Looking awesome bro! You are making me motivated to do some more things to mine. I was also thinking about where to put a full spare... but i couldn't think of anything with my skill set. So i resorted to just sticking with the stock since it will be a worse case scenario and i'll just drive slowly home.
I am very jealous of your belly plate guard. I have been wanting to do that as the next focus for my OS. Going out onto these off roads i hear a lot of rocks hitting underneath and am limited on speeds i sometimes want to take. Are you in WA still? We definitely should hit up an OS adventure when you are ready.

So question with the skid plate, did you see a way to have one just protecting some vitals without cutting the bumper? Or will i need to mod the bumper and basically do what you did?

 

Thanks mate! I am hoping to inspire others that the OS may have a somewhat decent over-landing platform.
I am still in AZ at the moment, should be back in WA soon hopefully Missing that damn gorgeous weather right now!!!!!!!!

Regarding the skid plate, I am not 100% sure. You may be able to do something like what the subaru guys run from Rally Innovations. It appears to be a nice beefy plate that hugs the bumper lip and goes under the oil pan and such...I had originally thought of doing this...but then smacked into a deer

 

In between packing up our house for our move back to WA I had some time to install a 36" light bar onto the roof rack along with a shovel mount. I bit the bullet and also ordered some 2" bolt on fender flares. The only part I am a bit worried about is by the rear door. The wheel arch to door gap is right around 2" so I may have to trim the flares down a bit there or cut the flare and attach part of it to the door. I ended up going with some cheapies off eBay, came to around $50 with free shipping. I will mach them up first and then finally decide if it is what we are after before I go drilling holes into the body

I also had a ton of matte black vinyl laying around from a few moto builds so decided to make a hood black out decal to help reduce some hood glare from the light bar. It pretty much looks exactly like the photoshops above. I will get some update pics up once the flares are in and hopefully installed, then onto the lift

Cheers

 

Alright, well there is no turning back now Fender flares have been installed and it looks FREAKING SWEET! I had to trim the rear flares to mold around the rear door jam but it looks flawless. If any of you do this keep in mind, you DO have to cut your body panels, front and rear. I ended up taking off around 2" of wheel arch. If you go with the stick on OEM flares this will not be an issue. This will allow you though to run a taller tire along with a nice 2" lift will look killer.

I had a weird kind of hop/bounce to the car come up recently so decided to look into it. Due to the heat here in Phoenix one of my rear tires literally split and got a raised area in it. We need new tires any ways. We have had our Toyo Open Country AT2's for around 50k miles now. I am thinking about getting them again but in a 225/75r16 or something else in that size or a 230/70r16. I am running 1.5" wheel spacers so don't really want to go with a wider tire but I want more sidewall meat. I am currently running a 215/70r16 and like the width of them. I may try an M/T style tire next like the Centennial Terra Commander M/T or the Cooper STT Pro's. TOOOO many damn options!

Sorry for the ramble, I will have pics up soon. I am beefing up the bumper today plus doing some vinyl work and want to get pics of it all completed. Stay tuned!

 

Ok, finally some pictures. Sorry for the mud, had to test out the flares I beefed up the bumper yesterday and will be adding some sheet steel where the cardboard mock ups are. and not sure if I will do a winch, or a small light bar down there yet. I put some vinyl on the rear hatch to break up the white a bit more and gives it a unique look along with vinyl on the hood to reduce some hood glare. Only thing left really is a 2" lift, tires, relocate my oil cooler. I want to make an aluminum guard for around the serpentine belt area on the right side of the motor as it is just plastic now and kind of exposed.....then possibly onto some performance stuff. I think the snorkel is a no go, it is not needed and would have been just for looks...maybe one day?



new bumper and cardboard mock up


rear flares cut around door


new front bumper and light bar


rear flare shot


flare shot


rear vinyl and shovel mount



front


left rear

 

 

Well the OS received new wheels and tires yesterday and damn does it look good I picked up 4 15x7 American Racing AR767 steel rims and 4 235/75-15 all terrains. These wheels have 0 offset and 4" of backspacing. With the 235's they clear the shock and everything just fine. These would NOT fit if I did not do the fender flare install as they are 29". I did have to do some metal trimming like @WhistlerOS did but no frame rub or anything else. I did remove the 1.5" wheel spacers and will have those up for sale too. I also want to get some new hub centric rings to keep things centered. I'll get some pics up asap!

 

Here is a crappy pic of the new wheels and tires. 235.75-15's. I also picked up a giant 20 cubic foot roof rack cargo box. Gonna pack that thing full for the trip back to WA. I am sure it will help my MPG immensely. We are packing very very light and pulling a small 4x8 utility trailer and gonna hit HWY 1 and do some camping for about a week. SOOOO EXCITED. I will have more pics to come. Taking the car in this week for 5 recalls and fresh CVT oil.

 

Sick!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Thanks Mate! I ordered a Jeep Cherokee Snorkel today.... Completely pointless but why not Should be here Saturday so I am going to try and get it installed this weekend sometime. Pics to come.

 

The Jeep Cherokee snorkel is officially installed! I still need to re-work some of the engine bay plumbing to pair up nicely to our air box. The kit came with some long flex pipe that I will try to use, or I will do something with silicone hose fittings and stainless pipe. The flow of the snorkel works pretty good with the OS body lines, not a perfect fit but there are no gaps or seams. The hardest part was the A-pillar mounting. The cherokees A pillar is at a much steeper incline then ours so I had to tweak the snorkel a bit to eliminate a gap between the snorkel and the windshield. In the end, all worked out great. The real test will be this weekend when we leave back for WA! Going to go camping along the west coast at the red woods national forest and then up to Cape lookout in OR, then back home to Bellingham. I'll get some pics up this week some time.

 

It appears that with this setting your vehicle became illegal even with the extended fender flare. You will have to install an even wider fender flare or potentially face a fine if being pulled over. Are you OK with this?

 

I don't live in Canada and the tires stick out past the already extended flares by 1/4". Not a big deal and I am moving to backwoods rural Washington where you can ride a dirt bike on the street past border patrol

 

Check out this from 3:40 (He lives in Pittsburgh)..

 

Pittsburgh,PA is not Glacier,WA. its kinda different everywhere. some states require front license plates, some don't. some are harsher on mods and window tint, etc. it can even differ by county and local PD. California seems to be the most ridiculous.