeep people..

Again, I can’t emphasize it enough, get involved in the local Jeep community, check the local clubs and get to know people. Remember, everything you want is probably sitting on someone’s garage floor waiting for a new home. If you’re willing to learn, spend some DIY time and don’t expect the very best for the very least you can build a good looking and very capable rig on a high school budget.

Finally as for value, don’t ever expect to get your money back. Some mods can increase the value but generally the more you do the less the return. I have two ’98 Wranglers, a daily driver with a good amount mods that make it a capable driver and trail rig and another that is heavily modified for off-road use. I could sell the daily driver for a decent price, but certainly not for what I have in to it. My trail rig is worth considerably more, the axles alone cost more than the Jeep, but I would have to find someone who wants an already built rig ready for the rocks, it is not something you want to drive to work or school everyday so it wouldn’t be that easy to sell.

But then a Jeep should be built, not bought…

Jeep Wrangler GoPro hero 5 onboard rollover off road Carlos Valero