Mase's Steel blue XJ
 

Hello y'all, I made my introduction a few days back, but I thought I'd go ahead and start a build thread.

So I bought my 01 Cherokee last month from Crown dodge of Fayetteville for just under $2500. The perks of being a technician at a dealership 😎... It was a trade in. This is my second XJ and my first 4wd. It is not a daily driver, but more of a weekend warrior/ hunting/ camping rig.

The jeep has the ole 4.0 with 173k miles. The PO put a AEM Cold air intake and a red top optimum on her, and that's about it for engine/ under the hood mods. As of right now I am chasing down a couple major oil leaks, but I believe I am going to go ahead and replaced all the gaskets soon. Future engine modification/ electrical include a higher output alternator, dual batteries, the bbk 62mm throttle body, a auxiliary electrical system for when I start adding lights. And probably redoing the whole exhaust. I also plan on finding a new aluminum radiator and putting the no water coolant in it. My plan is to change all the fluids to royal purple full synthetic.

The drive train is composed of the aw4 tranny, I want to say a NP231 transfer case, a Dana 30 front and 8.25 rear, with the factory 3.55 gears. As of right now the jeep is lifted and has bilstein 5100 series shocks on all 4 corners. She is riding on 31x10.50 BFGs.

The body is in kinda great shape and covered in the Steel blue pearl. I am working on installing the smittybilt XRC rear bumper and swing out tire Carrier, and have already installed the smittybilt XRC mod front bumper with a quadratech 9500i stealth series winch.

My future plans for the jeep are;
4.5 to 6.5" lift
33" tires ( coopers preferably)
SYE and Tom woods drive shafts
Synergy or alloy USA ball joints
ZJ steering conversion, with moog components
4.56 gears with lockers front and rear
Smittybilt XRC Rock sliders
JCR upper quarter panel guards
Roof rack
Cobra CB radio
A whole array of LED lighting

As soon as I can figure out how to post more pictures I will, but my next few post will be about the bumper installs. I am always looking for input on products and reviews, and I am here to soak up all I can. Look forward to hearing from everyone and happy trails

Mase

So pulled the jeep outta the garage after the tune up and noticed oil on the ground, went ahead and ordered a fel-pro master gasket set off amazon for $100. Also ordering a new lower quarter panel replacement as my jeep has some pretty bad rust

Nice XJ to start with.
 

Sweet, Like the front bumper. I just got through welding up the whole quarter panel on the passenger side and the same lower quarter panel behind the wheel on the driver side on my XJ trailer project. I feel pretty good with the results as these were quarters that were cut off other XJ's.

I generally use my XJ as a hobby as a weekend wheeler and back-up vehicle to my Biz. Lots of work to be done on my rig and my camper this winter.

Subscribing to your thread as I like following new builds.

Thanks man,

I am pretty good at stick welding, but not strong with mig and Tig, luckily a few of my co workers love welding so they are gonna hook me up for the cost of lunch haha.

I bought the jeep because my DD is a 07 ram 1500, and I just spent 2 months and too much money fixing the transmission ha, so I like having a back up vehicle, but I have driven my jeep more then my truck

This weekend I plan on adding a leveling kit and talking the oil pan

Well got some goodies for ole blue today, new gel-pro gaskets and some full synthetic 10w-30 royal purple. I am kinda brand loyal when it comes to fluids because I've had a great experience with royal purple. I also ordered a new steering stabilizer and my quarter panel

Took the jeep out last night around some local trails, she was awesome and I couldn't be happier

Painted the hood on the jeep flat black, I now it looks crappy as hell, and no where near the finished product wd, but I wanted to see how it would look

I don't know about you, but I think from the picture it look fine. I personally don't need show room quality on my build because I really don't want to worry about every scratch I get on the trails. Maybe if it was a daily driver I would care more. Just Me.

Well just pulled the trigger on these KC led fog lights for the bull bar, 4" round, can't wait to get them installed

Installed the new steering stabilizer tonight, so much smoother turning and way better control

So it's been a couple weeks since I've updated my thread, but the jeep is coming along nicely, I have installed my Smittybilt XRC rear bumper, my KC fog lights, and spent the whole day cleaning lol. Tomorrow I plan on taking the jeep to work so that I can install my leveling kit and replace the ball joints and drag link. The white XJ in the photos was my first jeep, and the white ram is my current daily driver

What's up everyone, haven't been on here in a while, and well it's because I haven't done much work to the XJ. That's about to change, I'm going to try to post on here more often. I hope the photos attached but here are some current shots of the jeep as she sits now. I actually have started to acquire parts for her and as of right now here are the current plans;
4.5" rubicon express short arm lift kit with full springs
285/70r17 good year wrangler duratracs that I picked up for free at work, tires have about 10,000 miles on them
A set of 17" ZJ rims for right now
Advance adapters SYE kit
Probably going to look into a tom woods drive shaft.
Re gear the jeep, probably gonna run 4.10s since I plan on really only running a 33" tire in the future.
Detroit locker in the rear
Detroit true track in the front

I also have acquired a 1998 4.0 engine that I plan on building into a stroker, but that's all down the road

Looks good! I just recently install the same lift on mine, I've been happy with it so far.