So this is less of a "build log" and more of a "this is what needed to be done, and what we did" log for my own benefit.

Some background info: I am inheriting Bailey (named by my partner) from her father as a Daily Driver to get me to and from work (when the NJ DMV reopens and I can take my test, anyway). She's a '96 Country XJ in red with a shade under 140k on the clock. My partner used her as a DD and light trail vehicle, and for the most part she's been looked after (I think there's been a fender bender or two under her ownership from 2007 until last year), so she's in pretty good shape for a vehicle of her age.

So here she is in 2010:


Nice little Jeep, right?

Here's how she got the nickname of "The Little Red Submarine", sometime in 2011:


So she's had a good life. She is, however, in dire need of some TLC. We've already done a fair amount of work, but I'll get to that in my next post; this was really meant more as an introduction to the project. First thing I needed to do, was remove the headliner; it was drooping over the driver seat, and at 6'1" it was causing me a little bit of bother. Solution; remove the headliner. Problem; headliner board was trashed.


Who needs a headliner, anyway?

Thanks in advance for the interest. Unlike Spencer over at his informative 1996 XJ Clean DD Build (which prompted me to document the process here), this isn't going to be restoring Bailey to near factory-new. She's lived too long and done too much for that. Instead this will be more a list of quality-of-life improvements and repairs as and when they spring up.

Thanks in advance for the interest!

 

Thanks for the shout out! I wish mine was gonna be factory new when it's finished lol.
Looking forward to this thread. I love the red and tan. Show us some more pictures

 

So, first list of repairs and cosmetic changes:

First, the rocker panels were rusted through, so out they came. The father-in-law fabricated some replacements from sheet metal, and after being primed and then liberally coated with bedcoat, these were installed over the remnants of the rusted-out areas.


While that was being done, I was peeling the sticky-bits off the trim panels. Several had fallen off over the years, and it seemed more appropriate/easier to take them all off rather than trying to source some more. During this, we found some rust on the rear quarter. Gave it a bit of a scrape, went straight through.



As they say where I come from, "Bugger!"

So that's another thing to add to the list. Cut out the rust, realise the hole goes the whole way through, then patch the hole with Bondo. Unfortunately the "self-adhesive patch" we got didn't adhere, by itself or otherwise, so the patch is a little thicker than it otherwise might be which affected the lines somewhat.




I still need to patch that gap hidden by the wheel flare, but there's no more water getting in there for the time being at the very least.

Finally, the grey/silver/whatever colour it really is trim was looking rather tired. I'm also more partial to black and red than black and silver, so it was time for a minor makeover.

Before:




After:



Okay so my masking wasn't brilliant and I need to touch it up a little...



And that patch doesn't look too terrible now it's been painted over...



So that's the cosmetic work done, at the very least. But cosmetics are only good when the rest of the car is done, and there's still work to be done!