sfmadmax

Hey All,

I picked up a 99 XJ few weeks ago, for 3K, with 200K miles on it. minimal rust. So far I'm enjoying it.






So far I put about a grand into it. New tires, replaced some of the door switches , re-keyd the lock cylinders to the ignition key, New hatch Structs , etc ... Minor stuff..

My next tackle is the door trim, It's old and faded and peeling.. I tried fixing the edges but it looks bad. I'm debating just pulling it off completely,

The front and rear bumpers are plastic and faded too.. I wanted to go aftermarket, I'm really new and on the aftermarket websites there are a slew of options and ebay. But not sure what's best for a novice owner. I would like to change the bumper myself, prefer not to cut anything if possible and use the existing mounting hardware. (I imagine most of the bumpers do)

I don't want to go crazy, maybe just add 2 lights on the bumper like some of you have. no winches or anything like that ;P

Any recommendations on bumpers front and rear?

Also, are these engines noisy?? I thought i may need a tune up. and put new plugs in it, new distributor cap / rotor , wires and air filter. Did I miss anything? It runs great now but it's a loud motor.

Nice to meet everyone!

The Ders

You can paint the bumpers and trim

sfmadmax

I know, but i'm digging the rugged look w/ aftermarket hardware. And willing to do the work to get it there.

The Ders

Idk, the stock bumpers are pretty rugged

Jeepin'_Aint_EZ

Welcome!

Just pull the molding off the doors, I did and it looks 10x better without it

dave1123

YES....The motor is noisy. That's part of the mystique of the 4.0.

MWMahoneyJr

I hear you. I'm new to this myself (I don't own my Cherokee yet. Still hunting CL and the local auto auction.)

EDIT: Damn fine looking Jeep you got there!

There is a lot of great info on this board and on the interwebs. Go to YouTube and look at a few install videos for Cherokee bumpers. Most of the bumpers seem to install the same way - so then you just need to figure out what style of bumper you want:

(NOTE: I work for an aftermarket truck/suv accessory company, writing product descriptions and install articles for our website. Don't worry about the name, you haven't heard of us. BUT - I am constantly having to differentiate and explain the differences between similar products.)

Here are the options running through MY head for Bumpers:

Winch or Non-Winch
Built-in Recovery Points: Yes/No
Built-in Light openings: Yes/No
Stubby or Full Width
Wrap around sides of fender (requires trimming) or Not?
Tapered Edges?
Hitch Receiver?
Finish Options?

Am I missing anything, anyone?


Personally? I wanna learn to weld, and I'm digging JCR as a company, so I'm gonna go with their DIY bumper kit when I get my Cherokee - they send the pieces, you weld it together. There are videos online. They also sell the same bumper, pre-assembled for you.

(For Youtube, I keep coming back to the videos from BleepinJeep, and from PBR Roadhouse. They both do a pretty great job of explaining things, and they both have videos on the JCR DIY bumper.)

Good luck!
Mike

JeremyXJ

The door trim just peels off. You'll need an adhesive remover for the residue, but it's not that bad. Yes, the engine is noisy. Almost diesel-ish at idle, especially over 200K. Pretty much any aftermarket bumper will bolt right up, as long as it's not labeled as "cut-n-fold" for the rear. Warrior makes a super clean front bumper with options for grill guard, attachment points, winch, or just bare. Reasonably priced, too. Check out Quadratec.com for a sample of available bumpers.

sfmadmax

Thanks all for the recommendations!

First of all, I'm glad and somewhat calmer now, that you all mention the Straight 4.0 L is a noisy motor. I seriously that I didn't correctly install one of the replacement parts and it is rather diesel'ish in sound.

The second concern I had, which I never explained was that while in gear. (The jeep is an automatic) It makes a very soft almost metal on metal hum to it. My thoughts are that this is the driveshaft spinning. I never owned a car like this, so i'm expecting the noise to be normal. I did (for the hell-of-it) Grease up the front of the drive shaft. And grease came out of the fixture so I know it's all good. But the noise occurs when the car is in Neutral and rolling also, so i just sort of chalked it up to being a Jeep :P A friend of mine told me that these are noisy cars and people don't buy them for comfort. Which is true. :P

I really am liking it, coming into 3 weeks of ownership.


So onto the bumpers!

Thanks MWMahoneyJr and JeremyXJ

I will probably peel off the door drim and just go with that, it's a'lot easier and one less of a headache.

Regarding the bumpers I'll start checking out Quadratec.com and warrior...


Well.... Here we go...

Non Winch, i don't have a need for it, i'm not going rock crawling, at least not now... :P
I think I want Full-Width with Wrap around fenders that don't require trimming (if possible)

I would definately want a front bumper that gives me the option of attaching accessories in the future, if so desired. I think that's really the deal breaker for me.

I'll be fine with a barren black front bumper as long as it has the attachment points for accessories down the road. Mainly Additional lights , or quite possibly a winch, (if i decide to replace the guts of this thing and turn it into a rock crawler)

I do dig this style...

MWMahoneyJr

Go to the various vendor sites and start looking at bumpers. And don't forget that you may want to get the Unibody tie-in kit - it adds extra brackets to mount your new bumper more securely to the body. So you can actually use bumper as a recovery point. JCR has one: http://www.jcroffroad.com/product/XJ/XJUNF-PC.html

And check out the video at their site.