hi guys, thought i'd start a build thread to document my progress with this jeep. so here's a little back story. i was deployed november of last year and while i was gone i bought this green zj from my fiance's friend and also a black 98 two door 5 speed xj. plan was to drive the zj over the winter and sell it in the spring and build the xj all winter. got home in june, discovered the xj wasn't in the condition i wanted it to be in if i was going to keep it forever, which i planned to if i put a bunch of work and money into it. so, it's for sale.
also, when i got home, i discovered my dad hadn't remembered to get the title for the zj, so that was a huge process to get it. previous owner is now in mississippi, i'm in ny, and he lost the title, had to apply for another one, was real busy, anyway, i finally got it, 2 months after i got home. it's been sitting at my cabin being used to romp around in the field all summer.

so, jeeps as of now.
-98 xj for sale.
-99 xj waiting for a big build- picked this up for cheap with high miles, ax-15 and little to no rust. it will get it's own, far more interesting build once i get more progress.
-and 96 zj.




zj is finally registered. i've done some work on it in the past week, here are some pics, no more typing for me

getting ready for spacer lift


this x4


half done. got stuck for a bit because i couldn't get the coil springs compressed enough, so i disconnected the lower control arm. worked fine then


trying to get the track bar bolted back up... this seemed like a good idea but it really wasn't because it moved the whole jeep instead of the axle. ended up using a come-along from frame to axle and that worked fine. but i thought my initial idea looked funny so i took a pic


off to get new to me 31" tires mounted i picked up for cheap


tires are mismatched, couple bfg all terrains and couple good year wrangler authoritys.


i have two new authorities to swap in, the used ones were basically brand new so i figured i might as well get all 4 the same. i'll post a pic once i get them mounted and bumpers trimmed.
plans are headliner and all maintenance i can think of. seafoamed it the other day, changed the oil, new wipers, other than that not much.

i'll post more soon.

oh and cool thing is i still have less than $1000 invested in this.

 

new valve cover gasket mostly installed except i broke the PCV elbow thing on the valve cover so i'll be picking up that today after classes and a battery disconnect as i have a drain somewhere and the switch that is on it is going bad after 5 or more years being on there. updates once i get those fixed

 

suppose i should update this, well, this build is over as i rolled it a couple weeks back. i took what i wanted off it and sold it the next morning.
going to start a real thread on my 99 chili pepper red soon that will get much more done to it.