After two years of owning my 1999 jeep Cherokee i've finally come to a point where I feel worthy of starting a build thread. Here's where I am today:




Attachment 258748





Attachment 252170



I have a lot of time to cover so I'll do it in chunks, so here it goes:

I bought my cherokee in the summer of 2012 from a small dealership less than a mile away from where I worked. It was a '99 sport with 131,000 miles on it, it was sagging in the rear end and a little beat up but all in all it was in good shape and had absolutely no rust. Having always wanted a jeep I was sold, and instantly fell in love.

Here is it at the dealership:

Attachment 243449



Attachment 243450

And at my house:


Attachment 243451



Attachment 243452



Attachment 243453

So first things first, time to sort out the demons. It had some common xj issues, had to replace a leaky high pressure power steering hose, also had to re-wire my drivers side door speaker. Child lock for the windows was stuck on as well so decided to bypass it.

Attachment 243454



Attachment 243455

Figured, what the hell, might as well put in new speakers while I was in there, and already sticking to the cherokee moto "upgrade don't replace," I installed a size up on speakers, they fit well and only required new mounting holes.

Attachment 243456

Next up was some dashing new seat covers and floor mats to protect the interior from my destructive nature.

Attachment 243457



Attachment 243458

(Ignore this pic)

Not much goes on the first summer I own my jeep, i get a fancy license plate for the front of my jeep and get creative with a way to mount it.


Attachment 243460



Attachment 243461



Attachment 243462


I go through the angry eye phase (don't judge it was a phase, it's over now)

Attachment 243459

Sometime that winter I convert my interior lights to blue LED's

Attachment 243465


And that's about it, then Christmas came. Got my grandpas old CB radio, along with some forum decals and an XJ one

Attachment 243463



Attachment 243464

Along with a mag light and a mag light mount (not shown).

So begins the instal

Attachment 243466

Ended up drilling through the center console to mount both the CB and mag light, ran the bolts through the console and into some thin plate on the other side that helped act as a giant washer and distribute the weight. Came out pretty awesome in my opinion.

Attachment 243467

Another boring span of jeep-mod-less time passes, filled with some extreme winter mall crawling.

Attachment 243470



Attachment 243471

Spring brakes here in Pennsylvania which meant it was time to slap on my decals.

Attachment 243468



Attachment 243469

And it also meant it was time to take my baby wheeling for the first time.

Attachment 243472



Attachment 243473



Attachment 243475



Attachment 243476



Attachment 243477

My inexperience shows as I managed to get stuck but hey it was my first time.

Some after math:
Attachment 243478

After several months of more wheeling trips the mud began to take it's toll. Despite my best efforts to clean the underside of my jeep it had managed to find it's way in my wheel hubs and u-joints which meant my Dana 30 needed an overhaul. My 13 year old untouched axle but chose to differ.

Attachment 243479



Attachment 243480



Attachment 243481

7 half inch extension and breaker bars later I have my buddy a visit. He was a farmers son and had a 3/4's breaker bar and socket to fit, a big pipe later and we were in business.

Attachment 243482



Attachment 243483

(Ur welcome ladies :p )

Attachment 243484

All finished, even changed brakes.

So now to do something with my beaten ugly exterior.

Attachment 243485

My solution involved some paint, old newspapers and some lens tint.

Attachment 243486



Attachment 243487



Attachment 243488

Before:

Attachment 243489

After:

Attachment 243490



Attachment 243491



Attachment 243492



Attachment 243493

More to come, keep reading!

Sorry for all the typos, my phones auto correct likes to change perfectly spelled words to other properly spelled words, and it's 2:30am.

ANYWAYS! Back to xj talk!

Picked up a D-ring tab for my hitch at 4wd hardware

Attachment 243494

And got myself a trail rated badge.

Attachment 243495



Attachment 243497

Made a before and after.


Attachment 243496

Then I found a jem! A Lund sun visor!!!!

Attachment 243499

A little paint:

Attachment 243500

And bam! It's ready to go (ignore my ex)

Attachment 243502

Looks great

Attachment 243503



Attachment 243504

So now to turn my attention to something important, protecting my alternator, I grabbed some heat shield from the junkyard, took the tin snips to it, did some test fits and trimming and some paint and next thing you know:


Attachment 243507


Attachment 243505

An alternator splash guard is made, so time to test it out:

Attachment 243506

Good news, it works ;) and I got some mud on the trail rated badge.

Attachment 243508

Also got some cool shots of the jeep:

Attachment 243509

And me with it

Attachment 243510

Got this great idea to make some badass looking lights in the grill wired to a switch in my dash, so I did

Attachment 243512



Attachment 243513

Cracked the tank on the side of my radiator so got a replacement from DPGoffroad

Attachment 243514

All the old junk.

Attachment 243515

Turns out I had an aftermarket tranny cooler

Attachment 243516

There is plenty more to go including even some real mods (not just bells, whistles, LED lights and decals) but I'll do more tomorrow, night ya'll

I know it's long and boring at this point but progress and some more in depth mods are up ahead!!!

Even more maintenance on the jeep.

Attachment 244037

Valve cover gasket.


Attachment 244038

Alternator

Attachment 244040

So one day while mindlessly scrolling through Facebook, I saw these awesome home made headlight guards, so naturally I jumped on it and came up with this:

Attachment 244041



Attachment 244042



Attachment 244043

I personally love the look and they're pretty strong, granted it was a bit of a waste to try and protect $15 headlights but if I ever upgrade then it will help ensure their safety.... Plus it looks good.

So after awhile of searching I start piecing together my lift, first some shocks from a JKU, unfortunately not a rubicon, but they only have 15,000mls and I got them for next to nothing so they'll work.

Attachment 244044

Then leaf springs from a dodge Dakota, most people use S-10 leafs but in PA rust tends to take over at the junkyards pretty quick and after several weeks of searching Durango springs were the only good set I could find, so I pulled them.

Attachment 244045

A bit of paint and rust removal.

Attachment 244046



Attachment 244047
For the front I decided on some 2" coil spacers from Fat Bob's Garage, good price and amazing shipping speed! Seems like great stuff as well and easy to follow instructions (I didn't use them because I had had researched this for awhile and new how to install them but I read them clean through and they were great)

Attachment 244048

So with all the parts assembled I began the instal. First I removed the leaf springs so I can try and figure out how to handle the different sized center pins. At first I was gonna drill through the xj main but after reading some more on the interweb I got mixed reviews on drilling leaf steel, a lot of people insisted it would ruin the leaf because the heat from drilling such thick steel would weaken the steel, they might be right but after several failed attempts to try alternate routs I decided to take them to a leaf spring shop, explain what I was doing and ask what they would do, so they said they would drill them with some hard bits at low speeds and keep everything lubed well, not having access to a drill press and good bits I decided to take them to the shop.


Attachment 244050



While the leafs were at the spring shop I also got them assembled with new pads and clamps and centering pin so when I picked them up while whey were ready to go.

Attachment 244049

While they were in the shop I started on the shocks.

Attachment 244051

As expected I broke some of the shock bolts so instead of hours of drilling them out I decided to knock the nuts out and drop bolts through the pre-existing holes, it was much quicker and I feel will give me less headaches in the future!

Attachment 244052

So with stocks installed and the leafs back in my possession It was time to finish up the rear.

Attachment 244053

Before and after for just the rear

Attachment 244054

I netted 2 3/8" inches from stock height using all the leafs from the Durango minus the main and the XJ main leaf. I gained 4 3/8" inches from where I sat with all my sag

My next day I off I decided to tackle the front, first I removed both stock shocks and disconnected the axle from the sway bar, then I rotated the spring retainer clip out of place and flexed the axle so the coil spring was compressed and put on some spring compressors, I relaxed the axle and removed the spring, I sprayed some PB blaster on the spacer for lube and slipped it up over the post and slid it into place, I then slid the coil spring back into place making sure it was seated properly in the groove on the bottom, I reset the retainer clip, flexed the axle again, removed the coil spring compressors and unflexed the axle.

Attachment 244055

Then reinstalled the shock and reconnected the sway bar link.

Attachment 244056

Finally my lift was complete

Attachment 244058

Took it to the alignment rack and the rest is history. :)

Decided to trim up all those plastic pieced hanging down in the front, much better look.

Before

Attachment 244060

After

Attachment 244061

Of course I had to find a little spot to test out the lift

Attachment 244062

And do a little mall crawling at tractor supply

Attachment 244063

All the old parts ready for the scrap yard

Attachment 244064

A serious attempt at flexing

Attachment 244065

And now it's all caught up to date, but I have some big plans coming up soon, longer brake lines, home made sway bar disconnects, and a home made roof rack, just to start, and maybe some more Frankenstein-ing to get 3" of lift and lower control arms, feel free to let me know what you think or if you want any more information on the mods I have already done (even though most are pretty simple)

You might want to put those rubber isolators under the poly spacers otherwise they could crack at some time.... otherwise looks good.

You mean the stock isolators? I left them on?

Also dual battery set up with power converter is something i hope to have in my future.

so whats the whole list for this lift and price. maybe i over looked it. and is everything a direct bolt up. thanks and nice build man.

The only difficult part was the center pin on the leaf springs, the Durango is quit a bit larger than the XJ main. So the XJ main needs drilled out to match, so be prepared for that, I also removed my rear sway bar

Found a ton of awesome rare factory stock parts so the other plans are gonna have to wait.

Tomorrow I'm pulling:
Rear tire carrier and gas tank skid!

Attachment 244224

A front skid plate!

Attachment 244225

And a transfer case skid plate!

Attachment 244226

Also found a bolt on roll bar!?!?! Anyone have any experience with these they bolt on the floor (four bolts a side) and to the top front seat belt mounts

Attachment 244227



Attachment 244228



Attachment 244229

I'm considering it but not tomorrow. I'll post more after I pull it tomorrow

Skids off now time to clean them up and see if any need reinforced, the front engine skid and the tcase skid should be ok the gas tank skid has a little rust

Attachment 244306

What do you think?

Update:I bolted on the front skid


Attachment 244346


and took it to the local offroad park, soon as I got there my starter burned out, never even made it offroad, was kicking and cussing cause banks were closed and I had no cash on me, ended up trading some beer for an old spare starter that had to have the solenoid jumped to work but hey, can't be picky. So tomorrow I'm getting a new starter and gonna start cleaning up the skid plates

Cleaning up the skids, the front skid and tcase skid are almost perfect and just need parts washed and painted, the gas tank skid has a bit of rot

Attachment 245098

Gonna have to patch the right corner and maybe some other spots