So I've been on this forum religiously for the past couple months. I have learned soooooooo much about my Jeep so think that it is about time that I post up my build thread.. Hope to get some feed back. I had an 89 Cherokee about 10 years ago. It was bone stock but i loved that thing. I eventually got married and bought a house, and the BOSS (wife) made me sell it . In July of 2010 I got a call from my cousin who's a car sales manager and told me that he had a 1999 cherokee in cherry condition with 115,000 miles. He said give $3K and its yours!! I drove over to see it and about 1 hour later it was sitting in my driveway.

its a 1999 Cherokee 4.0L I6 and I'm sure everyone on here knows the rest of the specs.

 

It is and I6 Inline not V.

Lets see where this build goes. A nice clean Cherokee to start with.

 

ooops! thats what I meant!!

 

Whats XJ in your av?

 

Thats how it looks now....will get to that later.

 

I just recently started working on it and this is what I"ve done to it so far. First the lift had to go in. I know that I wanted to lift it but this will also be my DD so I didn't want to go to extreme. At the same time I wanted something that can handle rough terrain. After many hours of research I finally had a picture in my head of how I wanted it to look like. I ordered the Zone Offroad 3" lift with AAL.

I also ordered a 1 1/4" spacers off of ebay. And about a week later the UPS guy shows up at my door.
I immediately began to work on it. I didn't take pics of the install cuz frankly I had no time to stand back and take pictures. The front went in smoothly without a problem. But the rear was a hole different story. I noticed that the U bolts that they sent were way to small
So I called them and they said that the had sent me wrangler U bolts by mistake and that it would take another 4 days for me to get them...NOT GONNA HAPPEN!! this is my DD and it has to be done TODAY.
I took my wifes truck to M.I.T Drivetrain and the hooked me up with the correct hardware.
and this was the end result.

Before


After



big difference!!! good thing I installed that spacer. It ended up leveling put the Cherokee.

 

Looking great, awesome find and price.........

 

After I installed the lift I ordered my CB radio and a Firestic antenna. The CB I got off of ebay for $40 its a Uniden 40 channel its used but it looks new (I'll post pics later) the antenna I decided that I would mount it in the lift gate. it looks good I think.

sorry for the crappy pic!!

 

Thanks. As soon as I pulled up to the lot I knew I had to get it.

 

Keep in mind that I just started the actual build about 1 month ago. But since I got my Jeep, three of my co-workers liked it so much that they each went out and bought one and I have 3 relatives that already own XJ's. Can anyone say "Jeep Club"

 

A couple days ago my brother in-law got on craigslist and found an 89 XJ with 135,xxx original miles, but the tranny needed to be replaced. He was able to buy it off the guy for a wopping $500.00.

We towed the Jeep home and the next day we dropped the tranny and replaced it with a $275 one that we found on craigslist. Runs like NEW.

 

Nice build. Good work on it and the '89.

 

Ok so I've been driving around with the lift for about a week and running on stock wheels. So today I decided that I would go out and get some new tires and rims. 4 tire shops later this is what I came home with.


ok so I believe that everything is NEGOTIABLE so I got the owner of the tire shop to sell me the tires at COST. (HIS COST) So I payed $360 for all 4 tires!!!
and while I was deciding on which tire to get another customer that was waiting to get his tires told me that he had some Eagle alloy series 1500 black wheels at his house that he can sell me if I was interested. He showed me a picture of the wheels and I asked how much??? he said $120. and after about 10 min of negotiating I got them for $80. And they are practically brand new. So in total I spent $440 on NEW tires and USED wheels. NOT BAD!!! very productive day
BTW tire size is 31x10.5x15
what o you guys think.
Also me and my buddies are starting an Off road Club here in sunny San Diego. I have filed all the necessary paper work and it is well on its way. We are trying to be a lil different than other clubs here in San Diego, but we have big plans for the future. The first meeting will be next month. We plan on doing a lot of positive events and activities outside of trail rides. Lots of different types of charities are in the works as well as beach and Recreational Park clean ups. We plan on doing at least 1 off roading run a month. We are also planning of going to schools and helping with fund raisers. If there is anybody around in San Diego that is interested in joining, just PM me with your email I will send you an application along with the REQUIRED safety and recovery list of items that is required for each member to have on their rig (CB radio, tow straps, fire extinguisher, etc). I am the club President so ask any questions that you may have. The name of the club is "SOUTH EAST CRAWLERS"

 

So I got a couple PM's about my thread name "GONE POSTAL"... well the reason I named it that is because a side from owning my Printing business. I work for the United States Postal Service as a Letter Carrier. And since I know that there is going to be a lot of more work that is going be put into my rig, I figured that the name "GONE POSTAL" was appropriate!!

BTW If anyone needs any type of custom made decals for their XJ than PM me and I would be happy to see what I can do.
I'll post up pics of the ones that I have on my Jeep tomorrow. But I can do just about any decal that you have in mind.

 

Looks great! how is that aal holding up?