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My 91 YJ Renegade snow camo/urban camo not sure

13K views 35 replies 14 participants last post by  Mazdarx 
#1 ·
I just picked up this 91 Yj Renegade on Saturday, its not my first Jeep though. I have had several, this actually being number 6 for me. I had a 91 YJ with a 2.5, that got stolen and wrecked I got it back and parted it out, and some of its parts still live on in this Jeep. When I had that Jeep I bought an 88 XJ Limited to drive while I was working on the YJ. Sold that and bought a 94 YJ which I fixed up and did a bunch of work to. I then decided I wanted a more comfortable ride, so I bought a 95 ZJ limited with a V8. I then liked that but wanted more so I sold it and the 94 YJ and bought a 98 5.9 Limited ZJ. I have now missed the YJ, so I sold my boat and bought another Yj, this 91 Renegade. I decided this time that I wanted to get something different than the previous two YJ's, and that would be a Renegade. I also wanted to get a 91 as I like the sport bar and I also like the older style guages with the clock in the dash. I found this one with a lift and 33's on it already for a good price in need of some work. Sadly the 5.9 is gone but I got nothing out of it as it went to settle a debt that I had.

So here is the 94 YJ, I don't have pictures here of any Jeep before that one



And then the 95 ZJ



And the 5.9



So here is me in the Jeep outside of the previous owners house, I had the toque and goggles on because the Jeep had no windshield in it.



So I got it home and first thing to go was these cheesy looking headlight covers. The turn signal ones are still there, I haven't completely decided to remove those yet.



Looks better without those on I think, they were really flimsy and I don't think would have done much.



So then I bolted this cowl scoop on, this being one of the parts from my original YJ. Underneath the original grill the mesh that goes there was missing, so it was full of some kind of nutshells and pine needles. I got some window screen to put over it but still need to install it.



I put on a set of rollbar grab handles I kept when I sold my 94 YJ.



I pulled apart the dash to fix the guages as a couple of those didn't work and to put in a CD player. I followed a writeup on here with some good information on that, and pictures so I don't have much in the way of pictures there. The gas guage started working, but then it ran out of gas at somewhere just over a half tank, so apparently it doesn't work that well. I was greeted with this when I pulled the radio out.



So while the dash was apart I decided to repolish the stainless dash panel. This is before, most of what needed polishing was corrosion from rusty hardware attaching it to the dash.



And after



So here is the dash all together with the CD player, sort of fixed guages and repolished dash panel, I also painted the hardware holding it on. This CD player was kept when I sold the 94 YJ.



Then I installed some Momo pedals from my 91 Yj. These aren't just a cosmetic mod, they are wider and help me heel/toe shift as well as get it going on slopes cause I can have my foot on the brake and give it a little gas at the same time.



I then removed the factory console and installed this, can't recall if its a tuffy or a smittybuilt, but its strong and well built whatever it is. It also has a radio compartment at the front, more on that later, and cupholders too. This console was in both YJ's before.



In that radio compartment I installed this Cobra CB radio, which I received as a gift several years ago and never installed in any Jeep for various reasons. But it is now, so thats good.



To go along with that radio, I installed a 4 foot Firestik antenna, which was given to me by a generous friend, who also helped out on the install. I also installed a set of tail light guards that were on both YJ's.


Then after getting all of that done, i had a new windshield installed. Yes I know, you may ask, I did all this work before the windshield install, well the reason for that is I bought this Jeep at the start of a holiday long weekend(easter) and couldn't find anybody to do it.



Then, as it came without a top I put on the original top from my 94 YJ. Its a piece of junk and doesn't really even fit, even more so as its meant for half doors and this Jeep has full doors. This is just to keep rain off while its parked at my moms house. I am going to get a bikini top for it until I decide whether I want a hard or soft top for it.



More to come as I get more work done to it
 
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#3 ·
So I cleaned up a seat I had in behind my moms house for the last few years and put that in, as this Jeep came without one. It didn't come all that clean as it was rough when I got it. It came out of a parts Jeep I pulled some stuff out of years ago, and it was in that Jeep folded shut so water and stuff was trapped between the two halves. Anyway here that is



So here it is today, I took the windows out of the sides as I am now driving at and basically I am using it as a full length bikini top.



Oh and this hook with a shackle on it was under the front bumper, anybody think that this will hold up to any kind of pull?

 
#4 ·
I have been working on it throughout the day today, I get to work on it at work when it isn't busy as I am selfemployed. As this Jeep has both a body lift and suspension lift on it, the shifters would hit the tub if not modified, so the floor in this jeep was cut open to allow the shifters to move without hitting, they were also extended so as to not make them too short. In order to cover up the tub trimming that was done, there is an aluminum plate bolted over the holes. It had a sticker on it, presumably from some shop that did some work on it in the past. As I don't even know who they are, I removed it but having been there a while you could see where the stickers. So being aluminum and myself being somebody who likes shiny stuff, what did I do? I of course polished it. Its just a hand polish for now, once I get a powerball I will do a better job on that, and I am going to polish the wheels up more too. So here it is before



And after, also visible are the floormats I added.

 
#5 ·
I have been doing a little more on it today, first thing I did was to replace the busted marker light on the drivers side. I got a used one cause I didn't want to spend much on a good one as I intend to put clear ones on, but this has to pass an inspection first and I don't think clear ones will pass. I also had to replace the socket as it was badly corroded. So here it is before-



And after, at least it lights up now



So after that was done I put on the license plate bracket, but I had to straighten that out first as it came from a wrecked Jeep that I guess got hit on that corner. While I had it apart to straighten it all out, I decided to put it together with only one spring as I thought two was a little overkill. Is that going to be a problem, why does it have 2 anyway?



Put on a Jack in the Box antenna ball just for fun, these you don't see around much here as we don't have Jack in the Box in Canada.



I also put on a bikini top that I just got, but I am not sure if I like this or not. It seems like when it rains the rain will drip off and onto my side, anybody with one know about that?

 
#8 ·
Ok so I have been getting a little more done with it, although nothing too big yet as I am pretty broke right now. Most of this stuff is things I have had in boxes waiting for another Jeep to put them on. I am selling my Miata, so I took the CD player out of that car for the Jeep. I like it much better as it has a stainless face and matches the jeep well. It really makes me want to swap my polished dash panel for a brushed aluminum version though. It also has an auxilary in on the front so people can bring their Ipods into my Jeep. Anyway here is that



And I installed my lights onto the windshield, still have another set to put on the front bumper, as soon as I decided where on the bumper to put them. I also put on my tube doors and have been driving that way for a few days now.



I came across a shift knob I had in a Honda years ago so I threw that on too, the 2nd pic here also shows the new CD player.





While I was working on the stereo I put in my sub and 5 channel amp



And I used 2 of the channels for these, soon the other 2 channels will be used for the soundbar speakers, but I need to upgrade those first cause these will blow under that much more power.

 
#9 ·
Well no big progress on the Jeep, I traded some parts I had for some seatbelts for my backseat. Not that I get a lot of people riding back there, but I like to have that option. Had them in for a day and my gas can leaked some gas onto them. Oh well its raining out that should get them clean enough for me.

I had an extra fog/driving light can't remember what it was supposed to be. I had just the one, I hadn't seen the other in a couple years, so I figured what to do with just one light? I decided to use it as an extra reverse light. Funny thing is though, the same day I put this on, I found the matching one in my dads shed with a box of some of my other junk. So I suppose one day I will put the 2nd one on the other side.
 
#10 ·
Made a little bit more progress on the Jeep yesterday. I decided to tint out the side markers a little, it helps hide the fact that the one is kinda cracked, now that its done I think it also blends better with the rest of the colors, it kind of stood out a lot being orange.



I also got tired of having my fire extinguisher just floating around in the back, so I bolted it to the side of the fenderwell. I just pulled out one of the bolts through the side of the tub that holds the flares on and bolted it back through the bracket for the fire extinguisher.

 
#11 ·
Well haven't really done much to it, although soon I'm going to need a new exhaust manifold as mine has a very big crack. I have had it offroad a few times so I'm adding up some pictures of that. These first ones are where I got it hung up on a big stump.











The view from the top



Stuck again, the only time anybody took pictures was when I got stuck.

 
#12 ·
Well I got out on more wheeling trips. On my last trip out, I got to the top where the lookout is, and discovered that I broke the bolt holding the front track bar on to the axle. Well it didn't concern me too much, I wanted to remove both anyway, but the bolts at the axle had been too tight for hand tools. So this made it easier, only catch was we had to do it laying in the dirt at the top.

So here is the offending bolt



And us working on it, I got lucky and my buddy volunteered to be the one in the dirt, so I stayed clean.



The track bar out, along with the "specialty" tool used to remove it



And the view at the top







And it was a fairly steep climb up there, it took me a couple tries to get up there







 
#15 ·
I like the chrome grill, if I took it off I'd have to paint the grill to match underneath, cause its not right now. I'm not a big fan of the black grill look either. So I think I'm going to leave that. I do have another set of wheels I might put on there, they aren't black, but they aren't polished aluminum like these either. They are just ordinary silver.
 
#16 ·
So this project has taken an unexpected turn for the worse, due to this-





So at this point, it leaves me with the question of what to do with it. I really like this jeep and don't want to give up on it, so I'd like to repair it if possible. The other option is to get another YJ and put all my good parts onto it, but I really don't wanna do that again. So repairing this one I think is my best option. I'm considering going with the Cj hood and grill when I do, but I'm undecided as I can probably get YJ parts easier and cheaper. The tough part will be finding a replacement Renegade fender.
 
#18 ·
I was going down the freeway, center lane lots of traffic, the guy ahead of me slams on his brakes and I just couldn't stop fast enough. It was still slippery as it had just stopped raining, and he had ABS, I don't, not that a lifted Jeep stops all that well anyway.
 
#19 ·
I have decided to repair this Jeep now. Here are the pictures of it so far. This is right after I got it back, I started taking it apart a little bit before I took the pictures but not much.



And this one was a joke for a friend of mine, I told her about getting the Jeep back, and she asked me if I was going to hug it, so that was what I did.



The frame seems ok for the most part, there is some damage here where the body mount pulled out of the frame, as well as where the front bumper was bolted has folded back.



I got the flare off, and the fender was quite rusty underneath which undoubtedly contributed to the way it folded up.



The grill support pulled through, so that will need some work



Got the fender and grill off





And the power steering pulley and lines were damaged as seen here

 
#20 ·
I don't even know if anybody is looking at this, but I have collected almost all the parts necessary to fix this Jeep. Started with the fender, picked up a mint condition fender at a local Jeep wrecking yard.



Had a guy from our local Jeep club, bcjeepclub.ca come out and help weld up the torn piece of the frame and then weld the spacer that was there back on top.



I got the fender on there



And here it is with the hood down, just to show how far back this thing folded up



Then I picked up a hood and grill from another member of the local club for a good price. He also gave me the power steering reservoir and one of the lines, I still need the return line and the pulley.



And finally I got a front bumper for free from another club member



My plan at this point, if I can get the remaining parts I need in time, is to finish it up on Monday.
 
#22 ·
How is your repair coming along? I see you picked up a bunch of parts.

Got a quick question for you...did you ever find another Renegade flare? If so where at? I'm actually trying to hunt down a couple of the exterior push in torx head clips that hold the flares on the Jeep from my Renegade and I'm not having any luck. I was hoping maybe you came a cross them somewhere. Thanks!
 
#27 ·
Oops I guess I forgot to update this thread. Yes, the Jeep is all repaired now and back on the road. I thought I had updated this one, it is on my local forum anyway.

So here is the Jeep the night I got it all back together



And the "garage" I did all the repairs in, this truly is backyard mechanics



A couple shots of it after I pulled it out of the backyard the next day





I still wasn't able to drive it at this point, after the accident the police stuck me with an inspection order meaning it wasn't allowed to be insured or driven on the street whatsoever until it passed a safety inspection. So I had to have it towed again, this time to the same shop that passed it's inspection when I bought it. It was from a different province when I got it so to import it an inspection is required.



It failed initially, I had to put the rear track bar back in, oddly they did not notice that there was supposed to be one on the front and it wasn't there and the sway bar too. Then I had to weld a small rust hole in the rear of the frame by the shackle, didn't catch a picture of that as we were too busy doing that in their parking lot trying to get it done before the shop closed. Once again my local Jeep club came to the rescue here as I don't know how to weld, so one of our other members drove the 2 hours or so from his place to where my Jeep was parked in order to help out, I owe him for that one. We did get it done and they passed it, and I left it outside their shop to come back for it in the morning. This wasn't the end of the road for this Jeep though sadly. While I was driving around looking for a gas station as I didn't know the area and my gas gauge doesn't work, I pulled up to a traffic light and the jeep made a strange noise and it felt as though I had ran over something. I backed up to look and see what I hit and nothing was there so I pulled through the intersection, when I heard a Ping! Ping! noise and I looked out the window to see a lugnut going flying away. this wasn't just a case of loose wheelnuts though as I know what that feels like. Several of the studs broke off causing much carnage to the rotor and we suspected the hub also. I called for help as I had no jack to lift the Jeep up with and had somebody come out to assist. Lucky there was a parts store not too far away, so I borrowed his vehicle and went to get new studs and lugnuts while my helper started lifting it up and taking it apart. We got it together with new studs but I didn't have enough cash on me to replace the rotor so I drove it home as is. Here is the rotor after I got it apart at home. As you might guess it didn't drive well, the wheel wobbled quite visibly and shook the Jeep.





I had it towed to a friends place as he has a parts XJ and we weren't sure what else we would need to replace other than the rotor. Luckily that was all we had to do. Here it is all done and ready to go home. I also got a tonneau cover as it was October now and I only had a bikini top and this was going to be my daily driver. It helped out a lot, it's somewhat visible in this photo.



I got a chrome tow hook for it as some of my buddies give me a hard time about the shiny bits on my Jeep, like the grill, tailgate hinges hood latches etc. This is so I can say that this chrome will get me home, or you.



I then acquired a soft top from another local jeep club member. Even with the tonneau cover and the windjammer I was using on loan from the same club member who came to my house to do some welding on the Jeep it was getting a little cold. Here is that, it's something of a novelty to me now to drive it in the rain and stay dry.





I had also acquired some carpet off of Craigslist a few weeks prior but I was waiting to put that in until I had a proper top. It was from a CJ so some trimming was required but it got the job done.



I also got some saddle bags from the same guy I got the carpet from, these are great as now there isn't as much junk floating around inside the Jeep. These hold my tow strap, tow shackle, jumper cables, first aid kit, some tools, and a portable air compressor.



I took it wheeling a couple of times in there also, on one of those trips this happened. I have never seen a rock do this and neither had anybody who saw these pictures. We don't know how it got in there but it was a pain to get out.





Here is a video from that same trip

 
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