KeepinJeepin

Here is the build to my jeep cherokee. My father bought the jeep in 1995 with 10k on it. Little did he know that after passing the jeep down to his third child, when I got my license that it was about to go through a lot of changes. I daily drove the jeep for a few years in high school. I got a truck and started to DD that. While the jeep sat in the driveway for a while I stared to do some research, and before long I had the jeep in the garage getting it back to good running condition. First thing I did was replaced the u joints in the front axle, getting rid of the terrible noise the u joints made in 4x4. Soon after I pulled the flimsy front bumper off and started building a custom bumper.


here is the last picture taken in its stock form




for the bumper I went with 6 x 3 1/8 inch rectangular tubing. I wanted to keep the weight down up front by using 1/8". i added in some gussets to add some strength to it.

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got the steel all cut up and tacked in place. the new bumper design gave a lot more ground clearance over the stock bumper.








Burning in the bumper. This was my first welding/ fabrication project. As you will see I was hooked and didn't stop at just a bumper.








All welded up. I used 1/4" for the brackets and reinforcements.




I made a front stinger bar for the front bumper.




picked up this 9000 lb badlands winch from a friend. made the winch mount out of 5/16. and added three 1/4 inch gussets to the bottom for more strength.




Made some shackle brackets out of 3/4" steel. cut through the back of the bumper so I could weld it to the bumper brackets.




all done welding. you can see the three gussets for the winch mount. and cut holes in for winch bolts.




cut the front fenders up for clearance for the bumper and end caps. now it just needs some paint!




Bought the rough country 4.5 inch aal kit. The stock parts were well rusted on and took many hours of blood, sweat and tears to get to get them out and in with the new. the kit went in with ease and was definitely the more enjoyable part of the lift process.




That will explain all the noises coming from the rear passenger side all these years. I had to call up my friends at Rough Country and ordered a new set of 4.5 inch lift leaf springs, along with their forged track bar.














finishing up the last part of the lift. For longer brake lines i used front brake lines from a chevy truck and dodge dakota for the rear.





I decided to use some bed liner for the bumper. It gave it a great textured look and is ready to find some rocks and trees to rub up against.







Got the bumper installed and lift all finished. punctured a tire on a test ride and had to put the tiny spare on. ride quality wasn't too bad. once the lift settled in it wasn't too much rougher than stock ride. the new track bar got rid of the death wobble i'd get around 50mph. Also cleaned and put a fresh coat of paint on the axles.







pulled the rear bumper and did a tuck and fold on the rear quarters.




lots more clearance







pulled the carpet and cut out all the rusted floor sections.




passenger side.




lots of cutting!





got some 3 x 2 3/16 L iron and cut them up for some frame strengtheners. (rear section)





welded them on the inside in the rear because I welded the gas tank relocation frame to it and gave the new rear bumper brackets to have to solid support.





cut out the old section where the gas tank filler neck goes through the frame rail and welded in some new metal and welded a tube connecting each side of the unibody frame.





made the frame for the gas tank relocation.





welded up the sides with some 16 ga. sheet metal.





mid section unibody frame strengtheners.








cut out the old rockers and made way for the new 2 x 6 3/16 steel rockers. this gave tons of ground clearance. plus it keeps my doors from getting crushed in.




cut the doors to clear the new rockers and did a door pin mod for removable doors.







made the new floor sections out of 16 ga. steel.





passenger side





half the floor section will be made up of boat sides. that will allow it to slide off of rocks and less chance of getting caught up on them. soon to be installed.




working on the rear bumper. its made out of 3 x 5 3/16 rec.







cut the sides and beveled the new bottom section for welding.




welded in the new trailer hitch receiver.













rear shot with doors cut and reinstalled.





cut the front fender and did a cut and fold on the rear fenders. next up is to fab up the new fender flairs and boat sides. make some control are drop brackets and bump the lift up to 6 inches of lift and possibly an axle swap. let me know what tires you think would be the best size and wheels.