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I am the third owner of Brutus. A buddy of mine came across it on Craigslist a week ago. He graciously decided to pass it on to me. I had to swoop in to buy it. I previously had a '99 2dr XJ and regretted selling it. So seeing a low mileage 2dr for cheap. Almost too good to be true. I had the carfax run at work (I am a Jaguar Land Rover Tech) and found it only had 2 previous owners.
On the top side Brutus is clean. Some surface rust along the roof rails, but no signs of body work, no dents, not rot in the rockers.
The underside is a little crusty but no major rot. Judging but the carfax, the last owner had it parked the majority of the time. My guess is it was just a "snow" vehicle.
The interior is pretty dirty. But in decent shape. Minus the console, not sure what caught fire there, but...
Now, my plan. This is not my daily commuter. I have a nice Jetta for that. I am going to build this for long weekend adventures and road trips. A nice keep it clean, (style wise, it will get dirty), keep it simple, and try to keep it in budget, build. I will own this Jeep for many years and drive it for many miles in hopefully many states.
The majority of the work will be done at work on a lift after hours. But some will also be done at home in my driveway.
The Short List
Deep clean EVERYTHING
Paint bumpers
Replace the Brakes (Front and Rear)
Sand and prime the roof rails/roof
Cluster upgrade
97+ console?
Tune Up
Diff fluid (Front and Rear)
T-case fluid
Fix rear wiper
POR-15 underside
Fix whatever else is broken
Remove the purple tint.
Headliner recover
Turn the tow bar into recovery points
Long Term Plans
Fix what breaks
2-3 inch lift (OME?) Just going to replace the rear leafs.
31" tires (BFG AT) The lift is off the list, for now.
Wheels (to change or not to change)
Bumpers
Exhaust (may be sooner if it falls off)
'80s style stripes (think Islander)
Now some more pictures.
And my old '99 in the snow
Last edited by Transroam; 03-26-2018 at 11:59 AM.
Reason: Adding to the list.
Drove it around in the snow yesterday. Haven't done a single thing to it yet, except add gas and fill the tires.
Sent s couple messages about picking up a couple things this weekend for it. Found a guy parting a '00 I may get the headliner board and console. I also found a clean set of wheels for $50. I hate running around with out a spare.
It's funny you say that about the spare but in all my days of owning a vehicle and many of them I have never used a spare. Guess I just got lucky until today when I got home lol......Jeep looks like it was stretching its legs and playing in the snow. You still just building up the savings to order parts for it?
It's funny you say that about the spare but in all my days of owning a vehicle and many of them I have never used a spare. Guess I just got lucky until today when I got home lol......Jeep looks like it was stretching its legs and playing in the snow. You still just building up the savings to order parts for it?
I have had a flat in three of my last four cars within a month of purchasing them. One of them left me on the road. It had a spare, but it was blown out.
The Jeep is a long term project still in the planning stages. The only reason I have been putting miles on it is because I had to put a little work into my daily. And maybe because it is a lot more fun to drive.
I have had a flat in three of my last four cars within a month of purchasing them. One of them left me on the road. It had a spare, but it was blown out.
The Jeep is a long term project still in the planning stages. The only reason I have been putting miles on it is because I had to put a little work into my daily. And maybe because it is a lot more fun to drive.
I completely understand and its better to have it and not use it then to need it and not have it.
Keep up the progress I know the long term project aspect just anxious to see the transformation with your rig.
Had some free time last night. I pulled Brutus in after work to start the clean up.
Looks like the previous owner used it as a wood hauler. Bits of wood everywhere.
So I go about vacuuming out the back. and realize. When I scrape the tint it is going to make a mess. I might as well start with that. So, I started getting ride of the '90s purple tint. I am not a fan of tint. So I am very happy to get rid of it.
I started on the Drivers door. You can see I had the quarter window done I may eventually swap those for wing windows. About halfway through the drivers window. This stuff is a PITA.
On to the drivers rear window. It's like night and day difference.
Got the drivers side done. That is it for not. Had to head home. I am glad the rear window does not have defrost. Here is a comparison Left side no tint, right side tinted.
I hope to have the headliner board out this weekend. Tired of it rubbing on my head.
Tint is gone. Used a nice sunny Sunday afternoon to my advantage and scrapped off the rest of the tint. I to make a run for more razor blades half way through. But, it is done. I also started to remove the trim to removed the headliner board. I am still fabric shopping though. Waiting on a sample from a company i found online. I just got tired of driving it with the headliner rubbing on my head.
I had Brutus on the lift at work last week. First time letting the wheels hang. Too many pops and crackles from the suspension as the lift went up. Took a bunch of pictures of the rust. I will post them when I am home tonight. I noticed the rear tires are 16 years old... So, tires are moving up on the list.
I drove it home and parked it Thursday. Saturday morning as I left for work I noticed the right rear tire was flat. D'oh! When I got to work I ordered up some 235/75R15 General Grabber AT2s. $120 a piece on amazon, with free shipping. I plan on dismounting the old tires to spruce up the wheels before I mount the new tires. I wonder how many I can fit in my Jetta at once.
Here is a pic of my old Forester on Grabbers... Did pretty well offroad. It was a fun beater.
03-01-2018, 12:01 PM
'95 2dr XJ Restomod "Brutus"
