Tanbam

I've had my '95 XJ for about two weeks now, and I'm still driving it every day and leaving my "real" car sitting in the driveway.

I've found some decent donor cars in a local scrapyard, and today I swapped out my idiot light cluster with gauges. The new odometer was ~40K higher than the actual mileage, so I tore the new one apart and reset it match the real number. Aside from that part, the rest was simple - and now I have a tach!

There are some other goodies that I can pull from the other carcasses, like power locks and windows, and power seats. Has anyone had any experience with making these kinds of additions? Are all of the wiring harnesses already present, waiting to be used?

Unknown XJ

Yes all wires are there , you basically have to finish it. Relays fuses and what not. My 98 doesn't have a rear defroster and I'm going to be adding that soon.
Fog lights, overhead console +temp gauge/compass, and rear defroster. Just off the top of my head. Others will chime in here.
I really don't see why you couldn't do power seats and windows.

1976Mustang

There's all kinds of stuff. I just installed foot lights, and an LCD dash clock. I'm planing on installing OEM tweeters that go under the dash. Like unknown said, all the wiring is usually there. If it isn't, either you didn't look hard enough or someone cut it out.

Some extra's i can think of
Power seats/Windows/Locks/Mirrors
LCD Dash clock
Underdash Footwell lights
under dash Tweeters
retractable engine light
Maplights (Two focused lights on the normal dome light)
Retractable antenna

Tanbam

Nice, that's exactly what I wanted to hear!

Unknown XJ

Helpful bunch aren't we? Welcome to the forum.

91 limited owner

My OEM tweeters still work

XJ.89.Limited

My OEM tweeters just make noise. Well, one makes noise. The other is completely dead, haha.

To go along with the OEM accessories, don't forget about exterior options too. Rims, fog lights, chrome accents, painted accents, front visor, rear wing (option, but rare on US models. Can be bought aftermarket), skid plates, and even just the front grill pieces and headlight bezels to change up the look of things. There are plenty of things you can take off of a donor XJ, just visit junkyards frequently and pull what you like. Spraypaint does wonders on appearance too. In the right places, it can really make a vehicle pop.

1976Mustang

My Sport didn't come with tweeters, so i thought why the hell not install them? lol

IRONMIKE

That is inspiring. What vehicle had actual guages? My 2000 has the minimum. Did you add the tach? pulled my front speakers, they were missing wires. Will replace them after I get all the mechanical together

Tanbam

The gauges came from a stripped '91. Most of the good stuff was already gone, but the instrument cluster was good, but really dirty. I opened it up and cleaned aloof the dust and dirt off of it until it looked new again, then made the odometer match my original.

The cluster plugged right into my '95 (which only had the speed and giant gas gauge) and everything worked right away except for the temperature and oil. I bought the two new sensors from Autozone for those two gauges (I would have gotten them from tne donor car, but the engine was gone) and swapped them out with the idiot light sensors. Now all of the gauges work great. It's nice having a tach with a manual transmission!

The only downside is that I didn't realize how hot it ran! It never got hot enough to turn the light on, but after having a temp gauge, I could see that it likes to sit at about 230 and would creep into the red when I drove slow.

Fan clutch was bad, so I replaced it yesterday. Now it doesn't creep into the red anymore; it just sits steady at 230. The aux fan works as it should, so I'm going to swap the thermostat today.

I think I'm going to try to get the luggage rack off of thr doner this week!

IRONMIKE

Best of luck, post how it worked out, thanks. a month ago I replaced my fan clutch, a 195 degree thermostat, a new el. fan with adustable temp control
System stopped overflowing after I put the new fan and control, but seems to about to boil over. Decided to flush the cooling sstem again.
In the middle of flushing out my cooling system the ac compressor clutch froze. Right now I'm replacing ac parts, (as soon as they arrive) and flushing the ac system.

Tanbam

New thermostat seems to have made the system happy. It warms up quickly, but stays pretty solidly at what I'd assume to be 120 on the gauge. It's higher than I'd like, but I'm almost convinced that the gauge is reading high now.

Before the fan clutch and thermostat, I'd hear the electric fan kick on and off while I was driving it. After the swap, I drove about twenty miles and the aux fan never kicked on. When I opened the hood after the drive, the engine seemed much less hot than it had been, and the radiator cap didn't feel too hot, either.

I drained about 1/2 gallon of coolant from the radiator before changing the thermostat, and it seemed pretty clean. I'm hoping that the previous owners did a flush or two and the system is clean inside. I'm really surprised at how small the stock radiator is.

Since the gauge shoots right up to 220 and stays locked there, I think that it might actually be 110, like my TJ. I am using a Duralast temperature switch that was rather inexpensive, so I'd like to try a different one and see if it moves back to the middle of the gauge.