*The Dude*

I think you are well above a weekend warrior now. All four of my boys have XJs and we wheel then we can but none of them are built any where near your level. It is comendable that you spend your time or as much of it as possible doing this instead of finding trouble.

You are building very well and with a good thaught process to boot. My jeep will likely see 33s in the future after the 32s wear out but that will be as big as I go. A truss and chromolys are in the plans with factory 27 splines because I probably will stay with 33s but if I go to 35s I will find a better rear axel.

Keep up the good work and keep up the pictures.

michaelOH

Nice build so far! I'm also a senior trying to build a jeep with a part time job. Your a but further along tho. I'll have to check out that limited slip you have listed I didn't even think that another Chrysler vehicle may have the same axle with limited slip

JeepaholicNinja

I'm a senior too and you guys are both further along than me!

JEEPERDK

thank you very much sir! I think the main reasoning behind the frame stiffeners was just because I have heavy bumpers front and rear with already possiblieds of the frame being weakened by the accident. plus this jeep had and well still has a lot of rust in it. the floors were shot, the rockers were gone, and the rear quarters where gone. the sliders are just so I don't crush my rocker panel again like I did once already


sounds like you got a steady plan ahead of ya. I never honestly planned to go this far when I got the jeep. I just wanted a 4.5" lift with 33s lol. but then all this ended up happening.


I read through your build thread. you have a very nice jeep going! i think one of the things i wanna do next is to build some kind of cargo divider/shelf like you built


lol well sounds like your slacken! time to get to work dude!

JeepaholicNinja

haha I keep forgetting to turn in my job app. Had a job on a lobster boat last summer but can't do that in the school year...that and the ice this year was sooo bad. I heard guys didn't have to use dinghies to get to their boats...They just walked across the ice haha

JEEPERDK

lol I worked at one of the local supermarkets here in my town for 2.5 years. but recently I switched jobs and now I work for a car wash company that's not to fair away from my town. more hours, higher pay, less customer contact, and better people to work with!

JeepaholicNinja

that's awesome haha!

JEEPERDK

so after doing some thinking. Im actually starting to lean toward the ruffstuff DIY long arm kit that they sell for the XJ. if I weld the brackets right to the bottom of the frame rail to the new frame stiffeners then I can just get some 1/4" steel plate and make a new cross member that integrates a tranny and transfer case skid. this would also allow me to clock my t-case up and make the skid a stay a little bit more tucked up to the frame rails.

JEEPERDK

welp, I broke down and ordered a set of ruff stuff DIY long arm kit. hopefully they will be here soon so I can get them built, I also gotta start getting the rock sliders together. im most likely going to end up using the black jeep that im driving now to base my measurements and placement of everything off of. on the other hand though I got my Lokka D30 lunch box locker, along with the HD cross shaft, and a spicer 5-760x u-joint (I need to get another, originally I was going to get both, but turned out one joint was different then the other so I just took the one)


in other news, the jeep is in complete primer and it is rumored that it might be in paint by the end of the weekend. fingers crossed, im ready to get to work on this think already.

alelex

Good looking Jeep!

JEEPERDK

okay so update time, as of right now it looks like we will be switching the plates over from my black XJ to my red XJ on Tuesday. im so excited for that. but anyways let me just give you guys a short list of what got done after it was painted.

• Lokka D30 Lunchbox locker
• D30 inner axle seals
• D30 outter axle seals/plugs
• D30 Solid inc. diff cover
• 8.25 LSD installed with new bearings
• 8.25 outter axle seals
• 8.25 solid inc. diff cover
• D30 HP swapped in (this happened a while ago before we started painting)
• Replaced electric fan
• Replaced window washer fluid bottle
• replaced vacuum ball
• 3rd cat delete, 2.5" straight pipe into the 2.5" heartthrob catback
• Bumpers are installed (the front frame brackets got me a little confused, ill post a pic in a bit)
• Took 2 headlight harnesses and combined to make one (did this as I wanted to keep my factory fog light wiring but all of the plugs were destroyed so I took the plugs off a old harness and soldiered them in place of the damaged plugs on my factory harness)
• header is fully assembled with the clear turn signals and orange bulbs

Things that still have to be done:

• put in insulation in specific areas on interior
• bedline the interior floors
• wire up 1000watt four channel amp
• install interior
• install frame stiffener
• build and install long arms
• build and install rock sliders
• Finish underside with roll on bedliner
• install new shock mounts on 8.25
• wire up switches for controlling the AW4, cooling fan, and interior winch controls
• install and wire up winch
• drill wheels for factory center caps and then paint
• replace power steering pump pulley ( or entire pump, might be the start of a Durango steering box swap)
• im sure theres more stuff I have to do but im forgetting it all so yeah that's what I got to do so far lol

now on to some pictures.

JEEPERDK

these last two pictures are what the jeep currently is looking like. im very happy with how it came out!








And I got bored after work one night so I ran the jeep through the tunnel wash and then pulled it into the interior cleaning bays and cleaned inside and outside better. she looks pretty good now.

unidentifiedbomb

Nice! Did you have any issues with the 8.25 Solid cover?

JEEPERDK

nope no problems at all with installing the cover, but I have heard of people having to oblong the mounting holes in order for everything to line up.

unidentifiedbomb

That's what i'm concerned about, though it shouldn't me much of an issue. I just swapped in a 8.25 and looking to pick up their cover since they do so well for my D30 and D35 in the past.