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Always been the one to creep through but never posted anything but since most of my build is on instagram I figured I'd make a thread of my own. I originally bought a Forest Pearl 99 Chero for $1200 off a fella that moved down here (GA) from NY so of course it was rusty but I was planning on it being a beater so it didnt really bother me. The jeep came with a rusty's (ironic lol) 3 in lift, had a great interior, motor only had 120k on it and it shifted great. But the body would eventually rust out leading to the Wagoneer
Last edited by jeepsarecooliguess; 02-12-2016 at 11:50 AM.
Reason: title change
being my first jeep, I was new to the whole thing but within 10 minutes of forum digging, I learned the D35 had to go so I snagged me an 8.8 from a JY put a lockrite that I bought of a friend in it and fabbed up a rear bumper while I was back there. Jeep had a 3" lift on it when I bought it so i just cut the fenders and stuffed a set of 35s in there. Really enjoyed the LCOG set up but later down the road it just wasnt cutting it.
why all of a sudden did my tires change? lol long story but heres the tire carrier i fabbed and scored the 33 inch spare off a coworker for free! At this time I was also in the process of swapping the front d30's gears over to 4.10 to match the gears that came in my 8.8.
then i got to do the projects i had been waiting to do for a long time. did all of this in my driveway with the HOA all over me all the tabs and hiems are ruffstuff minus panhard brackets which I fabbed myself. I used 3/4 hiems on the steering, panhard, and UCA and 7/8 hiems for the LCA and all the hiems found a new home in some 250 wall DOM. This was the first time my jeep had sat on its own weight for quite a while so I was pretty pumped about it. As you can see though, the jeeps rust was resilient. No matter how good I cleaned, then sealed, it always came back so it was near this time I knew the body wouldnt last me a good while as I hoped and thats why you dont see frame stiffeners or steering box braces or any of that good stuff. This all leads to the Wagoneer though, I promise
Last edited by jeepsarecooliguess; 01-10-2016 at 03:31 PM.
After building the long arms and getting the brakes bled, naturally I had to flex it on something, and the cross-tide wall behind the house was the closest thing to do it on. Dont mind the ghetto brake line job haha it was temporary so i could move the thing around
Last edited by jeepsarecooliguess; 01-09-2016 at 08:16 AM.
Eventually after patching rust spots and patching more, nothing was stopping it. I was out on the trail crawling through a ditch when I heard some popping and that sound was what youll see in the last pic. The cracks and holes are all along the frame rails where the stock LCA used to be and the inside of the frame is so rotted too I couldnt even weld my patches on good enough to do anything. At that point I began my hunt for another shell to swap all my parts over to. All that work just for my jeep to fall apart.. oh well it happens. After a while I found (to me) the perfect deal, an 87 Wagoneer. A kid just down the road from me had it up on Craigslist and the best part was that I knew him. A fuel line came loose and caught the wiring harness on fire and he was gonna part out or scrap it all together. After some negotiating I talked him down to $400 bucks for the whole thing. Then I hooked up the trailer and picked it up.
ew yikes
Last edited by jeepsarecooliguess; 01-09-2016 at 09:32 PM.
So I picked up my rust free $400 dinosaur with a burnt up Renix in it. The kid had the axles so rigged under with improper size bolts without nuts on them that the front end wrapped and fell out from under the jeep when backing it off the trailer i thanked jesus that my impossible to find header panel didnt get destroyed in the process. So with all that happening, the jeep was stuck exactly where it was (still is) in the middle of my aunt's field. Whatever, not a big deal. At least she doesnt have HOA telling her how to live her life. So since that happened, I thought I might as well just go on and pull the axles out cause no way I was gonna keep the vacuum disco 30 and c-clip 35.
So now that you all have the background story, my plan is pretty much take everything that I've built and swap it all over, including my motor, tranny, and tcase, thus being a 99 Wagoneer. The transformation was started this afternoon by getting my front end under it. Since this 87 Waggy is spotless underneath, I will be able to plate the whole underside like I originally wanted to do on my 99 and eventually I will toss the small boy axles and upgrade to big boy axles. But first I have to get it to where itll move on its own so I can get it back to my house where my welders and tools are. I have a lot of plans for "restoring" some aspects of it and making it more structurally stout and its a perfect opportunity to fix those things that you look at and say "i should have done it this way instead of that." Hope you guys have liked my xj up to this point, and I apologize that I dont have all the build pictures but I'll keep updating as I get more and more done on this Wagon.
me too bro! I'll be doing the s10 bastard pack soon and I'll need the hook up on some shackles! hopefully then I can get the rear end to have some dern travel
Last edited by jeepsarecooliguess; 01-11-2016 at 10:30 PM.
ok guys so heres an update on my plans this far. the wagoneer is still currently in the middle of the field so first things first is getting it down to the barn where there are concrete floors and power. Soon as its in there, I'll pull the rear end out again and swap in the s10-xj mixed leaf packs that ive been working on that ORFcrawler convinced me on doing. I imagine I will have to do that a few times with adding or subtracting leafs from the pack to get my preferred lift height (6 inches). ANY AND ALL advice with that is welcome! I also have to lengthen my LCA's about two to three inches now that I am running a clayton crossmember instead of the one I made. (mine did not have inegrated 3 link mounts, my mistake) I will also be cutting of the radius arm, and running a true 3 link again and building a bridge to raise where the UCA mounts onto the axle. Im debating on purchasing the one that clayton offers but Im really about that built not bought life so purchasing parts really hurts my ego. Once all this is done, I can get started on pulling the renix out of it.
01-08-2016, 11:22 PM
Wonton Waggy in the works
all the tabs and hiems are ruffstuff minus panhard brackets which I fabbed myself. I used 3/4 hiems on the steering, panhard, and UCA and 7/8 hiems for the LCA and all the hiems found a new home in some 250 wall DOM. This was the first time my jeep had sat on its own weight for quite a while so I was pretty pumped about it. As you can see though, the jeeps rust was resilient. No matter how good I cleaned, then sealed, it always came back so it was near this time I knew the body wouldnt last me a good while as I hoped and thats why you dont see frame stiffeners or steering box braces or any of that good stuff. This all leads to the Wagoneer though, I promise
i thanked jesus that my impossible to find header panel didnt get destroyed in the process. So with all that happening, the jeep was stuck exactly where it was (still is) in the middle of my aunt's field. Whatever, not a big deal. At least she doesnt have HOA telling her how to live her life. 
So since that happened, I thought I might as well just go on and pull the axles out cause no way I was gonna keep the vacuum disco 30 and c-clip 35. 
hopefully then I can get the rear end to have some dern travel
