I've been meaning to to start a build thread for my 99 XJ for a while now, so lets see how this goes

I picked her up last year for $4000, bone stock with 180xxx miles. She needed new shocks and had a check engine light (P0740)

This is how she looked

 

Look clean

 

Thank you!

 

Right away I bought new tires. I was tired of looking at the tiny stock tires it came with.

This is my first 4x4 build, and the first thing I wanted was some mud terrains. I found some cheap 31's on ebay, and was able to stuff them in with the stock suspension, without having to trim the fenders. Looking back I wish I had bought the tires at the same time as the lift. They would rub a lot on the inner fenders while crawling

I believe the brand is called Nankang and they're look-alike's of Maxxis Buckshots



They are great in the sand/dirt (I live in the SoCal desert so its mostly sand) however they are VERY noisy on the road. I've had them for almost a year now and they're at about 80%. They started cupping in the front so I figured I was out of alignment...

 

Had a bit of a fender bender on the freeway...



The result of swerving to avoid a matress in the road and sideswiping the guardrail. Luckily it was all cosmetic and i got the quarter panel and mirror replaced the next day. Now theres just a scrape on the door which I'm looking to fix soon... (you can see my temporary mirror fix)

 

Took a trip out to Truckhaven in Ocotillo Wells (Salton Sea) which is about an hour from where I live

She did pretty good despite the stock suspension setup!



Next to my dad's Rubicon which he bought just a few days before I bought my XJ

 

I've been taking my time with this build, as a college student I don't have too much time or money to work on the jeep. However recently I've had more time to work on it.

Here's how she sits now
I finally got a RC 3" lift with full leaf springs




I'm impressed with the ride quality on the street. I drive it mostly on the street as this is my daily driver. I took it wheeling a few times and she performed really well off-road with minimal rubbing

 

I figured she probably hasn't had a tune up in a while so i ordered a tune up kit while ill probably do tomorrow.

 

I finally did the tune up and she's running a lot happier! Gas mileage almost doubled too.