Tips and Tricks
Front Upper Shock Tower
To mount longer shocks up front you need to cut the existing front upper shock mount off and replace it with a longer one. Ford makes a shock tower that fits nicely . P/N E5TZ-18183-A, roughly $12 ea. If you mount the Ford shock mount without cutting it, you will get some wheel rub during full compression. What I did is cut about 4 inches off of the bottom (leaving about an 8 inch mount) and then mounted it. That way I do not get any tire rub on the shock.
Extended Brake Lines
Raybestos part # (front) BH38541, (rear) BH38688 or NAPA part # (front) 38541, (rear) 38688. The fronts are about 20" long and the rears about 23" long.
Extended Brake Line Retainers
After installing the extended length brake lines I noticed the brake lines in the front would rub the tire when the wheel was turned hard either way. There are two ways to solve this. If you remember to twist the brake lines before you install them, you can position them so they will stay away from the tire. If you forget to do this (like I did) or would rather have a positive retainer you can purchase some small extension springs and hook one end around the metal portion in the center of the brake line and attach the other end with a self tapping screw to the frame.
Diff Breathers
To make diff breathers, just pry the breather caps off of your differential, take some 1/2" vinyl tubing and hose clamp it to the breather nipple. Run the hose along you frame (zip tie it to the hard fuel lines) and up into the engine compartment. If you have a snorkel, run the tubing up into the snorkel and you are all set to go wading! :) Don't forget to leave enough tubing between the diff and the frame for axle droop. install a breather tube on your transfer case in the same fashion.
Indestructible Rocker Panels
I made my rocker panels out of 3.5x3.5x.25" angle iron. I have intentionally dropped my Zook off of a rock directly on the rocker and there wasn't as much as a scratch on them. Each rocker is 43" in length. To mount them I used 4 one foot pieces of 1x1x.25" angle welded to the 3.5" angle and bolted to the rear spring mount and the front body mount. I painted mine flat black to stop them from rusting. After you tear off the cheesy plastic rocker covers you will see the metal mount that was used to hold them in place. I just used a drill to drill out the welds and then sanded and painted the whole rocker area flat black. I will try to get some pictures up here soon.
Removable Doors
To make your doors removable you have to cut the hinges. The easiest way to do this is to use a Dremel with cutoff wheels. First you cut the top piece of the hinge that is attached to the body off on both hinges. Then you lift the door up until the door hinge hits the body and cut both hinge pins right below the door hinge. By doing this your doors will lift right off. To make it easier to get your doors back on you should round the top of the hinge pins with your dremel or a file.
Quick Change Front Axles
If you wheel a lot you will eventually need to change a front axle. If you take off the 8 bolts securing your hub cover, you will see a C-clip on the axle. If you remove this C-clip and reinstall the cover, you will be all set. The procedure for changing an axle will now be: remove the wheel(duh!), take off the caliper and disk, remove the 4 bolts holding the spindle onto the knuckle and pull the entire assembly off of the axle. The axle should now slide out as long as you didn't munch the Birfield. If so, just remove the kingpin and pull the axle. This makes the job of replacing the axle a 20-30 minute affair instead of taking over an hour! :) P.S. Don't do this if you have Birfield rings installed as they will rub the inside of the housing and disintegrate (thanks to Chris Minerich for this info!)