dzywicki

A few weeks ago, my daughter drove off the road and sideswiped a tree. This is an owned since new (to my wife) XJ and we were pretty devastated by the accident. Daughter was ok (which makes it easier to be mad at her of course). I figured this was a total loss Cherokee after we got it towed home by AAA+. Took a few days to get a better look and it actually looked rebuildable. I have a lot of sweat and blood into this XJ. Replaced all the suspension bushings with poly. Dropped the trans to replace all the seals (not fun), did a ****** bath engine rebuild when one of the piston skirts broke at 220k miles (replaced pistons and rings in place).
After taking a good hard look at the damage and doing some research, I decided I could actually rebuild it instead of scrapping it. After seeing the carnage in the pick a part yards in northern VA, I wanted to document my adventure to hopefully enable others to do the same kind of repair I am undertaking. I searched quite a bit and didn't see any internet searches on doing this particular repair on an XJ.
Somehow, the sideswipe peeled back the passenger side fender like a banana peel, but didn't even break the headlight. No apparent frame damage at all. The main piece that was bent was the inner apron. that part is definitely not available aftermarket.

dzywicki

Part 2:
After looking at a few other Cherokees, we decided to try to rebuild this one. By we, I mean me and wife says she would be appreciative of that (more to come). After doing dome research, I found all the pick a part places in Northern Va and have spent the last 2 weekends visiting them all (multiple times). First job was removing the inner apron. IT is held in with 12-15 spot welds along the top and frame rail. $4.99 spot weld removal bit from Harbor Freight took care of that problem in about 30 minutes. Took those pieces off and tried my hand at straightening. That was not going to happen. It was distorted beyond what I could fix. The fender was pretty much already gone, so removing it was essentially taking an angle grinder to it to get it out of the way. After that was popping the hood by pressing the catch with a screw driver and figuring what I was up against.

dzywicki

After seeing what I was up against, I went all in. Wife was getting a haircut and the barber recommended a pick a part place that I had not heard of before. Definitely some good fortune there. I had drilled out the apron so I knew what I was up against. Took my tools and went to work at the first salvage yard. I knew what I was up against so it was fairly quick work to get a hood, radiator support tie, front support bracket, lower fender cover. No passenger fenders anywhere that were not creased. Visited one large yard the first weekend and got most of what I needed. Luckily the donor was flame red, so it wouldn't look hideous next to the Chili Pepper Red until I get it all painted.

dzywicki

Next was the actual fender. Forgot to mention that I was able to get the plastic cowl cover from the salvage yard. OEM replacements are pretty expensive. By this point, I was losing hope of finding an original header panel ( the front part that holds the headlights and the grill). The original piece is fiberglass. The aftermarket ones are plastic.
At this point, my wife really pissed me off (keep in mind this is technically "her" jeep from new). The comment was: "the hood latch on the replacement hood is a little grody, I hope you are going to replace that". I think my response was something along the lines of: "if you want to drop by the salvage yard and pick up one that is a little less grody, go right ahead".
I had still not found a replacement fender, so I set off for yet another salvage yard (wife and son have been in Italy this whole on vacation). Drove my Jeep (95 YJ) 1:30 hours to another salvage yard and scored a fender from a 2000 Cherokee. Was also able to get 3 Jeep center caps for $15 (my 95 JY is missing 1 and the XJ is missing 2) so that was a score. Luckily, few people know that the jack on an XJ is under the rear seat, so I was able to take that out and jack the Jeep up to get the wheels off. Nice when you don't have to put them back on at the junk yard.
Hopefully can get the new apron welded in this weekend and then get it all back together.

bryanintowson

This is fantastic! Good on you for keeping your XJ on the road. ��������

93XJeeper

Wow,,looks like new! Great work!

dzywicki

Definitely not done yet. Hoping to get the apron welded in this weekend and to actually get it back moving under it's won power. The A pillar is tweaked a bit, but I think I will leave that to a body shop with the right tools. If someone can do the A pillar, the windshield is easy form safelite. After that, it's all bolt on and paint and I can do that.
Been an interesting journey. Made me sad to see the Xjs int eh salvage yards. Glad a few of them gave their life for mine. I have the VIN of one of them on the apron piece. Will have to look it up and pay homage in same way.

Kuya

Very nice!! I'm grateful my daughter or wife will not drive my XJ.

dzywicki

True that! Glad my daughter loves the Cherokee, but why do I have to go through this? Wanted to get her one when she graduated college. At least I know what to rebuild/fix to make it a good daily driver. Still amazed how many nice original Cherokees are out there. Can't believe how many I see every day. I have a 95 YJ and very rarely see another YJ on the road.

fb97xj1

Looks great so far. I have known far too many that would have scrapped it for that. Less, even. Take it for an alignment when finished, just to be sure. It is a unibody, afterall.

dzywicki

Will definitely be going for an alignment when it is roadworthy again. Makes me want to get an XJ and keep it all to myself. I have a new to me 95 YJ that I am the only driver/owner. It's a speed so keeps the kids away. Makes me want to keep it that way to avoid the heartache. My YJ has been to all the salvage yards and has hauled all the parts so far.
That XJ definitely owes me some sex in the back seat.

dzywicki

Spent a lot of yesterday and today getting to the point to weld the inner apron back in. Happy to say the inner fender apron is welded in solid. Put the fender back in place and put enough stuff back in to get it fired up and out of the garage. Had to put a new power steering pump pulley on too. The old one had disintegrated itself when I tried to start it after the accident. One big mistake I made was painting the radiator support tie bar gloss back instead of flat black. That just takes too many touches to be gloss black. The part that is taking the longest now is cleaning everything I can. I can't stand putting freshly painted parts back in with 17 year old oily, nasty pieces. Most of the things have cleaned up pretty well with some purple power and paper towels.
Next big job is pressure washing the inside of the hood to get ready for some paint. I haven't decided yet if I'm going to try painting it myself or take it somewhere. I think I can actually paint pretty well. The secret is obviously in the prep. I'm thinking I may do the front clip this time and then do the rest at a later date. Since this is actually the wife's car, I'll make her do all the sanding if she wants it all to match 100%. Problem is she takes forever. I just want this project done so I can get back to prepping for paint on my Wrangler.

dzywicki

Somehow got the double IPA I had Saturday night in there. Very light color for a double IPA. Here are some pics of the ugly welds that pass for spot welds. I beat on them pretty hard with a hammer and wood block to make sure they would hold. I was surprised how little actually holds that piece in there. There is just metal to metal at the spot welds and nothing in between so there there really isn't much to getting this thing back in. I hit with my MIG welder, then the grinder a bit and then primer and final paint. This all gets covered up anyway, but nice to have it look nice anyway. Once thing I did find out is that the battery tray size changed between 97 and 99. I got a battery tray from a 97 (along with the fender apron). Wife picked up a new battery and it doesn't fit. I pulled out eh old, broken one and it is wider. Damn daimler. will have to find the find battery tray now.

OldTires

Great job. Thanks for posting pics/tutorials.

dzywicki

Fitted up all the bits I had left after the sideswipe and the replacement cowl cover. No idea how the fender flare and inner fender liner survived that. Looks like I still have fiddling to do to get the hood shimmed correctly. It grabs just a little on the cowl coverNext step is get it road worthy enough to get to the body shop and see if they can do the windshield A pillar. The car just got inspected last month, so legally I should be fine driving to a nearby body shop even with the windshield cracked like it is. If I can get that done, then I should be able to get this all done by the end of July. Prep and paint should be pretty straightforward. Once I get the A pillar and windshield done, then I'll take it over to the paint shop and get the right shade of Chili Pepper Red. Looks like there were several variants on that factory color.