The Cosmetics

Not much has happened in the last week with the Jeep, we had to order a few parts for a project that we were going to do this weekend but.....life. The plan is to relocate the switches for the flood lights, and possibly integrate the garage door opener. Hopefully we'll be able to do it this coming week before holiday things start to creep in. So for now, I thought I'd share some of the little cosmetic things I've done the past few months.

I'll start with the light covers. When we first bought this Jeep, it actually hadn't been delivered to the dealership yet, so the dealer gave a us a loaner Jeep for 2 weeks until it arrived, this loaner had light cages on it...obviously to protect the lights from being broken while off-roading, but I just really liked the look of them too, so that was the first item I went searching for. I found these, and I really liked them--Chris thinks they are a little gimmicky, but oh well. 😝

Next came the grill inserts. The more black I add to the Jeep, the more I like the chief blue. These were so simple to add, they just snapped in and they cost less than $20.

Then came the wheels...Chris and I both could not stand the factory wheels, and the color just did not go. We didn't have it in the budget to just go buy new wheels, so I plasti dipped them. It was a fairly easy project that only took a few hours and very little prep work. I did it all by myself in one night, and didn't even need to take the wheels (or tires) off. We went with a flat black, making the stock wheels much more tolerable for the time being. If you're not familiar with plasti dip, it's essentially vinyl in a spray can. It goes on just like spray paint, but it comes off like a vinyl sticker. So if it doesn't look good or you change your mind, you just peel it off. It does lend itself to a shorter life span, but so far it's held up very nicely.

I can't take credit for this one...while I was in the market for "Oh sh!t" handles, Chris took it upon himself to order and install these. I think I helped bolt in one of them, but I honestly just was not strong enough to get them as tight as they needed to be. Chris bought blue ones thinking that I would really like that they matched, but I was actually looking a buying black ones. I was thinking black would be more "manly", and wouldn't look dirty. But these did end up looking nice, and if/when the rubber gets gross looking, I'll just put black rubber grips on the end...or maybe I'll plasti dip them!

And finally, the stereo head unit. I just couldn't handle not having Bluetooth or a back-up camera, maybe that's the millennial in me, but I was going crazy without those conveniences.....so that was my first "big" project. I'd never done anything like this before, so I was determined to try it by myself. That may have been a mistake.....but it's in, and it's working, so I guess that makes it a success. I literally had a couple moments where I cried, because there were just so many wires that didn't even connect to anything, and it didn't make sense.... I texted my dad and he was kind and patient as I sent him pictures of what I was doing and complimented me on my soldering skills. After two days, some real tears, and some muscle from Chris and Wyatt, it was finally in and working. The back-up cam that came with the head unit is meant to be mounted on the license plate....I thought we could make that work and be able to compensate for the license plate being mounted off center on the drivers side--NOPE. .....we plan to remove that one and mount one in the bumper--but new metal bumpers will need to be in place first.