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Tomimal & Tanimal's- 1993 Cherokee Country Build Thread

7K views 31 replies 9 participants last post by  442Wrangler 
#1 ·
Hello and welcome to the start of my father (Tomimal) and my (Tanimal) build thread. We just picked up a 1993 Cherokee Country yesterday for $1000 bucks! 140k miles on the clock and runs strong. Tanimal currently has a 2008 Jeep Wrangler 2 door daily driver being slowly built so this is going to be a new world for the both of us. This rig is going to be Tomimals for trail runs with Tanimal. Hopefully the names don't confuse you to much :teehee: We will update this as we go along for a winter project. Currently we believe it sits on a Rustys 4 inch suspenion lift and 31s, 4.0 inline 6 auto trans and power windows and locks and tan leather interior :nono: Again this is a new world to us so forgive the lack of knowledge!

 
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#2 ·
Did some work on the Jeep today. Have a couple pictures to update you folks with.

Pulled front diff cover off and the gears look great. Replaced the fluid, breather line, and front diff cover with the D30 cover and bolts from my Jeep. If you notice in the picture that the front drive shaft hanging down..


Replaced the front axle pinion seal and we broke two bolts off inside the yolk where the clamp holds the Spicer to the yolk...Hopefully that makes sense..


Drilling those broken bolts out of the yolk..


Rethreading the yolk


Unfortunately we drilled the last bolt out incorrectly and destroyed the yolk after all that hard work. So we sucked it up and ordered a new yolk offline for 45 bucks and also ordered a new tie rod, drag link, steering stabilizer, and upper and lower ball joints.

More pics and updates to come soon!
 
#3 ·
Got a very important mod done today:

Garage heater! Garage was already prewired with a thermostat, ventilation, and gas.

Picture of us getting measurements and where it's going to sit.


Picture of back side with nothing hooked up but you can see everything we had to work with that was already done for us:


Everything is hooked up and working which will make a nice comfortable work environment. Sorry I didn't snap a picture of it hanging there all complete. I'll grab one tomorrow because we should be doing some more work.
 
#4 ·
Decided we were going to replace the valve cover gasket since it had some small leaking and as we were in the process of doing so we had a couple other things go wrong :)

Valves look good and no sludge.


Valve cover put back on and new valve cover gasket installed.


We broke the heater control module and all the brittle hoses that connect to it as we were taking the hoses off to get to the valve cover.


Close up of the broken heater control module.



New heater control module installed and new hoses installed.



We also decided to replace the thermostat since we were right there anyhow.



Next we will be doing front end work. So stay tuned! :thumbsup:
 
#5 ·
Decided to take care of the floor first because as we were fixing the transfer case linkage we noticed the floor was rusted pretty bad. Ripped everything out of the inside including the carpet.



Decided to start cutting the floor out because we will be welding in new stuff. Here's Tomimal at work:



Here's a picture of the passenger side, we got a lot of it cut out today but still a lot more to be done:

 
#8 ·
Got all the front floors hacked out:



Driver's Side: (Don't worry that little rust spot you see toward the middle of the floor has been hacked out also)



Passenger Side:



Will be flux core welding the floor/rock panels/rock sliders in so updates will be coming soon...hopefully
 
#17 ·
So decided we will definitely be downsizing to 33s so if you're interested please let me know. We just have them listed on craigslist so we'll see how long they last.

We got around to welding some floor in today and placing the floor pans for fitment. We also hacked off the rusted rocker panels and have the new rocker panels clamped into place. I've got a decent amount of pictures for you folks so enjoy:

Looks like a blizzard decided to roll in:


Got the generator all fired up for consistent power to our little welder:


Little flux core welder that we will be doing all the welding with:


New rocker set and clamped:




Top view of the rocker and you can see we have the floor pans in place and welded in some pieces for the top of the foot wells (don't mind the purple iPhone case, it was an extra case laying around the house and Tomimal has no shame):


Here is the rear trunk and we have a nice chunk cut out:



Hopefully I'll have even more pictures later today because we are just taking a break right now. All in all this has been a really fun project considering we have no metal fabrication skills or experience prior to this and I only took one intro to welding class for Arc and Oxy. Flux Core is very...interesting :2thumbsup:
 
#18 ·
Picked up a set of rock slider off craigslist today. Seller said he thought they were Rocky Road Outfitters but was unsure. They have surface rust over the entire rails but the metal is still solid and won't be an issue for us to work our magic and make these things look new again:



In the deal we also picked up a JCR front bumpers and JCR rear bumper. I don't have any pictures right now but hopefully soon.
 
#24 ·
Should be doing some more work over this next week so hopefully I can fulfill that request!

Keep the 35s and remove metal!
Already downsized to 33s, the 35s were just not going to happen :(

you're cheating with using a heater.

Seeing your jeep with no floors gives me horrible flash backs.
Keep it up!
Haha, considering my father and I have never done something like this it was a bit scary taking this plunge. That heater helps when the garage door is closed but since we have been doing so much welding, grinding, and cutting it's been open and that heater hasn't done much.
 
#25 ·
Got one of the bigger patches in the trunk welded in today:


Also cut out some more rust, passenger rear and that damn seat belt bolt is a T50 for reference! Had to torch the damn thing:


Still have a ton of patches to fill and the whole drivers side floors and rocker panel. We also have grinding to do, primer, and than some type of bedliner. We are leaning toward Rustoleum Bed Liner. Need to install front and rear bumpers, rocker armor, fix the drive shaft, fix the transfer case linkage, mount the beadlocks on the 33s and cut some of the fender back.
 
#26 ·
For the floor I love U-Pol Rapter. Check it out. You can buy it from tptools.com I have sprayed it 2 of my Jeeps. '01 TJ and my '92 XJ. Easy to spray and after it cures for a full 7 days you can throw a hammer down on it, or slide a heavy metal toolbox across it without it showing so much as even a scratch.

I've heard great things about monstaliner too, but haven't used it myself.
 
#28 ·
Maybe we will give the U-POL a shot, I did Monstaliner in my JK and would like to compare the two. Thanks :thumbsup:

you gonna seam weld or tach weld it to the unibody rails?
Tack, some of it is done already but I didn't take pictures :(
 
#29 ·
Good to see you giving that old XJ another lease on life. My father has one and it was what started my love of all things Jeep, there's nothing quite utilitarian like them in today's SUV world.

So are you keeping the leather? Sell the tires yet?

All in all, it looks good! :thumbsup:
 
#30 ·
To follow up that last picture posted here is that hole all filled (not very pretty but still needs to be grinded, also didn't snap the picture for awhile and it has surface rust):



Had to cut a rust hole out in the passenger rear fender:



Patched it up and grinded it down:



Beadlock rings will be getting some new paint soon (all stripped down):



Trunk right over the driver rear wheel:

 
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