pbarsamian

After we had the twins I had to trade my beloved trailblazer EXT to my wife for her '01 Cherokee sport. The "Tony Soprano" blazer was the only of the two that could fit two child seats safely along with me or wife in drivers seat.

I've always wanted to build an offroad truck and since the XJ wasn't worth much on trade in (even with only 59K miles) I've decided to make it a daily driver/trail rig/utility (don't care about banging it up) vehicle just for me.

Current plans:
1) Rusty's 3in spring pack lift kit w/ 5 wheels (31" tires), my current rear springs sit in a W shape right now, (not good!)
2) Home brew roof rack, lights, front bumper w/ winch, and rear gas tank skid plate
3) minor interior and electrical fixes and improvements
4) Compressor/tank (maybe hard mounted, maybe not)
5) Misc hitch accessories
6) maybe air lockers front/rear in the future
7) any other projects/improvements I get ideas for from this forum

I'm trying to fab and make most of the stuff myself (outside of the basic lift) so the project may take a while but that's ok with me.

I'll post pics as I get it going, currently working on framing out the roof rack while I'm waiting for my wheels from Rusty's, going to have a local friend/dealership put the shocks/springs on since they can do the alignment on the spot/same day (besides the weather in Chicago is crappy for driveway work now).

I'm actually excited about this jeep again...

540demon

i going to be buying my first xj tomorrow.i look forward to seeing how yours turns out. im shooting for the cheapest xj build in history! mines gonna be the most hillbilly setup to ever show up on this site...but it'll be alot o fun!
good luck!

pbarsamian

Thanks man, will follow your build thread too (when you start it).

Hoping to have the lift kit on this week, already started framing up the roof rack, pics to follow soon...

pbarsamian

Here's a quick pic of the original, shot in the garage cuz it's too darn cold to pull it outside and stand there to shoot it.

2001XJDAVEJ

No doubt about it. that is one good looking XJ. Have fun, its addicting

pbarsamian

I should also note, that while I have a fairly equiped small machine shop in my garage, I'm not a gear head or experienced in auto customization of any kind. In fact, this project is the third which includes welding that I've taken on (and by far the most complex). I'm teaching myself to weld the hard way (using a stick welder and videos on youtube). Just to illustrate how "every guy" most of my tools for this particular project are:

1) AC/DC arc welder from Harbor freight along with gloves helmet, slag hammer, and a bunch of magnets (can be purchased in total for <$215 with a coupon freely available in magazines and newspapers unless you live in Cook County IL where sales tax is now over 10%; Thanks Todd Stroger you )
2) A Ryobi mitre saw (about $189 if I remember correctly, it's about 15 yrs old), equipped with $10 worth of abrasive cutoff disks (pack of 5 so I have spares)
3) A 6" electric angle grinder (another harbor freight special, print a couple copies of the coupon) about $30 for the nicer one
4) A std hardware store brand 22gal compressor (<$200)
5) a cheap chinese made air die grinder and steel brush set (<$30)
6) Misc hardware store grade ratchet and driver sets
7) Some random moveable/portable work stand type tables
8) Big bottle of Tylenol

(I'll list the others as I dig them out/use them)

pbarsamian

Some pics of my progress on the roof rack. Obviously I based this design on some other really nice ones done here, but I've taken some creative liberties on it. More to come...

pbarsamian

Thanks Dave, while lots of stuff has stopped working on it (window switches, airconditioning, AC/Heat fan controls, blinkers, and I could go on), it's actually in fair shape so I just couldn't bring myself to ditch it in lieu of starting a project like this. There are a few rust spots popping up that I'll have to address, and I've no idea what I'm going to find under the factory roof rails.

pbarsamian

Quick pic of using the the "central machinery" 36" metal brake (<$200 at HF) on some 1/8" steel to make the bent rain gutter legs for the roof rack. I'm using a cheap digital angle gauge ($27.99 also at HF) to reference the first leg and then zero to make bending the rest of them easy and accurate...

pbarsamian

My "help" finished the lift kit installation this week. Truck handles fine (though it's still settling a bit). Definitely looks a lot meaner now, I should change the name to project "black ops".








Every single bolt (literally) during the removal of the old springs and shocks snapped. They all had to be replaced. The Rusty's kit went in perfectly and the steering stabilizer upgrade definitely helps the handling. So far I'm pretty happy with it....

Gary Briggs

jeep looks sweet, how well is the harbor freight brake holding up?

pbarsamian

HF brake works just fine. I bent 1/8" steel at 2" wide upto 90 degrees with little to no effort. The paint chips away on it a bit but nothing major.

It's a heavy son of a gun tho. I need to put wheels on it to move around the shop....

pbarsamian

Sorry about the crumby pics, was late and low light + phone camera don't = good pics. Here's a couple of quick ones, my bro in law was able to help me heave the unfinished rack up to test fit it to the jeep...

90XJkid

I like your approach to building your Jeep.

pbarsamian

Still working on the roof rack, wanted to make a bunch of uniform hoops to weld to the rack for tie down points. Instead of using chain links and bending them together, I had a long 3/16 steel rod laying around, so I made spool out of some scrap aluminum and used my lathe chuck to make a bunch of relatively uniform half hoops.






It went relatively quickly, I used the chuck key to turn the chuck 180 degrees to get the bend and then just lopped off the hoop using the metal cutting band saw.

I'll post pics this weekend, I've gotten the expanded metal welded down (that was painful) and the hoops on. Now I need to grind and clean up, drill holes, and then paint it.