[GregB_00XJ]

GregB's 2000 Cherokee Classic (The Resale Red XJ Build Project)

Hey All,
Great pics and stories in this particular forum thread, so I felt compelled to add mine. I recently bough a mint 2000 Cherokee Classic from my Mother in law. She bought it from a Realtor in Vancouver BC (Canada) so it has seen like zero off road miles (sad). It had a rad failure, so it baked the top end of the engine on the highway.... bad for Mom in law, good for me. Funny thing, realtor lady ordered it with Tow hooks?

Specs:
-4.0L inline 6
-Stock driveline with Dana 30 fr and Chrysler 8 in the rear
-full load without leather, Cherokee Classic
-Automatic
-re-sale red monochromatic paint (nice) in mint condition

Top end total rebuild, new rad, new cooling system and a nice job of it too. Looks like the exhaust manifold and downpipe were recently done too although the cat is older looking? This is what she did to it....

I replaced the entire braking system: New rotors, new pads, new drums, new shoes, new front wheel bearing (failing). New shocks (stockers for now), new tires, mild AT's as this will see 99% road and gravel duty. I did a full driveline service including a new set of rear gears as mine were wearing and I don't want to look at this again for some time. I have also added in a 600 watt Pioneer Premier based audio system with a ported 10" Infinity sub.

What I am planning:
2-3" lift, probably a Rusty's, a Rubicon Express or possibly a local mix and match from a local shop as they guy has been doing Jeep work for 15 years and good deals are to be had. I am also planning on adding a Flowmaster/Magniflow/Something exhaust system, a KnN Cold Air intake and possibly down the road a rear disk swap. Will likely add some recovery stuff just in case and some bumpers and lights... depending on budget and how addicted to this I get. lol

Looking forward to adding some pics when I actually get it #1. Off road and #2. Worked on and added to! Thanks all for the inspiration and for all of the advice I am going to ask all of you in the coming months.
Greg

Pictures:

Fresh out of the box (new to me)

Interior in superb shape...check!

Popped a decent set of shoes on it. Came with CRAP tires.

OK, I like my music... nothing crazy.

More to come....

 

[az357mag]

looks nice props dude

 

[ChiliPepperXJ]

I think you should update your build..your XJ is probably one of my favorite on this forum and is what I'm going for with mine :2thumbsup:

 

[tofuzeppelin]

Up dates?

 

[GregB_00XJ]

wow, FAIL on my part... I totally forgot I had started this!! 2008. Um yeah, one or two changes since I posted this! I will post some stuff on what I have done ASAP. I have like 200 pics or so I can post!

Thanks for the reminder!!

 

[GregB_00XJ]

I think you should update your build..your XJ is probably one of my favorite on this forum and is what I'm going for with mine :2thumbsup:

Oh and thanks man, I really appreciate that comment... it has been a long road, and I have enjoyed every minute of it!

 

[ChiliPepperXJ]

Oh and thanks man, I really appreciate that comment... it has been a long road, and I have enjoyed every minute of it!

SWEET!! I'm looking forward to these updates! It has been a long time waiting! (And hopefully those 200 pics make it on here). You have done an awesome job, and I am hoping to pull more inspiration from your build :thumbsup:

 

[GregB_00XJ]

Ok, was thinking about this today, and thought what the heck, post some updates on what I have done to the XJ since I got it in 2008 and posted this.

Yes, it did become a project, and a passion (ok addiction). I love this Jeep, most fun of any vehicle I have ever owned to date. It tows my trailers, hauls my kids, wife and I around (she complains, but I think she actually likes it), and does whatever I ask it to without much complaining. It spends 99% of its time on the road, hauling me back and forth to work, rain or shine. I knew this going in, so I decided pretty early on that this was going to be a smaller lift and 31" tires was as big as I was going to go.

The criteria:

1. Must be able to tow a camping trailer (2500-2700 LBS)
2. Must be road/commuter friendly(ish)
3. Must be kid friendly
4. Must kick some kind of arse somewhere/somehow?

The Decisions:

1. 3-4.5" lift
2. 31" tires max
3. Quality components and no junk
4. Nothing that made it overly unpleasant on long drives on or offroad
5. Must be able to support Overland Travel (what I aspire to)

So where to begin? Well, how about at the beginning. I popped those AT's in the first pics on there. They were actually a really decent tire! Great in the rain, great in the dry, superb in the snow. I did a stereo, sub and overall maintenance. I did new Monroe OEM shocks, new rotors/calipers/pads/drums/shoes/wheel cylinders, new bushings and all new fluids (diffs/TCase/Trans etc). Need to start fresh right?

After that it was running and driving like a dream. But, I had "higher" aspirations for this little XJ, so a shopping I went. I picked up some locally sourced 3" lift leafs with an overload leaf for towing, a set of 2" lift pucks from Energy and a few bits to go along with that...here is what I ended up with.

With all that installed, I was sitting a lot *** high, and with the wee 235's on there is looked a little odd, but not "bad"?

Oh and I popped a roof basket on it at the same time, so handy as the XJ is not that big inside! I was happy with the way it drove, but it felt odd as it was nose down. I knew this was NOT going to last. I ordered a set of 3" BDS lift coils and some Warrior Products sway bar end links to match. I was planning a trip to go and pick them up at North Shore Off Road and came across a set of 4 31" Toyo AT's cheap on Craigslist. I popped the dude some PayPal and had a buddy pick them up (they were in Vancouver as well). I headed on over, and picked up my lift loot and new shoes along with some new shocks as my OEM Monroe's were WAY maxed out and topping out already. I had 15" tires, and was running 16 inch wheels...oh nos! JC Whitney to the rescue.

Ordered a set of Allied Wheel Soft 8 (same as Cragar and everyone elses). Picked up my stuff, and headed home.

I headed home, got the wheels a couple days later (4 x wheels, 4 center caps, shipping to Canada and all in like $250.00 CDN)! I took them to my local tire shop and had them mounted and balanced. Of course I knew they would rub as I still only had the puck lift, but what the heck! Whats a little rubbing between friends? Oh wait...sounds dirty?

Pretty tight in the front. RUBBED like mad at full lock, but looked great! Time to trim, install the coils, links and shocks and see where I was at?

Much better. Pics dont show the end links yet. I had also along the way installed a Magnaflow cat-back system, some KC 57 series lamps and some other goodies. LOVE the driving lights, and cannot say enough good things about the Magnaflow, best sound ever.

More to come...

 

[GregB_00XJ]

Rapid fire updates tonight...I am on a roll.

So where was I, lift, tires wheels and some other bits installed. Right, now it was time to concentrate on using the Jeep. My wife and I had this awesome camping trailer, and we wanted to get the wee kids out camping. Before that I wanted to do some stuff to the Jeep (of course). I picked up a B&M Supercooler transmission cooler and matching B&M trans temp gauge. Installed both in short order, fantastic quality and they both work amazingly well.

here is what we were towing...

I really like the location I picked for the trans gauge. I didnt figure this one out all on my own, someone on this forum had done this, so I "borrowed" that design. Worked so well, and it is right where you need would think it should be, near the trans right? At this point I was pretty pleased overall, with the excpetion of the ride quality. 3+" of lift on stock LCA's just well, sucks. Harsh and loud over bumps. I ordered a set of 3-4" lift Rough Country X-Flex LCA's and got the JF 10% off discount! I had also popped in a set of crossmember blocks for the trans to get rid of the vibrations. It worked "ok", but as I had won an Advanced Adapters HD SYE from JF Vendor giveaway, I was ready to fix that too!

I got my free AA SYE in the mail (Thanks again dudes at Advanced Adapters), and sourced a stock XJ front driveshaft rebuilt with nice greasable Spicer U Joints for $100 bucks. Dealz!! Installed ALL that stuff.

You might also notice that I have some new NEW shoes in the pic above. Yup, got such an amazing deal on the tires, Hankook MT RT03 for cost! I gave the guy my now 2 year old Toyo tires (which were like 3-4 years old) and he sold me a set of Hankooks for wholesale! Sweet!! I also scored a set of Jeep Liberty center caps for $20 bucks for all 5. I had them for a little while with the old tires...was not digging the old skool steel center caps anymore?

Getting there.

 

[GregB_00XJ]

Funny... as I am looking at the pics I noticed a few things.

1. I forgot to mention the wee flare extension install?
2. I forgot to mention the light/brush bar I scored locally!

Wheel well openings were fine with just the stock flares, but MAN the spray in the rain! I live on the west coast of Canada, way out on the west coast, on Vancouver Island. It rains a lot here as we technically live in a rainforest. While beautiful, get used to the wet! The flares were an idea I scooped off of the nicest Jeep on JF. I was checking out his older photos and was digging is old flares. I sent Stevieboy a PM and he hooked me up with the Pacer Performance flex flare idea. $76 bucks for all 4 wheels and some left over!

Not the greatest look ever...but SO much cheaper than say Bush Whacker flat flares, and they work great! The brush bar was a score. I troll the local Craigslist and Used Victoria sites for the Jeep bits. I have scored so many sweet deals on there by being first in line. I paid $100.00 for an OEM dealer installed Mopar brush bar that only needed paint and some new hardware. A half dozen coats of black, and some new stainless hardware and I was good to go!

Scored a pretty sweet deal on a bike rack too!

Around the same time I was lollygagging around this forum, and was chatting back and forth with PhillipJ from Tacoma. He is building one of my fav XJ builds on here, and I was reading his build thread. He mentioned ditching his front factory skid... and I said, man I would like that.

So he gave it to me!

Awesome guy! My mom lives 3 blocks from him in T Town, so she picked it up and brought it up to me on her next visit. Not only did he give it to me free (I got my mom to give him $20) he also stripped it, painted it and THEN gave it to me!

In the meantime I picked up a set of LeBaron hood vents. I sprayed them Jeep Flame Red to match, and sadly they are still sitting in the garage wrapped up awaiting install. The kool think, I found a perfect condition hood same year and color as mine. I am going to have a summer hood, and a winter hood! lol

Um, what else...

Right. I ordered some other stuff around this time. Ruff Stuff diff covers for the CHRY 8.25 and the D30. MAN these things are BEEFY and well made. I sprayed them with a good etch primer and 4 or 5 coats of black, and let them cure for a week. Installed, with some nice RTV and some new Synthetic fluid front and rear and booyeah!

I managed to come across a set of RC 2.2 shocks for $100 bucks shipped. These were used, but only 1 or 2 months and they came looking brand new in the Bilstein boxes he replaced these with. Good score and in my personal opinion, very good shocks. Supple, smooth ride, 10 times better than the BDS/Rancho they replaced.

I ordered and installed some engine goodies as well around this time. I picked up a set of Precision Injectors 4 port reman/upgraded injectors and a Leah Machine 63MM bored out Throttle Body. I popped in some new plugs (Champion double coppers) and MAN what a difference.

New

Old

New and old!

More to come...

 

[mg2000xj]

This jeep is so sick. I love how you have taken your time, kept everything simple but useful. I would love to find a brush guard like that.

 

[GregB_00XJ]

This jeep is so sick. I love how you have taken your time, kept everything simple but useful. I would love to find a brush guard like that.

Thanks man, I really like the way it has turned out. I have a list of projects and things I am planning on doing. Some I have the bits already, some are in progress, and some are awaiting funds. Some of the stuff I have on the go:

1. Ashtray Switch Panel (99% completed)
2. Relay box ala FitchVA (99% completed)
3. Power Distribution box for LED under jeep "Rock" lights (99% completed)
[aka Night Maintenance lights, a-aka I broke some crap, it is dark, I need lights...lights]
4. Jeep Factory overhead console
5. LeBaron vents
6. Dual battery setup
7. Hi Lift mount
8. Wire in rack mounted backup lights
9. Install 2 x 100 Watt rack mounted offroad lights
10. Steering upgrades some day when needed
11. Add 1-2 inch rear and front lift (leafs are already sagging a bit more than I like)
12. Finish WJ seat install (rears remaining)

So much to do.

 

[GregB_00XJ]

What the hell, I am still up and in a typing zone (not so much a spelling zone, so apologies in advance). ha ha

What I am working on currently, well first and foremost a relay box and switch panel to go along with my lighting noted above. I was following FitchVA's build thread and was really stoked on the lighting and switching stuff he was doing. I decided to use his ideas and make my own interpretation of what he was doing. Sadly he has sold his XJ, and his domain is no longer registered, so his super awesome XJ resource site is also gone. Ugh.

Switch box is based off of this FitchVA drawing and photos:

These are all his pictures that I copied for reference while I was doing mine, good thing too!! As you can see, he is using CAT5 or CAT6 cabling to trigger the relays from the switches. To me this is brilliant, low milliamp load, one cable to run, colour coded even. He used a fuse block, some small jumpers and even made a nice schematic.

Me, well I used a similar job box and a similar fuse block, with the exception that mine has a common ground as well as power. I used 30 AMP relays and put in an aluminum heat sink to help. I will likely only run MAX 2 of these at a time, and many of them will run LED's so really low power draw.

I will be using this relay box via this switch panel I fabbed up. It is currently wrapped with exterior sign vinyl, but I think I am going to bedline it when I do my Expo Trailer (pics of that soon).

No pics of the power dist box for the LED lighting, but it is pretty basic. I picked up some Superflux LED's from Oznium.com. There are pre-wired, waterproof, small and SUPER powerful. I fabbed up some brackets out of aluminum and epoxied them in place. each front wheel will have 2 sets of 2 (4 lights per front) and each rear will have 1 set of 2 for now.

My little assembly line...

final product ready to be wired in.

If you are looking for some LED lighting, be sure to check out Oznium.com. Very good prices and nice stuff.

I am using one of these for a license plate light, and it is uber bright.

 

[GregB_00XJ]

I recently picked up a set of WJ seats in very good condition locally. They are hard to find here as Jeeps seem to last forever here and sell for a pretty penny. There are never any at the wreckers and if they are, they are picked clean like road kill in buzzard country!

Very comfy!

I upped the crossbar quotient on my XJ as well. I load a lot of stuff up there, and for $20 bucks I added 2 additional older style crossbars to help distribute the load on the SportRack safari basket.

I popped on some side plates where the basket extension went in. This is a 3 piece rack, and the joints needed reinforcing... I guess you could also look at it like I exceed the load limit, ahh tomato tomato' right?

Speed Holes!!

Now a sneak peek at where most of my time is going this spring!

Picture this, all repainted, the tub red to match the XJ. Inside Monstaliner and new lid/fenders/Jerry Can Holders/Propane holders/Roof Top Tent. Ahh yes... so many plans!

:thumbsup:

Night all!

 

[ChiliPepperXJ]

:drool::drool::drool::drool::drool::drool:

this is now definitely one of my favorite build threads! Awesome job man!

You liking those RC 2.2 shocks? I am on RC hydros, and then are, well, lets say dreadful. I should have known better huh?:rofl:
I was just curious if the 2.2's were better.

 

[GregB_00XJ]

:drool::drool::drool::drool::drool::drool:

this is now definitely one of my favorite build threads! Awesome job man!

You liking those RC 2.2 shocks? I am on RC hydros, and then are, well, lets say dreadful. I should have known better huh?:rofl:
I was just curious if the 2.2's were better.

I believe that the RC Hydros are the same as the Rancho/BDS/Skyjacker/Rustys etc. If you look at them closely they all look basically identical. Mine were ok, but overall rough jarring and crude.

The 2.2 RC shocks are leaps and bounds better than the Rancho/BDS setup I had before. I didnt realize just how harsh they were before I popped these on. Much more supple and compliant, and the bottom out stopper helps at full squish too.

For the price they are an excellent shock in my opinion. I would buy them again.

Need to do some work this weekend, will be working on lighting!!

 

[ChiliPepperXJ]

I believe that the RC Hydros are the same as the Rancho/BDS/Skyjacker/Rustys etc. If you look at them closely they all look basically identical. Mine were ok, but overall rough jarring and crude.

The 2.2 RC shocks are leaps and bounds better than the Rancho/BDS setup I had before. I didnt realize just how harsh they were before I popped these on. Much more supple and compliant, and the bottom out stopper helps at full squish too.

For the price they are an excellent shock in my opinion. I would buy them again.

Need to do some work this weekend, will be working on lighting!!

Yeah I had thought they were all very similar, wasn't sure though. I know what you mean about them being jarring. I feel like I feel everything. Oh well, for now they get the job done :2thumbsup: Did you order your shocks directly from RC or through a separate vendor?

Keep us updated on those lighting updates this weekend!

 

[Football47]

:drool:

 

[GregB_00XJ]

Yeah I had thought they were all very similar, wasn't sure though. I know what you mean about them being jarring. I feel like I feel everything. Oh well, for now they get the job done :2thumbsup: Did you order your shocks directly from RC or through a separate vendor?

Keep us updated on those lighting updates this weekend!

Jarring as in kind of harsh on bumps... not very compliant or supple. You feel EVERYTHING! I actually got a set off of a Jeep Forum member, used but you could never tell they were even out of the box. I also sold all my BDS/Rancho stuff including boots and a damper, bushings etc for what I got these for...so they were almost free! They are about 2 inches too long for my XJ, but I am adding some lift soon and they work great for now...slightly limited up travel...makes up for lack of bump stops up front! :thumbsup:

Big rubber bottom out bumpers.

I deal with an RC dealer here locally now. They sell the entire RC lineup for the same price as RC posts online and I get a local club discount. Shipping is CHEAP from Vancouver, so I get a better deal now. I have ordered from RC, and they offer a 10% JF member discount, but you have to call in to order.

ok, updates.

Finally got a nice day on Saturday to do some more work on this. I got up early as my daughter usually wakes me up at 6 (ugh). Was out about 9, still a bit cold, but MAN what a nice day!! Spring is on the way folks, got up to 12 or 13 yesterday (55 for you south of the border).

Anyhow, I started by finding locations to mount the light brackets I made for the under Jeep lighting. Mounted the lights and then set to wiring them all in. I ran each side of the front pairs together, then stopped at the firewall. I will rin them through a grommet as soon as I get all the interior wiring done.

Captain Split Loom they call me...

Then it was on to the relay box. I popped the cubby panel out of the back of the XJ, and found that the rubber clean out/drain plug is not sealing all that well in there. No rust, only some crud...cleaned that out first. I then ran the wiring for the power/ground etc. I ran 8 gauge power line from the battery all the way under the XJ to the rear. I used split loom anywhere it may chafe and used a TON of zip ties. I zipped it to the wiring that was run for my 7 pin trailer plug.

I wired in the 2 rear lights (supposed to be 4, forgot to order enough...fail), and ran the wires in through the black plastic plug by the tail light. I did this before for the trailer 4 pin tie in, and it seals up really well!

One line is the left rear, one is the right, one is power from the battery. I FORGOT to do the hole for the roof lights and backup lights...doh! Hope I have enough space?

I then mounted the box to the cubby panel. Worked out awesome, as I was able to utilize the existing vent holes and run all the wires in there. I ran a 4 gauge ground, but forgot the ground fuse! Doh x2. I will pick one up this week, as well as some 4 and 8 gauge connectors and ring terminals. Anyhow...I am getting close, as I also ran the CAT5 from the rear panel to the switch panel. Nothing wired in yet, ready to go however.

Tested the rear lights with an 18V drill battery in the rear. Even with only 2 out of the 4 I wanted to install, they are very bright!!

More to come this week!

 

[reichard117]

i love the red jeeps.. this looks like the exact build style i want to do with mine when i get one. not too big but still plenty capable. keep up with the pictures!!
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