I want it to look aggressive with lots of black body armor.
Looking aggressive is good and all but you should only spring for armor if you're going to need it. Armor = +weight, -speed. It's a Jeep, nobody really cares how it looks as long as it can hold it's own in the backcountry 8) Figure out what you want to use your Jeep for before doing any modding. For example, if you were building a rock crawler then armor would be a necessity. But if you are building a vert machine armor is pretty much unnecessary and the added weight will only drown out your engine on those steep inclines. "Chrome looks nice but it won't get you home." Same goes for other mods. Snorkel or SRI/CAI? Depends on the application; if you're planning lots of river fording/deep mudding you're going to want to go with a snorkel. All else, SRI or CAI might be better for the extra power gain. Just plan ahead and you'll do fine
Then again, I'm planning a good all-around machine that doesn't excel at any particular task. So I'm picking and choosing a little bit of everything.
The last thing to remember is ... if you take it offroad, things are going to break (so keep some basic tools and a roll of duct tape on hand.) Unless you're really lucky all the time, the body will get dented and the paint will get scratched. I've had my Wrangler not even a week, I've gone trail riding twice, and I've already scratched the hell out of the passenger door paint and managed to pop two dents in the hood. So yeah, get used to that now, it'll make for less tears later
Armor will help but it will only delay the inevitable Vader-like "NOOOOOOOoooooooo!!"
EDIT: I'd definitely go ahead and invest in a decent winch and a bull bar to protect it. Once you get out there on your own, that winch will be your best friend. Those will be be my first additions.
