Born again XJ.... Hallelujah! It's good to be free.
 

Well, I've threatened a couple of times that I would start this thread, so here goes nothing. "Hold on to your butts!"

This thread will be about the build-up of my 96 XJ Sport that my dad so graciously gave me. It has the 4.0, AW-4, NP231, D30, and a Chrysler 8.25. It only has 114,9xx miles on it. He rear ended a Honda Accord with it one afternoon. He replaced it with an Explorer Limited, 302 and all-wheel-drive. I thought he was crazy, but oh well, I benefited from it. He was going to fix the XJ and use it as a play toy, but my stepmom talked him out of it. Thank you stepmom. I actually got some free time on Saturday and did some stress relief and straightened some of the bent metal. I'm having to work on it in his garage which is great, except, I forgot the camera. All I have is crappy cell phone pics. I know that you all just want to see what I've got so here goes.

In the first pic, I had already fixed where the whole side was shoved down towards the tire and it had a nice dent that ran the length of the bulge for the spring support. I got so excited to work on my Jeep that I forgot to take before shots, so I stopped before I did much more. And the wet/oily spots are WD-40 run off.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that my dad had already tore the front end down. I took some crappy pics of the damaged pieces to give you an idea of what he did.

And some more.

These are some shots of the area that I worked some aggression out on. I'm very pleased with the outcome considering this is my first attempt at body work.

Sorry some of these pics suck so badly. I didn't pay enough attention to how they looked after I took them. Next time I'll try to have a better camera with me. Now I just have to figure out how to pull the uniframe rail out where it is caved in.

My next project is to finish straightening the remaining bent metal. I need to get a header panel and everything that goes with it. I'm going to order an all aluminum radiator. Then I get to fit everything together. I think I'm going to pull it all apart and scuff and paint all of my replacement panels to match each other instead of a red fender,a white hood, and who knows what color header panel.

After that, future plans will be...
1. Homemade front bumper
2. Fluid change, all of them, the XJ has sat for close to a year
3. Mount CB and antenna
4. Update audio
5. Rough Country 4.5" lift
6. 33" tires of some kind (haven't decided yet, leaning hard towards treadwrights)
7. Detours USA Tailbone System
8. Aussie Locker in the front

There's more, but it's bedtime for now. I will update later.

It's good to be free. I'll go with you on that :thumbsup: Nice work so far. I know you've got a homemade bumper in mind, but if you're putting a stock bumper back on for now I've got a bumper bracket for that passenger side. It's yours if you want it.

dang!! Body work!! that sucks man. Should make a great jeep tho

Thank you for the offer. My plan is to go straight from no bumper to homemade, but we'll see if I can pull it off. I may not be able too and if that's the case, I'll definitely keep you in mind.

Seeing on tv what goes into show quality body work looks like it sucks badly, but for a DD/beater, I'm not picky at all. I'm actually enjoying the process right now, trying new things and learning from them.

Well got to spend a little time with the Jeep Saturday. I tried taking some better pics of the repair work, but they didn't turn out much better than my cell pics. I will try that again next time. Anyway, didn't get near as much done as I would like. The main problem is that I need parts and money is kinda tight. Hopefully, after this month, things will free up some. It always takes us 3 months to recover from Christmas.

Alright, I took my jy parts over to do some test fitting. I'm planning on taking it apart to paint it all one color. It went together well. I did learn that the front fender mount still needs some work. It needs to be moved out some more.

I also got my rear passenger door where it can open without having to open the front door first. My step-sister opened the rear door and my dad didn't pay attention. He then tried backing out of the garage. This, as you know, doesn't work very well. It messed up the hinges that are welded to the body. For now, I just added some washers to space my door out so it works properly. Eventually it will have to be repaired, but for now this will work.

Will have pics up later. I have to resize them before I can post them. The forum will not resize these automatically like it did for my others. Too big I guess.

Body work isnt that bad, I do it everyday, The worst part is just before paint, Need any help on anything pm me

Thank you for the offer. Right now, the plan doesn't include anything fancy for paint. Probably just the good old rattle can, but who knows, I may change my mind. Lots of prep work involved for a good quality job, or at least that's what it looks like on tv.

Alright, I think I've got the pics figured out. These are my parts from the jy being test fit. Like I said, some of these pics didn't turn out near as good as I wanted.

Here is the damaged door before I fixed it up. If you notice at the top, they overlap. Plus, down just above the lower body line, the front edge of the rear door pressed in on the rear edge of the front door. I will get pics of the repaired area next time I go over there.

I wanted to add one of the tires that my dad left me with. I'm glad they have so much tread left and they look like they may do alright offroad.