Bought, Not Built JKUR JK350

en480c4

en480c4

Well-known member
So, it’s home, registered, and inspected, so guess it’s time to start my thread.

Last week I picked up a 2015 JKUR in Billet Silver, with a shop-built AEV JK350 package. It’s a loaded Rubicon with 28k miles. The story is that the first owner was the owner of a few dealerships and an off-road shop, and he had them build a JK350 to show what they could offer customers. In addition to the AEV kit, it’s got Truck Lites, dual Optima yellow tops, a twin ARB compressor and a SwitchPod. The second owner bought in 2019 with plans to use it to go camping with his kids. It didn’t get used much at all, so he decided to let it go.

It really doesn’t need much…

It needs a front plate mount. Zip ties for now.

There are some spots where the AEV powder coat has failed, so they need some touch up. Similarly, it has the typical JK hinge corrosion.

It didn’t have a 3rd brake light, and I need one for inspection, so I installed an AEV CHMSL. Since they don’t sell the whole package, and only offer the replacement light, I made a bracket out of some aluminum from the hardware store.

The steps on it are awful. The first thing my wife said when she saw the Jeep was that they needed to go. I’m not quite ready to drill the body for boat side sliders, so I picked up a set of NOS Recon sliders with the step.

And I need to address the stereo. The 730N might’ve been decent when the JK was deceloped, but it’s pretty awful by today’s standards.

Otherwise, I’m looking forward to enjoying the hell out of it. I’ve tried to build something like this multiple times and either ran out of time or money (or both), but this will be fun to just tweak here and there as I go.

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More to follow!
 
Bought not built! I love it! I am going to be doing a YouTube video soon on that very topic. Cool guys turn their noses up at bought rigs - to me it only makes sense - let someone else loose a crap ton of money.

Ready when you are for those wheels!
 
I love to work on them, but time and resources are limited. And we’re way behind in my dad’s ‘62 Willys pickup. So to have something at book for a stock vehicle with everything I would choose to do already done (as an admitted AEV fan boy)? While saving thousands? Every time!
 
Pretty psyched to check the one big thing off the list this quickly. The steps looked horrible, were rusty and missing bolts.

Can’t believe I found NOS Recon sliders. I know these were stupid expensive to replace, and I’m pretty sure they weren’t offered, or if they were, they weren’t very common. I think they were mislabeled because the P/N matched the regular enhanced sliders with the tubes but without the plates. Regardless, they’re on.

Before:
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During:
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After:
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I was running out of light after cleaning up.
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Much better!
 
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Posted in another thread, but I wanted to document it here.

I tried to put off another major purchase, but the factory head unit had to go. I ended up going with Joying’s flagship… They have a universal one and ones that are tailored to specific makes and models. I got the right one for the JK, and it came with a CANBUS adapter and a plug-and-play harness. It’s super snappy, with impressive specs and processor, and the screen is fantastic. It’s an 11.6” screen at 1920x1080, the smallest at that resolution. They also have them with 13.3” & 15.1” screens.

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11.3” fits perfectly… it’s hard to imagine one of the bigger models.
 
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TexasTJ said:
I’ll have to look into that one. I was just checking out some Stingers. Did you add a backup camera?
Click to expand...

I really wanted to like the Stinger. The idea off recreating the JL Off-Road Pages was really cool. But the lower screen resolution and no wireless CarPlay for a lot more money just didn’t make sense.

I need to order the cameras. Their front and rear cameras get good reviews, and the head unit has a dash cam feature which could be nice to have. I just didn’t want to wait until I was up for the bigger project of installing everything.
 
I got the Kuat Pivot V2 swing-away converter on with my Sherpa rack in anticipation of trying to squeeze in a quick trail ride in the morning. The thing is perfect for what I need.

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Edit:
Got the first ride in. Nice to have everything just work.

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A couple of minor cosmetic items recently.

I replaced the chrome grille badge with a matte black one.

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I picked up a ZR2 Bison tailgate emblem to put on the back.

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And finally, and most importantly, I was able to track down some quality replicas of the AEV cowl decal to replace the one it came with.

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I know badging and stickers shouldn’t make a big difference, but I’m really happy with the improvement from just a few little things.

The Jeep came with an AEV windshield banner, but while I like a lot of their badging (as evidenced above), I don’t plan on putting it on.

And a few weeks ago I made a quick front plate mount out of aluminum left over from my CHMSL mount. The front plate had been zip tied to the light brackets.

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I bought a hawse fairlead bracket, but I can’t get the wireless remote to pair with the winch to get the thimble out of the way to get a wrench in to remove the fairlead. And the Zeon doesn’t appear to have a physical handle to freespool.

The next thing will be touching up where there are issues with the powder coat and giving it a good wash and wax.
 

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