rtralabama

i decided it was time to start a build thread since ive been on here for over a year and ive taken pics of most of the stuff i did, at least i think i did.

anyways heres the very beginning.


i got her stock with 67k i believe in the spring of 2010. i just got my license maybe 3 weeks back. so i was 16.5 basically. paid just under $4k for her but i've put almost that much into her with mods and tires and lift. i did not want to get it, at all. i had my mind set on getting a wrangler. thankfully i didnt, cus i love my XJ, so much more room than a wrongler. it was owned by an older lady, probably never seen mud. she was sad to sell it but im sure she is glad i got it and have had a blast with it. i ended up getting back to school just in time to catch the bus for my track and field meet.

rtralabama

then i took her out to go muddy for the first time

when i went over to my friends grandpas house, i told him i had a Jeep and he came out and saw it and said thats not a Jeep Jeep its definitely not a wrongler. so when we were out there we had some fun goin through the field and little bits of mud. ended up losing my front bumper cap ended up taking em off after that.

rtralabama

then i took her offroading again with some friends. i went out early that week with my one buddy, made it up this steep hill just fine and came back down. then i went back out a few days later, but this time with a full XJ. i went up the same hill and tried to come back down that didnt work out well. i didnt think off all the added weight and when i came down Jeep shut off, i was a bit nervous since idk what happend. tried to start her back up with nothing. so i had everyone hop out and i saw my tailpipe was about 3 inches into the dirt. so i started dumping water on it and started digging. took me about and hour to get it out and my tailpipe was dragging the ride home. the next day i went out there and took an old coat hanger and tied it up.

rtralabama

so i order a new exhaust, a dynomax.

so will i waited for brown santa to drop it off, i decided it was time to do my first mod

i wanted to make my wheels black. so i took them off and sanded them a little bit. then i cut of pieces of paper to put around the wheel to keep the paint off the tires. i also decided while i was at it. to paint the plastic trim black and my front and rear bumper black as well

rtralabama

got my new dynomax exhaust and i put that on then. that took longer than i was thinking. the old one was a PITA to get off. i ended up removing the fender flares, cant remember why i did. i think i just wanted to. then a few days later it was time to test her offroad with her new exhaust

rtralabama

Did some more wheelin while she was still stock, gotta little mud on the tires.





decided it was time to go swampin and that didnt turn out too well on the second attempt. ended up swamping her in the water...hit it just a little too hard..



i sure learned my lesson....


my buddy had to run home to get his truck and trailer to take the ole jeep back to my place


i pulled the plugs out, there was water down in em...so i sprayed wd-40 down em and rigged up a shopvac to suck the water out and let it sit for a little. also had to get the water outta the intake.
put her all back together and she turned over and threw a bunch of **** outta the exhaust but she ran.

luckily the water choked the engine out before it got far enough to get into the engine to throw or bust a piston.