blinkbears

That's a good looking ride ya got there, man. And apparently a fat wallet, too lol.

Good luck with the rest of your work. Can't wait to see the lift.

chadh92

Eh, I wouldn't say a fat wallet necessarily Since I bought the car, i've been working the same crappy fast food job. I'm pretty frugal compared to most kids my age. Rather than going and spend $5 on fast food, i'd rather make sandwiches or cook a pizza at home. I'd much rather save up in order to buy goods rather than foods. So over the 3 years i've had my XJ, I've managed to bank around $3,300. I just got guaranteed a job at a country club for next summer making $12/hour, 40 hours a week, so I figure it's time to finally go through with the things i've been wanting to do. I'm going to make the money back next year, plus a ton, so I may as well spend money on something i'll enjoy.

The only thing that could really screw me over is if I end up totaling my XJ and it's my fault. The only way I can see that happening though is from a deer. Deer scare the crap out of me, but other than that i'm an extremely defensive and aware driver. But since I only pay liability insurance rather than collision, my insurance only covers the other drivers' car if it's my fault. Maybe now that i'm putting this work into it, i'll upgrade my plan.

MSJeeps911

Right on man. keep saving. One day we will have what we want.

blinkbears

That's awesome, man. You're way more disciplined than I was at that age. Once I got my paycheck from MCD's that thing was GONE lol. Definitely enjoy it now before life gets ya by the ***** and the bills start comin in. I highly recommend carrying liability and comprehensive at the bare minimum. Around here in the sticks of Wi there are about 179 deer for every vehicle it seems and I've managed to smack a couple of them in my rides over the years. Comprehensive covered my deer damage. It's not that much more expensive.

chadh92

Then that's what i'll probably check into. I live in NC so there are definitely some backroads where deer like to hang out along the trees that line the road.

MSJeeps911

Make a good steel bumper. Wont be anything left of deere when you hit it..

chadh92

Bumpers are on my list eventually Sadly, I have no fabbing experience. It looks like i'll be buying them when I get to that point.

MSJeeps911

Look on my bt later. I fabbed up a skidplate outta card board. Im making a belly for mine. Next will be front bumper.

96_xj

great looking build. the reason you can see the scratches is because when you hand sand you put un even pressure on the surface the rougher grit will gouge the surface up like what happened. the best way to do it is pick up a cheap orbital or a long block (hand block) for sanding.




it is great that you and your dad did it tho!

if you do repaint, BASF Limco paint was about $130 for everything and it is lasting great and a very nice product, it is the bottom end for BASF paints but it is still miles above the duplicolor

chadh92

Yeah, we had one electric sander, and took turns while the other person handsanded, that's definitely where we went wrong though. We should have still wrapped the sandpaper around a block for a flat edge. Could you link me to the exact paint you're talking about? I figure for the next coat we'd use about 4-5 quarts of black and then 3 quarts of clear. It would be around $150 for the crap from AutoZone, so if I can get better quality stuff for even cheaper, that'd be great!

And yeah, i'm really glad me and my dad took this project on together. My parents got divorced when I was young so other than grabbing lunch, and seeing him a few days each month, we never really spent an excessive amount of time together. It was nice to find something like this that we could both do. I learned a ton, and he was basically reliving his late teens. Definitely glad we spent the time together.

96_xj

start here in my build

https://www.cherokeeforum.com/f46/pr...-49694/index6/

i only used 2 quarts and painted my entire jeep with 3 good coats





almost got the gun dialed in here

chadh92

Love the finish, is that still without a clear coat?

Did you use a conventional sprayer or an HVLP gun? We had an HVLP and didn't realize that the Duplicolor crap was for a conventional sprayer until we were shaking up the paint...doh!

96_xj

lplv gun (same style gun you have just one meant for auto paints), and it is a 1 stage paint meaning it has clear in it

chadh92

Sweet, i'll definitely plan on scooping that up then. Just the stage one paint and then i'm guessing the additive has hardener, reducer, etc in it?

Also, Kappa Sig? aw man

96_xj

yeah there is a reducer and a hardener then I had a catalyst to slow the dry time due to the AZ heat.

and yes sir! fall 2008