As our plans for going to Jeep Jamboree this year start to look more promising I started to prepare our ZJ to this (I hope) demanding task. First things first – we need some recovery gear. So I ordered strong radiator support form Kevin’s Off Road Below is small howto.

Unscrew 3 bolts keeping grill in place and take it out:

Remove plastic pins on both ends of bumper cover:

Then remove 3 bolts on the bottom:

and 3 pins on the top:

At this moment you can take it carefully out and put away to not damage it during the rest of the process.

Now remove three bolts on each side of oem radiator support (15mm socket):

and take it away.

Before putting new support on check if radiator’s positioning pins are short enough to fully hide in new support and trim old rubber stoppers:

Now it gets a little tricky because you have to lift and keep new support in place while putting bolts in factory mounting wholes. Having help is good, but it wasn’t that heavy so I managed to do it by myself. Remember about putting trimmed rubber washers between radiator and support:

Now when all four lower bolts are in place it’s time to put side bolts in. Use existing holes:

Insert small plates through openings in front of frame rails and bolt them on:

Now funny part begins – carefully put the bumper cover and look where mount (and tow straps attached to them) will interfere with it. Mark it with pencil, take the cover off and carefully trim it. I did something like that:

You have to be really careful to notice that it’s not factory shape (especially after I painted trimmed areas white).

Using first part of this howto put the bumper cover back on, insert three top pins and 6 side ones. Mount grill, open beer and enjoy your work.

Technorati Tags: recovery gear, radiator support, Kevin’s Off Road