Welcome to the Park: Starting My JP12 Jeep Build

Welcome to the Park: Starting My JP12 Jeep Build

Hello, and welcome to what may very well become either a meaningful family project, a Jurassic Park dream build, or a long-running public record of me discovering how little I know about Jeeps.

Possibly all three.

After a few years of trying to find a decent 1992 Jeep Wrangler Sahara, I finally picked one up. This is the beginning of my JP12 build: a Jurassic Park Jeep tribute that I’m hoping to make as movie-accurate as possible.

I’ve been a fan of Jurassic Park for as long as I can remember, and I’ve always had a deep love for cult classic movie vehicles. There’s just something special about them. They’re not just cars. They’re rolling nostalgia machines. They bring people together, start conversations, and instantly transport you back to a scene, a feeling, or a childhood obsession.

For me, this Jeep is all of that. But it’s also something more personal.

The Project Car That Took a Few Decades to Start

When I was a kid, my dad always wanted to get a project car that we could work on together. He was, and still is, a huge car guy. Unfortunately, that project never happened. Life moved on. I grew up. The military moved me around. Jobs moved me even more. Eventually, I ended up far away from him.

Now his health has declined, and he’s no longer ambulatory, so the version of this project where we’re standing in a garage together, turning wrenches side by side, just isn’t possible anymore.

But I still wanted to do it.

So now, at 40, I finally decided to start the project car we always talked about. It’ll mostly be me and my two boys doing the hands-on work, but I’ll be including my dad as much as I can through text messages, photos, videos, and probably a steady stream of “what the hell is this part?” questions.

There is, however, one small problem.

I don’t know shit about them. My expertise begins and ends at “yep, that’s an engine.” But here we are.

I’m much more comfortable with a circuit board and soldering iron than I am with motors, linkages, hoses, belts, cylinders, or whatever other mechanical witchcraft lives inside a Jeep. I literally just learned what a slave cylinder is, and honestly, I still think the name sounds suspicious.

A Classic Vehicle, Technically

My dad, on the other hand, is more of a classic car purist. So you can imagine his emotional journey when I told him I had bought a classic vehicle, then revealed it was a 1992 Jeep Wrangler, and then further disclosed that the plan was to turn it into a Jurassic Park Jeep.

I’m sure he had thoughts.

To be fair, while I don’t have an intrinsic love of cars in the traditional sense, I do have a very strong love of movie cars. That’s my gateway. Jurassic Park Jeep first. Maybe someday the original Ghostbusters ambulance. Maybe a DeLorean. And if I ever hit the lottery, the 1966 Batmobile is absolutely going on the list.

But first, the Jeep.

Prepared in Every Category Except the Relevant One

Thankfully, I’m not starting completely empty-handed. I’ve been part of the maker community for a long time, and I love working with tools, especially automation and CNC-based equipment like mills, lasers, routers, and 3D printers. I’ve been a member of our local Salt Lake makerspace for almost 15 years, so I have access to a lot of tools and a community of people who are generally pretty comfortable making weird ideas real.

That said, my personal automotive tool collection is currently less impressive.

At the moment, I own a windshield washer fluid funnel and a deep socket set that has never touched a vehicle.

So yes, clearly I am prepared.

Right now, I’m still working through the plan of attack. The more I research, the more I realize this project may be less of a straightforward mechanical restoration and more of an archaeological scavenger hunt. Finding the right parts, figuring out what is movie-accurate, tracking down obscure details, and deciding how deep into the rabbit hole I’m willing to go is already proving to be a project all by itself.

And because I apparently enjoy making things harder for myself, I am unfortunately a bit of a purist when it comes to movie accuracy. I want this JP12 build to be as close as I can reasonably get it. That means I’ve already started digging into things like dash replacements, seat reupholstery, trim details, paint considerations, and the apparently endangered species known as correct seat fabric.

If there’s a support group for people obsessing over tiny Jurassic Park Jeep details, I may already need an invitation.

First Jeep, First Questions

Also, this is my first Jeep. No one in my family is a Jeep person. So I’m learning that world from scratch too.

Which brings me to an important question: can someone please explain the ducks?

Do I need a duck? Is there a duck initiation? Is there paperwork? Am I assigned a duck, or do I choose the duck? These are the kinds of Jeep-specific cultural questions I was not emotionally prepared for.

So far, the first official purchase for the project has been a full cover to keep the Jeep wrapped up while it lives outside until bodywork and paint can happen. Not glamorous, but practical.

The First Steps

The next steps are basic but important. I’m scanning all the old maintenance logs the previous owners kept and building a timeline summary of what this Jeep has been through. From there, I’ll start with basic operational inspections: fluids, hoses, belts, and anything else that looks like it may have been quietly plotting against me since the Clinton administration.

I also need to replace what I believe is called the ignition lock cylinder, because I recently learned that you can currently twist it without a key and start the Jeep.

Personally, I think this means it has keyless ignition.

A feature, really.

This blog will be where I document the build, the research, the mistakes, the little victories, and probably a fair amount of public embarrassment as I learn things the hard way. My hope is that it becomes part build log, part family project archive, part Jurassic Park tribute, and part useful resource for the next person who starts this journey with more enthusiasm than automotive knowledge.

So, Here We Go

So, long story short: hi, I’m Juanito. I’m the new guy. I’m excited, wildly underqualified, and ready to learn.

Wish me luck.

We’ll need it.




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