Under the Hood



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Roof Rack

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I've considered alternate roof racks but for the time being want to put the serious money into suspension and recovery. The stock rack has served its purpose fine with a Thule system that holds the RTT and awning, but I want a tray in between the stanchions to hold other recovery and camping gear. To this end I removed the headliner. It's pretty straightforward, removing all the hardware of grab handles, interior lighting modules, sun visors, etc. The only hang up is in removing the sun visor clips with tabs that tend to break easily. Remove the weather stripping on all doors. The A-pillar covers snap out being careful to keep retention clips in place, and second row seatbelt mounts on the B-pillars need to come off to remove the covers. The rear covers that surround the wing windows between the C and D-pillars snap out, again being careful to keep the retainers in place. With the headliner free, the last step is to remove the electrical connection from the sunroof j
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Old Man Emu HD

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The main modification I've been waiting to do is an Old Man Emu suspension upgrade giving the Monty the lift it needs, not easy to come by since it ships from Australia. I measured wheel well and ground clearance. Thirteen inches from the ground to the rock sliders and three inches in the wells. I began with the front, removing the battery and tray on the driver side and the air box on the other, making access to the three nuts on top of each strut tower. Next it's necessary to remove the top A-arm. Remove brake and traction-control lines from the support on the arm. I then used a breaker bar and a 22mm socket to free the bolts for the A-arm and the strut tower mount and then removed that assembly. I disassembled the strut assembly using spring compressors to take the load off the top of the strut tower, allowing its removal. I kept track of the order of the strut hardware for reassembling the new strut and spring components. To do so, the new spring needs to be
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Exterior Mods

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I pulled off the plastic body cladding and decided to coat the exposed area with a bedliner, Duplacolor's Bed Armor with Kevlar. Got the kit on sale at Autozone for $75. To prep out, I thought I'd fill the holes left by the cladding. I ground out and reamed each with a Dremel tool. Filled each hole with a fiberglass filler. Use this sparingly to save yourself an enormous amount of sanding. It's been too long since I've done body work, and trying to beat the setting filler I got sloppy. Sanded down the excess and found that some took... and some didn't. I filled those that didn't with a Bondo filler, and sanded it down after setting. 80 grit. I didn't finish-sand knowing the liner would make it a moot point. I had sanded enough. After cleaning everything up, I masked the bodywork and removed the bumpers. I was sure to mask interior lines as well. I shot the grill and the driving light holes with the same bumper-black I used on the uppe
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