Page 1: My XJ Buildup
Page 2: My XJ's Specs and Price Breakdown
Page 3: My Other Jeeps and Previous Vehicles
Page 4: Misc Pics
Arctic Offroad
Fairbanks, Alaska
Member
"40 Below @ 65 Degrees"
http://www.arcticoffroad.com
This page is dedicated to my '90 XJ.
She's SOLD but not forgotten. Enjoy!
Dec '01 (As puchased)… and as it was June '04 before selling it...
Site Breakdown
Page 1: My Jeep's Specs and Part Breakdown w/ prices
Page 2: A look at the progression of my XJ
Page 3: Wheeling Pics
Page 4: My other vehicles (present and past)
Page 5: Misc. Pics
A look at the progression of my XJ...
In December 2001, I became an XJ owner, sort of by luck, and haven’t looked back since. At the time, I had a 1983 full-size GMC Jimmy that kept having carburetor problems, and after having it towed to a repair shop, the wife was offered a straight trade for a 1990 Cherokee XJ. She didn’t give it a second thought, and said, “Deal”. She called me on the phone at work, and told me the offer, and I was unsure. When she described the Jeep to me, she actually used the words ‘Station wagon’ in her description. Going from a full-size Jimmy with a 3” body lift, 33” MT’s, and a brand new loud exhaust system, to a very stock, very plain, Cherokee, didn’t sound like a good idea. After some thoughts, I weighed the options, and came to the following conclusion… The Jeep was 7 years newer, had EFI instead of a Quadra-junk carb, and ran. One of my neighbors on my street, had an XJ with a 3” lift installed, so I saw that there was potential, so I agreed.
We made the swap, signed the papers, and left for home. My wife followed behind me, and we had no more than gone a half-mile before she was calling my cell phone picking on the Jeep. She had to tell me how she could see everything inside the vehicle while sitting at a stop light, because of the non-tinted rear window that appeared to be 10 feet wide, and 5 foot tall. She also laughed at how low the Jeep sat. The stock 215/70R15 tires on plain steel wheels, were hideous to say the least. This thing was stock… a base model to make things worse. But, the 4.0L and Auto tranny felt solid and it would keep me out from under a hood in -20 degree weather in Carhart coveralls tinkering with a carb.
We made a few stops on the way home for necessities… things like Mud and Snow floor mats, decent wiper blades, and of course a Haynes manual. For the rest of the week, I drove the new ride to work, waiting for the weekend to come to tackle some cosmetic magic to help give it some visual help. Finally Friday afternoon came, and I was ready to go to town on it. First on the list, was a good bath. The paint job was in amazingly great condition, and cleaned up well. The stock wheels, even looked much better after scrubbing them up, but they were still ugly and small.
Next, I turned my attention to the trim. I had always preferred the look of the newer XJ’s, with their newer emblems, and painted bumpers and trim. And as with most of my previous vehicles, I wanted to try and make the Jeep appear newer than it really was. First came paint. I went to my local Napa, which has a paint department in it, and had them mix me up some matching paint in aerosol cans. They used a gun to ‘read’ the paint, and the computer told them what things to mix together, to make a match. The paint code could have been used too, but doesn’t take in consideration things like fading. I left, with two cans, and headed to the garage.
I removed the bumpers, headlight bezels, and grill from the Jeep, gave them a light sanding, and then sprayed on the matching Sterling Silver paint. Followed that with some clear coat, and wow, what a difference! The parts when black were so dark, but after some paint, they stood out a lot more, and the XJ looked a lot cleaner.
Christmas came, and saw a few XJ related purchases, like more small interior improvements. I found a full-length center console, and swapped out the existing short one. I filled up the existing dash blanks with parts that my ‘Base Model’ didn’t come with… factory digital clock, fog light switch, and I added in the complete rear wiper system too.
As purchased... very stock!
Because I went from a full-size Blazer to a very small/low Cherokee, I knew that one of the first things I needed to do to the XJ was to give it some altitude. Especially after the wife started referring to it as ‘The Wagon’. It was sitting on the smallest tire size, on plain steel wheels. This wouldn’t do at all.
The first thing that was ordered, were the wheels and tires. My neighbor’s XJ was sitting on 31” rubber and had a 3” Rusty’s lift kit, and it looked fine enough. And the wife and I, not knowing any better, said that combination would be plenty. The wife even said that 3” was plenty, cause it was mainly just for looks. (In the short time that I had the Blazer, I focused on the restoration, and never really took it off road). The wheels we chose, were the American Racing 136’s, in a 15x8” size. For the tires, we went with 31” BF Goodrich MT KM’s. These were the new redesign MT’s from BFG. The wheels took a few weeks, and the tires were in stock locally. But, we had to save up for the lift kit, and the cost of shipping it up to Alaska before the bigger shoes could be installed. So I had to stare at them sitting in the garage, and continue to drive the XJ as-is for weeks.
While waiting for lift day to come, I took the opportunity to focus on other smaller details both inside and out. I hated the current blocky chrome emblems that came from the factory. I really liked the look of the later model’s emblems better. A visit to the local dealership, and I soon realized that the set wouldn’t be bought through them. Asking price was too steep for the raised ones. The parts guy suggested that I go with the vinyl sticker versions. I knew that I wanted to make my ‘accent’ color, to be dark purple. I had seen other vehicles painted with this combo, and thought it looked good. So, I took a piece of paper and made a ‘Rubbing’ of the emblems, to get the size and font correct, and headed to my local sign shop. They made up a full set for me for $30. I removed the old emblems with a heat gun and cleaned up the areas. I measured another neighbor’s ’98 XJ to make sure that I installed mine in the correct location to make them look factory.
Weeks went by, and we finally saved up for, and received our lift kit. I was like a kid at Christmas. It was at that time, that we found out how crazy the shipping rates to Alaska are. The 3” Rusty’s lift kit ran us $419, and the shipping cost was $200! This is because the only way 90% of businesses will ship to Alaska is UPS 2-day Air. Now it was time to lift the sucker.
The ‘Lift Day’ was finally here. Now my little XJ wouldn’t look like a wagon anymore. I had a great turn-out of friends to help with the installation, and after a few hours, the XJ was sitting a up at a much better height. Everyone was surprised how easily the suspension fasteners came loose. Not one broken bolt on the 12 year old parts. Guess the elderly professor that previously owned the XJ took good care of her.
The excitement was sort of short-lived, cause when I backed it out of the stall, and went to turn, the tires rubbed the fender flares alot. I had two options at this point... either dish out more cash for more lift parts, or to do some trimming. After some hesitation, and thought, I decided to go with the trimming, even though cutting up my sheetmetal, was the last thing I really wanted to do. The following weekend, I armed myself with a die-grinder, and approached the task. With advice from my buddy, I traced the top edge of the front flare with a sharpie pen, and then removed it and the inner wheel-well liner. I taped off the area around the line, and picked up the grinder. After procrastinating for a few minutes, I finally started the first cut. After that, there was no turning back, so I pressed on. I also trimmed the bumper end, and hammered over the metal edge inside the wheelwell so that it wouldn't chew on the new rubber when flexing out. I then reattached the flare on the fender in it's new higher location. The inner liner could not be re-used because the opening was now both taller and wider. Guys online said to buy a pool noodle from a local toy store, and cut it into a smaller piece to fit into the fender just in front of the door hinges. This keeps the debris from crudding up the hinges. In the rear, I could only trim about a half an inch because of the rear doors. This is okay, because the rear doesn't flex as much as the front, and also doesn't steer.
It wasn't long after taking it out on a few trails, that I found I had to raise it to 4.5" for more articulation room. But, then the tires looked too small for the height, so I needed to upgrade to 33" tires, because the BFG's were now too small. I went to purchase 33" BFG MT KMs, but they were on nation-wide back order. So, I bought the Goodyear Wrangler MT/Rs, and love them alot more. - Sept. '02
ProtoFab HD Rear Bumper w/ Tire Carrier. - Dec '02
After adding the rear bumper w/ Carrier, I had rubbing problems, so had to add more altitude up to the current 6" lift, and 33" rubber... in my opinion, the perfect set-up.
Got Mud?
This pic taken 10 minutes later, after passing through a big puddle at the end of the bog... kinda cool effect w/ the clean wheels and the rest muddy. American Racing added it to their picture gallery, and recently started using my pic as the link to the gallery.
One of the common problems with the XJ is how hot things tend to get under the hood. Me and a few friends came up with this cheap mod to help release the warmth. (4) 3/4" tall square nuts are placed between the hinges and hood to act as shims. The only drawback to this is that folks think something is wrong with my hood, and try to push it back down.
Ruttin'...
...And flexin'...
Who says Alaska isn't beautiful!
Arctic Wheeling... Gotta love it!
-40 Degrees... It hurts!!!
Poser Shots...
Just Flexin'...
The experience lives on through my new XJ... a 2000 'Freedom Edition' Sport. Be sure to visit my CarDomain page for it:
http://www.cardomain.com/memberpage/637794
Even though I sold the XJ, I still get to help out with it's new chapter of life, and will still post up progress. Here, the new owner has started to install armor. TnTCustoms XJ Rock SliderZ, and the bumpers have been removed for custom pieces.
Easter Jeep Safari '05, Moab, UT...
Wheeled on the slickrock with Bob and the old '90. He has 3.5" of lift back on it, and 32" rubber. He also built up some killer bumpers too...
And how it looks today, at TnTCustoms in Cheyenne Wyoming...
Page 1: My XJ Buildup
Page 2: My XJ's Specs and Price Breakdown
Page 3: My Other Jeeps and Previous Vehicles
Page 4: Misc Pics
