99XJ kiddd

Whats up guys! My names Christian I'm an Infantrymen currently deployed to Afghanistan and I've been following this Forum for awhile now and my awesome wife and I decided it was time for me to get a Jeep. Well I've always wanted an XJ and this one was a pretty good deal so she went and got it for me! I won't be home for a few more months. I plan on doing trails and some moderate rock crawling.
I'm a complete NOOB to this and need all the help I can get haha.
These are all pictures my wife has sent me since I've been here.. all Input is welcome
This is the day my wife brought it home.






When she picked it up it had a Rough Country 4.5" lift. I think its a add a leaf not sure. If someone could tell me haha. came on I think there Croger D windows 12.5x15 wrapped in some GT radial 33's that my dad says are worn awkwardly. It also has some hella lights on the roof rack and on the front bumper. Its got the Dana30 upfront and it has a C8.25 in the rear.

I plan on this being my DD as well.

Well since I've had it I've ordered:
JCR front prerunner winch bumper.
DetourUSA Tailbone tire carrier
got a magnaflow exhaust put on
The locks in all 4 doors were shot so had those redone and had a viper alarm put in it.
had a JVC head unit put in.
I also bought some Rugged Ridge Fender flares but since then have decided I wanna do the cut and fold. so those are for sale if anyone wants them they have literally never even been out of the box.. haha

My to-do list on it is clean up everything. do a complete fluids change on it. do a full tune up.
I need to buy new shocks for it.
extended brake lines.
adj. track bar.
I wanna do a long arm conversion.
wanna do a 1 ton steering conversion.
JKS sway bar discos
Rock sliders
Winch
Gonna buy new Goodyear duratracs for it.
I want to eventually Lock the front and leave the rear open.
ANY suggestions for anything haha im all for it.

Here are some more pictures of it. thanks guys.




ADD A LEAF OR FULL PACK?!



The new JVC head unit.


Dirty *** rear end..




Thanks guys

jayphillip

That's a clean looking jeep, man! Excited to see you build it up even more. How much are you looking to get for those RR fender flares?

jesse12296

Looks like a Full Pack.

cleenrob

x2 i agree with the full pack.. you can usually see the one cleener looking super thick add a leaf and i dont see it here

99XJ kiddd

Awesome thanks guys. and Jayphillip PM me.

4Kevo

Looks like a nice starting point. Some of the major mods already knocked out. Kind of the same way I started mine.

Good Luck and thank you for your service.

99XJ kiddd

Thanks 4Kevo I'm really excited to get back and play with it! its like know what you got for Christmas but you cant open it haha..

99XJ kiddd

So If you haven't seen the thread in "accessories" I'm selling the brand new JCR prerunner winch bumper I just bought. PM if your interested. thanks

99XJ kiddd

OK!
So I'm home now! Got home June 30th. but I'm stationed in GA.. so I still want able to see my new Jeep!
But I started my leave at the end of July and have been home since! and every single day I've been working on the jeep!
New tires
New breaks
cut and fold fenders
new front bumper!
new detoursUSA Tailbone
a bunch of stuff!
I have a lot of pictures to put up but I'm staying with my parents right now and their internet blows.. so I'm waiting for them all to load!
so stay tunes I'll definitely be back.
Thanks everyone

99XJ kiddd

So the first thing I did with my Jeep was put on my awesome bumper that LEADFOOT Offroad fabbed up for me!




got it as raw steel then primed and painted it and bolted it up! super easy and looks so sick.



Got a nice Instagram shot haha


This is what It looks like with the new bumper on



After I got the bumper on I also had my new 8K HIDs to throw on so I did that real quick.. super easy to install. also threw on some new Rampage lenses.. not the best on spreading the light but they look better than the old foggy lenses that were on it..
and it was super easy to take out the old lenses and bulbs. just popped that front grill off and then it was 4 screws around the light and blinker light. to easy.



I had the DetourUSA Tailbone waiting for me at home as well!! and I gotta say. Mark is the man. I ordered it back when I was in Afghanistan and he knew when I got home. and he had one waiting there for me. great guy and amazing product.



Taking off the stock bumper was the hardest part lol.. those screws are pretty deep in there and of course they were rusted to all hell lol





cutting the hitch bolt cause I was lazy.. "when in doubt, cut it out...?" haha



cutting the slots needed to have the recovery mounts to pop out. and Mark at detoursUSA sends you the templates where to drill your holes in your bumper to screw and tie everything together. super simple and easy. Thanks again Mark





heres and after picture of the product.






So I was having a nastttttyyyy rattling somewhere on the front. wasnt sure what it was.. ball joints.. u-joints... brakes.. i didnt know. so I started with the brakes that needed to be changed anyways because the PO was an idiot and never did.. so put new rotors on calipers and pads.
So when i got to the passenger side my dad and I took off the tire and noticed the caliper was only on by one bolt and a piece of bailing wire.. and the one bolt wasnt even the right size and was stripped to hell. so my dad told me about a "heily coil"
rethreaded the stripped part with that and bam! good as new.





my pops doing the heily coil to rethread it





well. the rattling didnt go away from fixing the jerry rigged brakes.. so the next day I
ordered new tires and was surprised that walmart had the cheapest deal on the ones I wanted. I got 33x12.5x15 Goodyear Duratracs. freakin awesome tire!!



Saved the old tires.


well as soon as I got in the jeep after getting them installed it was seriously a night and day difference! no more vibfrations or rattles anywhere. so I guess those old nobby *** tires were the problem? but I'm glad its solved haha cause I didnt know where to go next lol..



Got more but gotta go for now. ill be back!
Thanks everyone

C H E R O K E E 98XJ

Awesome rig man! Have you ever thought about taking off the side trim on the doors? They are just held on by some double sided tape and in my opinion it really cleans up the side to get those faded things off of there.

MOBBiN

Great looking front bumper. I really like it

99XJ kiddd

@CHEROKEE98XJ Yeah I was thinking of doing that but idk.. I kinda like it but.. it would look a lot cleaner thats for sure.

@MOBBiN Thanks man I love it!

99XJ kiddd

forgot to throw in there that I got a system put into it. When I got the rig none of the speakers worked except one of the back ones on the speaker bar.
So i took the door panels off all the doors to find absolutely no wiring for the speakers..? well that was way to much for me to tackle so I took it to a audio shop. well they told me that whoever owned it before must have ripped out all the factory wiring? bummer.. so that cost a pretty penny for me to have them run all new wiring.. but after that got some Rockford Fosgate primes all around and some memphis 12's with a 1000w amp I wired up myself

99XJ kiddd

So I did the rear sway bar delete. was super fast and easy. so fast I didn't take any pics.. but now my rear end flexes! I still need discos upfront.. but oh well.

so i went to test out the rear flex with no sway bar. and my fenders were rubbing into my new tires really bad..




I then decided it was time for the fender cut and fold. Found some good threads on here to follow but its pretty self explanatory!

took a grinder with a cut off wheel. cut a small piece of the trim off. then cut slits into the fender. took a pair of pliers bend them back and them hammered them back to bend the metal all the way.







well when I cut, I cut a little too high and you could see my cut marks. so I went a bought some 3M rubber in a can and did the lip of my fenders with it! all I gotta say is this stuff was cool lol!

tapped and covers the rig with painters tape and paper. and went to town.









and this is the next mornings end result.