88' Mild not wild build
 

I've been thinking about starting a build for a while so here it goes.
1988 Laredo with all interior accessories, factory skids, non-disconnect hp30 and non c clip dana 35 with 3.55s. Dad bought it for $800 for our grandfather that was visiting for two months rather than renting a car, so naturally it was a hand-me-down when I was a Junior in high school (Senior in College now). Started with it stock, on 235/75s on TJ canyons, rust and nothing special about it.

First thing I did was to replace all the blown speakers from the PO and install a sub of course. Using 5.25" Sony Xplods up front, and 6.5" Kenwood speakers I got off a friend in the rear hatch and sound bar. The sub is a Boss Diable 10" sub running off a Lazar 800 watt amp, the box is from Subthump.

Soon after, my exhaust rusted out so I got a flowmaster 44 and 2.5" tailpipe from mudfrog, great prices and still happy with my purchase some 5 years later. Buddy gave me a pair of 6.5" PIAA for free, hooked them up and replaced the rusty factory fogs. After that and starting college, I made a deal with my dad that I can start really working on it such as lifting it if I got good grades, well that did happen. I picked up a Rusty's 3.5" full leaf lift with RE superflex upper and lower arms with their drop brackets for just $280! The arms were rated for 4.5" so the lowers worked but the uppers were too long so I sold the uppers and brackets for $180 total, saving even more! My buddy has a garage with a lift at his house so I drove down the road one weekend after two weeks of spraying the bolts twice a day with pb blaster to put the lift in.

Lift on!
 

After two days or work we got the lift installed. Only bolts snapped were the U bolts and one sway bar link. I soon ordered RC quick disconnects to help with that. If you notice, I did try to use the drop brackets at first but I ended up taking them off shortly after and selling them.

Tires
 

After days searching, I finally found a good deal on some tires. 5 31/10.50/15 BF T/As for just $200 with 80% tread. I bought 1.25" spacers at the time as well so no rubbing would occur. At the time, I had relocated my track bar just as a band-aid.

So I picked up a Clayton trackbar for $80 to center the axle, worked fine for a while. Ended up being too big for my lift causing the bar to point downward, no death wobble but setup issues. Just recently took it off and replaced it with a new one.

Lift was great here at school my sophmore year, put the lift on during the summer before sophmore year and after owning the Jeep for 3 years.

Fast forward a little, didn't do much but thought it would be cool to add a light bar to the top. Used a Chevy Lumina van's solid cross rail (much beefier than the thin stock rails), and 4 HF fog lights. This is the end of sophmore year.

At this point, I traded my RC quick disconnects for some pro comp links that I made quick disconnects, they fit better. Over the summer I picked up a complete set of Turbines, all Jeeps look better with turbines!.

Well after some time and many road miles (8 trips to school yearly, 300 miles one way), my tires started to wear oddly due to never having it aligned after the lift. Shops didn't want to touch it due to the lift for some reason and I never experienced death wobble from the lift (did when it was stock suspension though). So over Thanksgiving break I did my own alignment in the driveway, trimmed the fenders, and for my bday & Christmas I asked for some new tires....31/10.50/15 Duratracs!

Snow here at school, IUP, was pretty bad.....for Mustang drivers! Fun times here this winter.

So during the winter drive home, my light bar actually came loose and came off. I figured that it's not worth it since I did use them. Took it off, and actually liked it more without it on. So during my break, searching through craigslist due to boredom. I found a oem swing out carrier in the middle of PA in Shippensburg, on my way to school. So I snatched up that opportunity and it stayed at my friend's place until spring when I put it on. Came with everything but the brace behind the quarter panel, for that I made a 1/4" brace, and use gr.8 washers between the swing and the bolts for extra support for the 31".

So winter goes away and spring follows. I wanted to do something with the grey trim to match the carrier's black bumper. I plasti-dipped the trim over spring break, still looking good and only one or two places I've had to touch up.

Carrier on!
 

After months of waiting and excitement, I finally got the bumper on. It wasn't as bad as it could have been if my buddy's dad wasn't a skilled welder. Love the way it looks and gives me a full size spare, no more jokes about the donut i still had. We immediately took an hour drive out to his lake cabin for a weekend of relaxing for the work.

Soon after, I found a good deal on a dana 35 SOLID cover for only $50. I picked it up and put it on, shining the turdy5.

When the summer broke out I gave the jeep a nice clean, living in DE I got a lot more waves than in NJ or PA

Over the summer I worked 60hr/week from end of May-end of August so there wasn't much Jeep work going on. I did however put in a new and stronger battery, alternator, and finally upgraded my shocks to Doetsch Tech 8000 Bajas. I love these shocks, they are firm where I want them to be but don't feel like I'm riding a school bus. They keep my solid on the road and are great off, the built in bumpstops are great. I installed the rears with RC's rear Bar Pin Eliminators to give the back the same length as the front and never deal with the unibody bolts again. Also if you can't notice, the body and pistons on these shocks are about a 1/4 bigger, for better performance.

When I got back to school (senior year, current) the first thing I did was take the Jeep out to the trails I love to explore, nothing intense but a relaxing ride. Reddit enjoyed my picture and turned one into an old Jeep Ad.

Then I took off my sway bar links and zip tied the bar, didn't like the way they worked and driving around is fine, especially with the new shocks. So I had to test out the flex on a nice incline. Can flex more but that was the top of the mound and my Jeep was almost 40 degrees off the ground.

This past week I installed a new RE1600 track bar that I drilled out the axle bolt sleeve to accept the Clayton 1/2" bolt, put in some MJ shackles, and factory isolators up front to bring up my Jeep about 3/4" to just about 4" with 31" tires. This picture isn't a great one to show the tire/lift due to it being a decline but the most recent picture. I'll keep this updated as this is up to date of 10/3/14, past 4 years in only 2 pages but lots of fun and more to come.

Plans to soon come:
SOLID D30 COVER
ZJ Tie Rod

I always wanted to see a build thread on this.
Great job! Makes me wish I would have kept my 88s body as nice as yours lol

Very nice rig!

ZJ tie rod came in today, will be put in sometime this week once it warms up

Dude.

I'm loving what all youve done and how its looking so far. Great work!


Sub'd!
:popcorn:

So today after class, went to the local JY and picked up some new door weatherstripping for just $10! Replaced them on the spot and no more cutting stripping. Then installed the ZJ tie rod I got for my birthday, looking forward to seeing how it does, I'd say the old one was used a good amount for 26 years. Going to go out Sunday and test out some new trails too, so I'll post some pictures up of that soonish.

Went out to the trails today, lots of jeeps there. No action shots sadly but maybe next time.

The aftermath from today and yesterday.

So the other day I bought some rubber matting from a local outlet store Ollies for $5. Was planning on getting the rugged ridge cargo mat but by gf said I should just get this. For the price I'm very happy with the results. Also, my JKS miniskids came in for my LCA brackets, these things are pure beef 1/4" thick. Going to try to put them on either tomorrow or next thursday before next weeks wheeling weekend trip.

The XJ looks great keep up the good work.

Love the classic look of your XJ. Are you getting those front D-ring mounts that Boost Happy makes? I'm strongly leaning toward getting those and replacing my stock tow hooks with them.

Yea, they're definitely on the list along with sliders and a matching solid d30 cover.

Very cool.

No miniskids today but I did find a nice spot to flex. Notice I could of gone higher but the dock behind me would of hit.

Nice flex....

Thanks, I need to get some wheeling pictures, going to a wheeling event this whole weekend so hopefully I'll get some.

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.che...9733528bfc.jpg
Got the miniskids welded on today, pretty straight forward. Don't mind the horrible welds, I am self-learning and haven't messed around with welding different thicknesses of metal. But I hit each of them hard a couple times with my ball-pin hammer and they didn't budge so they must be on a decent amount, if they come off I'll clean up the welds and take it to a professional. Also put on my XJ knock-off JK windshield stickers from Tony_SS in the MISC. classifieds thread, love it.

Got back from wheeling at Doe Valley in Windber, PA. Was a great time and everyone was nice to be around. Some nasty rigs there that were huge. Didn't get really any wheeling pictures of myself but that's ok, next time. Only minor damage to the rear panel on the trim and pinch seam which can be straightened out with a hammer easily. Lca skids are still on and have markings from the rock trails we went on. Also found out that my jeep doesn't like to be on the rocks much with stock gearing 3:55, had to spin the tires a handful of times in 4lo, next time I'll air down and try to be in 3rd see if that helps. But all-in-all it was a blast.

Today was maintenance day part 1 of 2. Replaced both axle bushings using rukse poly bushings that reuse the factory steel housings. Also replaced the 26yr old upper arms with new factory arms, were $40 shipped and for what I do they are great for the price. Next will be axle u joint and ball joints.

The jeep is finally back on the road. The factory hub and ball joints gave me a huge fight, the ball joints bent my cheap press I got off ebay. Solid feel and no more clunks while hitting a bump or pot hole. But there still is some sort of rattling sound from the rear when I'm going down the road, especially if it's bumpy.