Jeep Rubicon

I've had a few Jeeps and they remind me of a time in my life when I was younger, I hadn't had to deal with the hand & shoulder surgeries, and things were not as "cluttered" as they are now. Jeeps have a brotherhood/club type thing. My Jeeps were '86 CJ7 Scrambler  (project), '89 Comanche Sport Truck (my first Jeep and first new vehicle purchase), '92 Jeep Wrangler (hardtop & soft top, favorite of the bunch), and a 94 Jeep Wrangler (soft top, supposed to be a daily driver to save wear on the 92). I had looked to buy a new Jeep from time to time, but never saw the newer ones in the same light as the older ones. I've tried to hunt down two of my old Jeeps to no avail.

This isn't my first civy Jeep build. I had put together an older Revell Cj-7 kit back in the 90s. The idea
then was to convert it to a Cj7 Scrambler, but it fell through.
Eventually the build was relegated to the spares where some parts can
still be found today. I kind of wished that I had held onto one of those.

So I picked up the Revell Jeep Rubicon...it represents an early 2000s Jeep under Fiat ownership. There was a shift in design and marketing. In general, the newer Jeeps have nicer interiors and are much more comfy. The Rubicon is a heavy-duty-ish version set up as a factory lifted Jeep. I guess they were trying to put out a version for the Jeep purists. Revell also has a snap Rubicon kit. Tamiya has a couple of Wrangler kits but they seem to be out of print. Meng has a Rubicon but it looks to be a more recent model and I don't really care for the wheel size and stance. It looks like a pimp my ride vehicle. 

The first thing I did was pick through the parts for any that needed to be painted black. The kit calls for the interior to be black but as a former Jeep guy....no. Also, the kit calls for black rollbars. Older Jeep rollbars were painted the same as body. Likewise, the rollbars are usually padded...the kit's are bare. I did go black with them though. This version has treadplate for the rocker panels and rear. I've never seen the whole rear done like this. Usually it's just the rear corners. I went black with these as well, with the plan to paint the body dark blue.

I went ahead and shot the paint on the body. Two problems...that's supposed to be dark blue and it orange peeled really badly. The paint is old but I have used it with no problems within the past year or two. It was really humid at the time so I think that played a role as well.

I sanded it as best as I could and shot two thin coats of primer. I'll go with another color.

The suspension is simple. It pops into place and is held firm with screws. The kit comes with metal coil springs though the suspension isn't workable. I suspect the suspension and lower hull was borrowed from the snap kit. As an aside, the new coil spring suspension differs greatly from traditional Jeep suspensions...leaf springs front and rear. To be fair, the ride has to be night and day different.

Altogether. I broke from the instructions on the oilpan. They wanted it to be blue. I've noticed alot of car kits adhere to the old manufacture classic colors even though newer vehicles tend to be black and natural metal (steel & aluminum). There wasn't any blue under any of mine and I didn't see it on any pics.

So I decided to go white for the body color. Sanding and primer helped with the orange peel but I figured it'd show in a dark color. You can see some of the peel texture on the front fender but that  will be covered by the flares.

For the interior I went with a medium gray. That's what three of mine were and it seemed common in research pics. The newer Jeep interiors aren't rudimentary like older ones. It was basically seats and a carpet section for the front floorboards. There was no interior body panels, though you could buy stuff. And yes the rear seat was that small, as was the rear leg room.

I added a strip of styrene the rear of the bucket seats to infer a pocket. Also, I rounded the edges of the seats. The rear edges were pretty hard.

Wrapping it up, I repainted the treadplate sections aluminum. The snorkel is some thing I would have left off had the location holes not already been opened. I left the license plates markings off. I'm probably going to use this with another vehicle so I want to have them use the same state tags.

I had fun with this build. Comparing it to my own Jeeps was a trip down memory lane. It really was a simple build, but also has a bit of room for upgrades and additions. The snap kit actually has a lot of accessories, so that might be something I look at down the road. Right now, I'll probably grab a Toyota or Datsun 4x4 pickup at some point.