So I’ve decided to bring you all a rolling thread on my build progress. I’ll need to make a few posts in order to “catch up” the last two and a half years but here it goes. I was gifted this Jeep while selling Fords. My wife (then gf) was driving my Focus because she had recently totaled her Civic and essentially sharing the vehicle for rides to and from work. This customer I had spent half the day with ended up buying a Colorado duramax and gifting me the XJ instead of using it as a $500 trade in. A couple weeks later Ford made a lemon law buyback purchase on my Focus for its ****ty DCT. It’s a now 8 owner vehicle to which I’ve been slowly chipping away at repairs and fixing neglect from the 6 previous owners before the 7th owner who gifted it to me.

 

Very nice.

Cant wait for more

 

One of the first things I got done involved a wheel bearing. It’s where it ALL began. If I had only know how deep the rabbit hole truly was.

 

Whoo! Another North Carolinian with a Flame Red 2dr! I tip my hat to ya, sir.

 

thanks Battle! I’m in Wilmington, what about you?

 

First trip to Autozone. Can’t remember what for though 🤣 10/08/18

 

Replaced reverse lights with LED’s and applied the Strange Motion 4x4 windshield banner. Finally got title and tags along with my Army flag and flag pole holder. Circa 11/2018 and 12/2018

 

Worked on replacing the valve cover gasket that a guy I paid had already replaced. Turns out he did a **** job. This became one of many things I had to redo.

 

Agreed!
The Jeep looks great, good luck with it.

 

thank you I’ll make another few posts tomorrow!

 

I'm currently in Chapel Hill but will be moving to Asheville around September. It was between Asheville and the Willmington area honestly and the GF got a job in Asheville. We are not fans of the center of the state - it's much better on the edges! I love coastal Carolina! I assume you're planning a beach trip with the XJ soon...

 

cost of living in Asheville is probably cheaper anyway! As far as the beach trip goes, you’ll find out I’m not quite there yet unfortunately

 

The only rust spots I have are in the passenger floor pans. As of today that’s still the case. I’m chasing a water leak that once fixed will allow me to replace the floor pans.

The MSRP of my Jeep is about the same as the Flame Red trailhawk I parked beside. I also found a cool Batman sun shade 😎

 

gave her an oil change, first time doing some off-roading, and replacing wheel bearings. Turns out the first replacement wheel bearing was the wrong size. It wasn’t hard but the road did put the Jeep at a tilt!

 

Around May of 2019, Big Red was put to the side as I bought a 2019 Chevy Spark for my wife (then gf) to drive as the Jeep was becoming less and less reliable. A short time later I got the windows tinted and swapped out to 235’s instead of 31’s.