[cactus_jack]

Woo hoo! I'm back in the driver's seat of an XJ! I had an old build thread for my old 00 xj but sadly the day came that I had to give it up. Ever since I got rid of it, I regretted every single day of it and vowed to get another XJ someday.


Just picked up a 98 DD from Craigslist. I have some cosmetic and mechanical issues to take care of before the mods start. This will be my work rig so I'll be keeping everything practical.
(In no specific order)
-Remove ugly chrome tint
-Passenger front window regulator
-Replace tie rod ends
-Fix "hard to start" issue (fuel pressure drops to 0 immediately after shutting off)
-Find replacement wheels ASAP! I absolutely HATE the gold wheels.
-Flip tires so white lettering isn't visible
-Get new passenger fender and front clip

Plans are to BB it about 3" like my last XJ. Who knows what else I'll get into with it.

Looking forward to being back on the forums

[jeepyj13]

Awesome. I cant wait to build my xj as well. When I wheeled it a couple yrs back that thing was almost unstoppable in mud which is all we have around here. The only thing it had was some walmart gy a/ts. It literally put the fullsize trucks on M/ts to shame. Imagine if it was lifted with more aggressive meats. Im looking forward to your build. I may get some ideas off the thread. Since bringing my xj back to road duty and parking my yj I'll be lurking on the XJ section more often

[Jeepnbo]

congrats and good luck. If you decided to lift 3'' make sure you get a new leaf vs aal becuase within a couple of months it will sag and if you carry a fullsize spare and various tools with a toolbox itll sag bad and have a hell of a rake!! Ask me how i know!

[cactus_jack]

Originally Posted by Jeepnbo

congrats and good luck. If you decided to lift 3'' make sure you get a new leaf vs aal becuase within a couple of months it will sag and if you carry a fullsize spare and various tools with a toolbox itll sag bad and have a hell of a rake!! Ask me how i know!

haha, yea I could see those aal setups being saggy. I'm going to do it like my last build, bastard pack in the rear, gc coils and 2" spacers in the front.

[cactus_jack]

So today I was trying to find a good place to install my inline check valve to fix my hard starts and found this:

It's hard to tell from the picture, but it looks like its just been ripped apart
Anyone have an idea of what it could be for?

[tcolt45]

congrats on getting another XJ.

[cactus_jack]

Finally got a couple of days off of work. Going to head to the junkyard in the morning to try and score some s10 or dakota leaf packs. Also going to look for some thunderbird or gc coils. Not expecting much luck since the junkyards around here are crap. I'll be installing my inline check valve to fix my hard-to-start issue and also going to possibly trim fenders, not for the purpose of tire rubbing, I have a flare missing and don't like them anyway, off they go.

Hoping to have a productive jeep day

[jeepjunkymike]

Originally Posted by cactus_jack

So today I was trying to find a good place to install my inline check valve to fix my hard starts and found this:

It's hard to tell from the picture, but it looks like its just been ripped apart
Anyone have an idea of what it could be for?

vapor canister??

[droz]

congrats on the Jeep, I will be following this one

[Tom95YJ]

Congrats, I'll be looking forward to your progress !

[cactus_jack]

Got a lot done yesterday. Painted my side trim, cleaned the rust off of my Reese hitch and painted it. Painted the bumpers and headlight trim.


Taped up

[cactus_jack]

Didn't get very lucky at the junkyard but did find these bad boys in an old 94





Figured I would paint them black so I got the materials and got started.

Sprayed them down with Eagle One All Wheel and Tire Cleaner (the best stuff I've used so far) and scrubbed them real good then sprayed them off with water.

After they dried I put a wire cup brush on a drill and scuffed them up a bit.

Followed that up with some 320grit sandpaper and cleaned them again.

Here they are scuffed and ready to paint


I used Duplicolor High Performance Wheel Coating. It really seemed to do the trick.


Finished product after 3 coats black and 3 coats clear.

[TitletownZJ]

Rims look great. looking forward to reading more

[cactus_jack]

Got a lot accomplished today. Got my new painted wheels mounted, installed my roof rack, removed the rear fender flares and did a cut and fold on the rear fenders. I'm at the mall with my wife at the moment so ill post all the pictures I took today when I get home and on an actual computer.

Looking forward to everyone's feedback.

[cactus_jack]

Cut and fold on the rear quarters. Took a sharpie and circled the pinch welds so I didn't cut through them.

Cut the rear bumper cap. Just did a rough cut for now. I'll trim or rip it off later.

Folded them all in with a rubber mallet

Taped off where I wanted the undercoating to do go.

Here's the finished product


Wheels and roof rack on

My fender trimming and undercoating didn't turn out as clean as I had hoped but it looks decent to me so I'll touch it up again soon. It really didn't have to be perfect so I'll live with it.

Turned out to be a productive couple of days off. Back to work until thursday.