Texas-based facility mods Jeeps – most of them Wranglers – to make them stand out and better prepare them for the trails of the Lone Star State.
Down here in Texas, a modded Jeep is as common a sight as a lifted pickup or BBQ joint. The Jeep Slop Shop in Kemah is one of the places responsible for those eye-catching changes.
Not surprisingly, most of the rigs the Jeep Slop Shop works on are Wranglers – about 98 percent of them, to be exact. In the above video, owner Christian Hamilton tells ABC 13, “They’re the ultimate Mr. Potato Head. You can have it one way in the morning, and a total different way in the afternoon.” Appropriately, Hamilton’s shop installs custom suspensions and fabricated parts in addition to performing maintenance and repairs. Talking about his clients, Hamilton said, “They’re changing bumpers out, lights, different wheels, different tires, axles, coilover suspension. All the little nick knack stuff you can put inside the vehicle that they make for it.”
One Jeep Slop Shop customer, Chris Crain, started off by getting his Wrangler lifted and rolling on 35s. After he went wheeling in it, Crain decided to keep modding his vehicle. Last year alone, he spent $12,000 making his Jeep just the way he likes it for rock crawling. Just like Jeeps at a challenging spot on a trail, he’s not stopping there. He said, “By the time it’s all said and done, I’ll probably have 20 to 30 grand in it.”
Crain’s Wrangler already has the one mod that Hamilton especially recommends for getting out of sticky – or rocky or sandy – situations: a winch.
I’ll be seeing plenty of those this weekend when I take the 2017 Jeep Compass Trailhawk to a Central Texas OHV park to meet up with some of the fine folks from Austin JeepPeople. They’ll bring their Wranglers. If I can pick my jaw up off of the trail after looking at their mods, I’ll ask them if they got any mods done at the Jeep Slop Shop.
Derek Shiekhi's father raised him on cars. As a boy, Derek accompanied his dad as he bought classics such as post-WWII GM trucks and early Ford Mustang convertibles.
After loving cars for years and getting a bachelor's degree in Business Management, Derek decided to get an associate degree in journalism. His networking put him in contact with the editor of the Austin-American Statesman newspaper, who hired him to write freelance about automotive culture and events in Austin, Texas in 2013. One particular story led to him getting a certificate for learning the foundations of road racing.
While watching TV with his parents one fateful evening, he saw a commercial that changed his life. In it, Jeep touted the Wrangler as the Texas Auto Writers Association's "SUV of Texas." Derek knew he had to join the organization if he was going to advance as an automotive writer. He joined the Texas Auto Writers Association (TAWA) in 2014 and was fortunate to meet several nice people who connected him to the representatives of several automakers and the people who could give him access to press vehicles (the first one he ever got the keys to was a Lexus LX 570). He's now a regular at TAWA's two main events: the Texas Auto Roundup in the spring and the Texas Truck Rodeo in the fall.
Over the past several years, Derek has learned how to drive off-road in various four-wheel-drive SUVs (he even camped out for two nights in a Land Rover), and driven around various tracks in hot hatches, muscle cars, and exotics. Several of his pieces, including his article about the 2015 Ford F-150 being crowned TAWA's 2014 "Truck of Texas" and his review of the Alfa Romeo 4C Spider, have won awards in TAWA's annual Excellence in Craft Competition. Last year, his JK Forum profile of Wagonmaster, a business that restores Jeep Wagoneers, won prizes in TAWA’s signature writing contest and its pickup- and SUV-focused Texas Truck Invitational.
