1 tons with 40's making it my own
11-23-2012, 08:36 PM
#31
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Year: 98
Model: Cherokee
Engine: 4.0 soon to be ls1
exo
if you dont mind me asking you what did you pay for the exo. I live in southern louisiana and there arent any offroad shops that i know of that would be able to build me one. I know of a few chassis shops but they are so booked up with pro-mod builds they dont have time to mess with an old jeep lol
The unibody will hold for awhile ,and it's not that it bends out of shape first trail run ,but rather over time the constant deflection of the unibody causes stress cracks in the unibody then it starts to fall apart, like taking a thin piece of metal and flexing it back/forth by hand until it cracks in two ...a cage is the best way to stop this , and an exo is the only way to walk away from this below without looking like you did this below , which can happen on any trail run even on something you don't expect it to ...
A well built exo will not look like jungle gym or box sitting on a Jeep if the builder has bending experience and can keep it tight to the body ...My cage work was done by Dustin aka HUDFAB
and was so tight to the body I needed to pry the body panel a bit to squeeze a piece of paper or plastic sheet inbetween the tube to paint up the cage ...only way you can do this and drive away like you did not do this is to have a well built EXO .
A well built exo will not look like jungle gym or box sitting on a Jeep if the builder has bending experience and can keep it tight to the body ...My cage work was done by Dustin aka HUDFAB
and was so tight to the body I needed to pry the body panel a bit to squeeze a piece of paper or plastic sheet inbetween the tube to paint up the cage ...only way you can do this and drive away like you did not do this is to have a well built EXO .
11-24-2012, 02:23 AM
#32
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if you dont mind me asking you what did you pay for the exo. I live in southern louisiana and there arent any offroad shops that i know of that would be able to build me one. I know of a few chassis shops but they are so booked up with pro-mod builds they dont have time to mess with an old jeep lol
Dustin HUDFAB built me the EXO + interal + Bumper +coils spring traps + installed my rear JCR 1/4 fenders ...For 3,000...this is a pretty complete pic of the work dustin did .
11-24-2012, 04:22 PM
#33
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Year: 98
Model: Cherokee
Engine: 4.0 soon to be ls1
wow i saw your cage on google images and it was the picture that made me first want an exo thats crazy well he deff does great work wish his shop was closer but im sure it would be worth the drive
11-24-2012, 05:35 PM
#34
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Year: 1993
Model: Cherokee
Engine: 4.0
Originally Posted by cobra523601
wow i saw your cage on google images and it was the picture that made me first want an exo thats crazy well he deff does great work wish his shop was closer but im sure it would be worth the drive
11-24-2012, 10:31 PM
#36
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Year: 2000
Model: Cherokee
Engine: 4.0
11-24-2012, 11:06 PM
#37
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Year: 98
Model: Cherokee
Engine: 4.0 soon to be ls1
thanks for the info 5 hours sure beats the drive from louisiana to colorado. I will be giving him a call first thing monday morning thanks again man
11-24-2012, 11:34 PM
#38
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Year: 98
Model: Cherokee
Engine: 4.0 soon to be ls1
some pics
here are a few trail day pics before it started raining
this last pic is on the island in the middle of the pond
this last pic is on the island in the middle of the pond
Last edited by cobra523601; 11-24-2012 at 11:38 PM.
11-25-2012, 12:20 PM
#40
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He shut down the shop due to slow business and got a job at 4wheelparts as a tech , But still will do work on th side he just is not full time fab . But I could not see driving from LA to CO for a cage ...lol...the gas would probably cost as much as the materials , And from what I've seen there should be plenty of fabricators in th south east much closer to you and who are just as reasonable as Dustin .
Last edited by 1tonxj; 11-25-2012 at 12:28 PM.
11-25-2012, 02:53 PM
#41
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Year: 98
Model: Cherokee
Engine: 4.0 soon to be ls1
hood vents
well i think i walked about 6 miles today, i went to two junk yards today and walked every isle looking for some type of hood vents. I did not have any luck at the first yard and figured i was already 30 miles from home whats another 20 so i drove to the next yard, walked up and down almost every isle i was 3 from the end and after 2 hours of walking i found a 280z. I was so happy but when i looked at the hood the vents were gone 
I was about to just call it a day when i realized the front fender and window moldings were in the hatch area then i thought to myself its worth a shot maybe i would find the hood vents. I started digging through all kinds of rusted crap and soggy papers and guess what i found under everything yep some hood vents actually 3 vents and 1 drip pan I still have a grin on my face what are the chances.
I was about to just call it a day when i realized the front fender and window moldings were in the hatch area then i thought to myself its worth a shot maybe i would find the hood vents. I started digging through all kinds of rusted crap and soggy papers and guess what i found under everything yep some hood vents actually 3 vents and 1 drip pan I still have a grin on my face what are the chances.
11-25-2012, 04:23 PM
#42
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Year: 1998
Model: Cherokee
Engine: 4.0
if you dont mind me asking you what did you pay for the exo. I live in southern louisiana and there arent any offroad shops that i know of that would be able to build me one. I know of a few chassis shops but they are so booked up with pro-mod builds they dont have time to mess with an old jeep lol
11-25-2012, 07:15 PM
#43
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Year: 98
Model: Cherokee
Engine: 4.0 soon to be ls1
exo
thanks for the info, i travel to baton rouge once a week from new orleans so i will stop by and check out the shop
11-25-2012, 08:21 PM
#44
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Year: 1998
Model: Cherokee
Engine: 4.0
They are right off of Airline right behind the Prairieville post office. I sold a camper shell for an F250 to the owner the other day. He seemed pretty into my XJ. Seemed like a pretty cool guy too.
11-27-2012, 11:11 PM
#45
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Year: 98
Model: Cherokee
Engine: 4.0 soon to be ls1
rust
so over the weekend while i was stripping down the paint and undercoating the po had sprayed on the doors i discovered some rust. I had some chassis saver from magnet paints and treated the rust, there was also a patch of rust at the bottom corner of the hatch but after grinding away the rust to find good metal i was at the inner sheet metal and decided to just get another hatch. I called my buddy that has a local wrecking yard and he had one with only a little ding on the top corner of it for 25 bucks so i will be going to pick it up tomorrow fix the ding and prime it. I am hoping to have paint on it by saturday, i thought it was going to go faster but stripping layer after layer is verry time consuming
. I will get some pics when everything is in primer
. I will get some pics when everything is in primer