When we started searching for our next off-road rig, I honestly didn’t think we’d end up with another Jeep—but this 2004 Jeep Wrangler TJ fits what we need right now. If this was going to be a cross-country daily driver, a dedicated rock crawler, or something we picked just to chase “popular YouTube content,” I would’ve made a different choice. Budget matters too, and within the reality of what we wanted to spend, this TJ made sense—so here we are. In this walk-around I show exactly what we’re starting with, and it’s basically “less than stock” because it didn’t come with doors—just tube doors—though we do have the soft top back windows. The first round of plans is pretty straightforward: doors (half doors vs full doors is still up in the air), wheels and tires (the current Michelin street tires are old, and the spare doesn’t match and has dry rot), and recovery gear because there are no recovery hooks front or rear. I also talk about keeping the stock bumper for now with a winch plate, making it more stubby by removing the ends, and figuring out a safe rear recovery point since there’s no factory hitch. After that, fenders are likely next so we can get more wheel travel, and we’ll tackle the windshield cracks down the road.