HawK_Racing

Yeah I know! I havn't been to Badlands yet. Honestly I'm new to the whole wheelin deal. I've got a 2004 Yamaha YFZ 450 I've raced up in the Black Coal and I do alot of enduro races / rides on my dad's Suzuki DRZ400S. I've always like Jeeps and I'm always up for building new things. Since my XJ is my DD it's hard to do too much playing. I'd love to meet you up at Interlake sometime. I know my cousin knows that place really well (or used to). He used to wheel in a Toyota (pic below). Now he's just got a stock Helux but still wheels everynow and then.



I'm up for a fun trip but my whole goal is to try not to break anything. Until I get outta college and save up for a DD (eventually a 2nd gen Cummins or early Duramax) then I can take my XJ and get crazy with it.

HawK_Racing

Well today has been disaster. To make a long story short I spent from 11am to 5pm looking for a stupid U joint. Turns out the O'Reilly's people have no idea what they are talking about. When they say axle they must mean drive shaft and vise versa. I don't know what they're deal is but I ended up getting the U joint from the first place we stopped.

Here's the new and old U Joint:



I think this U joint is ready for a replacement



I also got the entire driver's side wheel hub assembly back on along with the brakes and tire and wheel:



The new hub feels so much nicer than my old one. We're going to press the U joints in tomorrow night and then I will be able to put it all back together again. I also found that the trac bar frame mount bolts were all loose. This probably caused a lot of the steering issues I've had lately. I was glad to find those before it got bad. I'm so anxious to drive it again with all these new parts! JCROffroad.com Roof rack gutter mounts came in today as well:



They look great and cant wait to get them welded up! I would strongly recommend them to anyone looking into a gutter mount. Keep reading, there will be more coming very soon. The Bushwacker fenders are put on hold currently to finish the roof rack along with rebuilding the front end.

Thanks again everyone!

90XJkid

Very cool! That is a BA Yota! I drive a non turbo diesel '85 F-250 as my work/DD truck. Its a nice truck for what it is and makes decent power after couple mods. Having a turbo diesel would be like heaven. haha. Hope you find one!

HawK_Racing

Yeah I really would like to find a 12V Cummins down the road. But since I'm in college for another 2 years I doubt it will be anytime soon. That's the first thing I'm gonna get when I finally get an engineering job. Then the XJ can be trailer whenever I want and it wont be such a huge deal for me to drive home after some wheeling. I wish I had more pictures of my cousins yota right before he sold it. He ended up putting a flat bed on it and building it up alot. There wasn't to much he didn't crawl over.

HawK_Racing

Okay the new hubs are on! It steers like a sports car now lol. I also got these bad boys in the mail today (1 for each side)



Also made some progress on the roof rack. I got a coat of pain on it this morning!





It looks amazing up on top! More pics soon to come with the rack up on top with the lights

HawK_Racing

Well here's the rack. I have a much more descriptive fabrication thread that you can link to by clicking in my signature. I love this rack and it just simply looks way too awesome!

motox168

Thats one clean 88, looks good

HawK_Racing

Thanks alot! I never really liked the newer exteriors and the I really liked the interior of the 88s. This one needed some TLC but it cleans up good.

I called Bushwacker and they are sending me a hardware set for the fenders for FREE!!! Their customer support was fantastic and even though it may be expensive I would highly reccomend buying from them. The hardware set will be here later this week and I will be putting them on hopefully this weekend.

HawK_Racing

Okay I got the Bushwacker hardware set in today! I had to be at work today and tonight me and some friends went down to a car show. I showed off the Triumph but was missing the Jeep. There is a big diesel truck pull tomorrow so I am planning on trying to do the fenders tomorrow morning but idk if I can finish up. lol honestly I work very slow but I make sure I like the finished product. I will have some pics of the install and finished fenders. I would post instructions on how I did the install but Bushwacker has a very detailed write up on how to do it. I'm anxious to start cutting!

tornprince

congrats on the bushwackers. it'll be one sick looking xj once it's done.

HawK_Racing

People keep asking me if I am done with it yet... I don't think other people understand that it will never be done and it will always require attention and a little love. It's Jeep thing, I don't expect others to understand.

tornprince

lol. i understand it dude. today on my way to get it licence plates. my ma was askin "what's that clanking sound" i replied "it's a reason fer me to fix it". then told her it's leaking again, course she freaked out and i told my ma that my jeep is marking it's place. it does worry me now that i have tranny fluid and oil leakin and i cant tell where its from. oh well. keep rocking that jeep dude, let the haters hate.

HawK_Racing

Bushwackers are finally on!!! The fronts were very simple and quick to do. However, the rear required a bit more cutting than what I thought was necessary. Oh well it all works and looks great. I'll post pics tomorrow after all this rain passes through. The Jeep is looking great. I need to re-build the brake master cylinder and new bumpers soon to come!

HawK_Racing

The new Bushwackers! I think they look great and I get a little bit more clearance

jankokee

man that rack looks good ! how much where those weld on mounts ?