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2000 XJ - Previously a county transport vehicle for Augusta Co. VA. Bought it stock 2 years ago, with 4 brand new Goodyear Wrangler 235/75-15 tires and 120K miles. Drove it as a semi-daily ride, hit a few trails, and took it on several family camping trips. I'm extremely impressed with the stock capabilities of it.
Bought for it, but not installed yet, will do VERY soon:
Cobra mini CB
Firestick antennae
2 Hella fog lights (forget the model #)
5 15x8 Cragar soft 8 rims (used)
3" Rough Country stage II lift.
4 BFG Mud Terrain KM2 31x10.50-15
Will update pics or start a build thread when stuff starts to come together.
Thank God for outstanding friends, HUGE garages with heat and a lift, and ALL the right tools for the job. Glad those friends are also dumb enough to stick around and help me work.
Paul and I went to the shop where he now puts in his 40hrs and used their tire mounting machine. SO nice to have machines to help. So we mounted the tires, had a hard time inflating them to get the bead to seat, but we finally broke out the "CHEETAH" and that damn thing works like a charm. Blew them up real quick. I used 6oz Dyna Beads easy open bags in each tire to avoid having to balance them every time we hit the trail and knock a weight off the rim.
The "Cheetah" and how it works. Pretty cool new toy.
So we put the Heep on the lift, tore into the front. Had the front lift done in about no time. Paul was fighting this nasty chest cold that's going around, so he headed home to rest. I worked on the rear for a bit until my other friend Anthony shows up and helps me knock that out quick too. I've been hearing a dragging noise from my right rear drum for about the last 100 miles and never had time to check it. Turns out the self adjuster spring and clip inside the drum were broken off and just laying in the bottom of the drum. So we're doing front pads, rear shoes, rear wheel cylinders, and rear hardware kit. Upper rear shock bolts broke off, they did the same on Anthony's 93 XJ. We have to finish those up, mount the front sway bar back up, finish the rear brakes, and fix the lug nut issue (old lugs are too short now with new rims/long studs) got some mix/match nuts from the parts house.
Oh yeah, and I found a stray on the side of the road the other day. Brought her home with me. Named her "Soul Hammer, the boyfriend greeter". ;}~
Lift is done! Not the best pic I could have gotten, but it's the only one I've taken time to snap. I'll get some more soon. Hopefully start on my bumper fab, CB install, and fog lights (after bumbers) very soon.
The Dyna Beads balancing works GREAT by the way. ;}~
Had to trim a hair off the bottom corners of the stock front bumper because of tire rub and it wouldn't pass the VA state inspection. Couple minutes with a cut off wheel, a WHOLE LOT of melted plastic pellets covering me head to toe, and no more rub now. Finally inspected and road worthy.
uhh that was probably used in a murder...............
other than that good looking jeep
HA! It will be for the first little sissy pants wearing fruit cake that comes looking for either of my daughters.
This is them a couple years ago when we took our first wheeling trip. As we were leaning almost enough to roll onto the XJ's side in the swamp hole, my youngest daughter looks out the window and says "Uhhh, daddy... I didn't bring my bathing suit!"
So not long after my last post in this thread, my XJ started to slowly become less of a family adventure vehicle and more of a family station wagon. My wife works .5 miles from home, so she started driving it and quickly fell in love with it.
Fast forward a few years and it was still performing daily driver duty flawlessly. We were up to 180,000 on the clock. BFG Mud Terrains were holding up to the newly found pavement abuse quite well. Still took her on an ocassional off road adventure and she still saw lots of snow duty.
Then on 12/30/15 an 18 year old driving his mother's 2008 Toyota Corolla decided our 25 mph residential street looked like a great place to make a late night Fast & Furious test run. His skills proved to be less than capable and he lost control hitting my XJ head on.
Police report says he was doing 25 in a 25, no way. Police didn't tag him for hit and run, even though he immediately fled the scene. He made it to his friends house on the hill at the top of our street. He tried to deny it to the officers at first, but eventually admitted hitting our Jeep, claiming he fell asleep at the wheel since it was so late.
Anyway, his insurance company ended up paying for my damage. The XJ was totalled out, but I bought it back from the insurance company. We got just enough money to go find another bone stock 2000 XJ Sport for my wife to now have her very own family station wagon.
The plan is to hopefully salvage my XJ and finish converting it into the family adventure vehicle I had originally planned on having. The driver front wheel now sits approximately 2" rearward from stock location, but it appears it's just tweaked suspension and steering parts. Body damage is all a fairly straightforward repair.
So I'll be updating my "build thread" as time permits, and I'll start another thread for her XJ which we nicknamed "PA3OTIC"
25 mph my ****! You can see the black tire marks against the curb where it was previously sitting. He knocked it about 5 feet back and up over the curb into our yard.
The replacement. 2000 Patriot Blue Sport for my wife.
Family Rig (2000 XJ in VA)
