92 XJ: DCA802 College build
 

Hey everybody, welcome to my build thread. I bought my first Jeep 3 months ago, a 1992 Cherokee Laredo for 900 dollars. Ever since then, I have been hooked! I mostly have experience with Subarus, and VW/Audi, so this is very new to me. Going into my senior year of college, I just want to keep on doing small mods and keep it reliable and running good.

I have been very inspired on CF just searching through everybody's builds! Definitely a lot of good information and helpful people, I've learned a lot.


Here it is when I first brought it home:
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All stock. Runs/drives great! No knocking/ticking. Quickly started noticing things wrong with it though. Got to searching through the forums, and noticed that they are all very common problems. (speedometer/odometer did not work, reverse lights did not work, etc.)

Here it is the start of day 2 after a trip to the junkyard: New mirrors and a thule rack from my old WRX, and one of my friends had rain gutter feet he gave me.
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Front: Came with grant steering wheel.
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Back: The reverse lights were wired up to a toggle switch and the wires were loosely ran from the battery to the lights :laughing:
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Headliner: Pretty bad
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My first project to my Jeep (besides the roof rack and mirrors) was the headliner. I did a few upholstery jobs for friends who are into the "hellaflush" scene, such as door cards and headliners. I figured I see it done all the time in VW's, so why not try something different?

Pulled my headliner out, and cleaned it up with a vacuum. Then, duct taped all the rips/parts falling off.

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I bought some fabric from JoAnn's for $15.00ish and used 3M light duty adhesive.

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After some gluing, cutting, and carefully lining it back up, this is how it turned out (without dome light/visors) They are in it now. I just don't have a current picture.

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I get compliments every time people see it. It looks almost factory!

Because the Jeep reeked of cigarettes, the carpet was stained, and it has some rust (for a Vermont Jeep, it's cleaner than the typical ones), I pulled the whole interior out to inspect what it was going to need for body work. I did have it on a lift before buying it, and the reason why I bought it is because the body was actually solid. Score!

Front interior:
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Got all of the carpets out:

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Some shots of the floor:

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The floor was not too bad, but not really good either. Solid for the most part though. To be on the safe side, my dad, friend, and myself made floor pans out of sheet metal. Using a cutting wheel, templates, and ox-acetelene torch, we were able to make these for each side:

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Painted and put in:
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After we got the floors done (I started slacking on pictures), I covered my carpets in de-greaser, pressure washed them, scrubbed them down with more de-greaser, and pressure washed them again. They cleaned up and looked almost as good as new! After I had my interior back in, I bought a Rusty's 4.5' lift. About 2 weeks later, me and my dad put it in.

It took us about 6 hours at a friend's shop to put the lift in:
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Another project we did while it was on the lift was a rear main seal/oil pan gasket. NO bolts were broken as we put my lift in, including the transfer case drop. It leaked so much oil, that it literally undercoated itself :laughing:
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Here's how it sat after the lift was installed. I also got a black grille from a friend. If you look in my garage, you can see my dad's FJ40.

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Got some steelies from Summit, 15X8 with 3.75 back spacing, and found 5 31x10.5 General Grabber AT2's on Craigslist for $400. Mounted and balanced them for free at the shop I worked at all summer. Definitely lucked out!

Comparison:

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Here's how it sits now:

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My Subaru is in the background of this one :icon_cheesygrin:

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My first drive with it after the lift/alignment: Fire road/snowmobile trail
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Aftermath:
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Since these pictures, I have fixed a few problems:

I got a new VSS for $40.00 from a local parts store, made sure the shaft/gear that sits in the transfer case was spinning, and made sure that the shaft on the VSS didn't slip inside the one that came out of the transfer case. Odometer and Speedometer work now!

Also, picked up a Limited steering wheel out of the junkyard. I got sick of the little Grant wheel, and like the stock look a lot more for some reason.

Got my sun visors/dome lights back on my roof. Look great with the new headliner!

My project list is growing, I plan on a coolant flush/thermostat this weekend. It ran a bit hot and almost overheated on the interstate last week. I pulled over and looked at my coolant. It looked like mud :cry:

I need to still get a neutral safety switch or adjust mine, so I can get my reverse lights back and so I don't have to play with the shifter to get it started.

Will be putting new rocker panels on it soon also.

Pretty happy with my Jeep so far, hope you guys like it!