WantACherokee

Well I've had this Jeep since May so I figured it's high time I make a build thread. Hope it's not too wordy but I don't have a lot of pictures from when I first got it. Let me know if the pics load OK for you guys, they look pretty big on my computer.

I never got around to making a thread for my last Cherokee so I'll just pay it a little tribute to it here, although it caused me some headaches it still got me hooked on XJ's. It was an '87 Pioneer 4 door 4x4 with a 4.0L, AW4, 231, a D44 and 230k on the clock. I bought it for $550 and probably put another $500 into it making it roadworthy (windshield was smashed, brakes were completely gone all around, exhaust as rotted out, etc).



It would have made a great wheeling rig, if I could have two XJ's I would have kept it. But I wanted something a little nicer for a daily driver... it just didn't make sense to try and make it nice so I decided to look for a more suitable starting point.

I saved up about $2k for a new XJ, which seems to be the starting point for anything decent in my area. After a few weeks of searching Craigslist I found this '91 Laredo listed for $1300. I was actually almost out the door to look at a different XJ when I decided to obsessively check CL one last time. I guess it was meant to be because I saw that this ad has just been posted maybe 20 minutes before. It looked like exactly what I had been looking for, a clean '91+ Laredo with low miles (only 145k!). The red and silver is one of my favorite XJ paint schemes, and the price seemed almost too good to be true. I knew I had to see it in person so I called the seller and asked if I could see it right away.



I drove straight over and was thrilled to see it was pretty much as described, showing it's age a little bit, but definitely in presentable shape and it drove like a dream. It had so much more power and ran so much smoother than my '87. It even had a leather interior and a NP242 which I knew would be a nice feature for winter driving on slippery roads.

I pulled out my laptop right there in the shopping center parking lot and ran a quick carfax using McDonald's wifi (lol), luckily everything checked out. The seller told me after I had called him he realized the price was probably too low and had changed the ad to say $1500, but he would honor the $1300 price I had seen it at. I knew even at $1500 it wouldn't last so I didn't even try to haggle and just bought it on the spot. I was excited to have a good chunk of my budget left to spend fixing it up. A few weeks later I quickly sold my '87 for $1300, so I'd say it worked out pretty well.

WantACherokee

The interior was pretty dirty, so I went to work with a bucket of hot water and some simple green, scrubbing down all the interior plastic and door panels. The previous owner was a smoker and also apparently had some kind of large white dog, so after several vaccumings and repeatedly spraying the carpet with Meguiar's odor eliminator until the bottle was gone, I finally had a dog hair free, fresh smelling XJ.

The first thing I really did was address the front brakes as they were squeaking pretty bad as if they were worn. Not surprisingly the pads were gone, and the rotors looked iffy, so I got new pads and Napa Ultra Premium rotors (probably a waste of money looking back- next time I'd just go for the cheap ones). When I went to put everything back together I realized one of the calipers was seized, so I grabbed a set of rebuilt calipers. If I can find the cable for my digital camera I think I have pics on there.

After driving around for a couple weeks I noticed the temp creeping over 210* while stopped at lights. The previous owner said he had installed a junkyard fan clutch, but it didn't seem to be keeping up with the engine like it should. I also had a chirping noise from the engine that sounded like it was coming from the water pump, so I grabbed a new fan clutch and WP from Napa along with new hoses and t-stat.



I noticed a member of a local forum (PNWJeep) was parting out his heavily built XJ, so I scored a nice CSF 3-row radiator for $75. Although the old one was probably OK, with lots of summer trips planned the last thing I wanted to deal with was cooling issues, so I figured why not just replace that too and know it's good. I had to straighten a few fins but it was otherwise gently used. Here it is vs. the grungy old stocker:



When I drained the old 'coolant' it was little more than slightly rust colored water. I assume the P.O. figured he could keep it running cool by running straight water... not the best long term solution. After installing all the new parts and the proper 50/50 coolant mix it runs nice and stable at 210*.

WantACherokee

My girlfriend had bought me some nice speakers for Christmas that I never bothered installing in my old XJ, knowing I'd be selling it, so I installed them in the front doors. They are Infinity Reference 6.5". Oddly, the Jeep had came with a set of these exact speakers in 5.25", so I moved those to the rear hatch location. They sound great.



I love scouring Craigslist for deals on parts and had started looking for wheels and tires, knowing I wanted to lift it and run 31's. After seeing a ton of overpriced stuff come and go I hit the jackpot and found a set of BFG All Terrains with about 70% tread on some pretty decent wheels for $300.



Rolled them up to the Jeep just to see how they'd look... uhh yeah, definitely gonna need that lift!

WantACherokee

I'd had problems with my vent windows leaking water and making a lot of noise at highway speeds, not to mention one wouldn't stay open and the other wouldn't open at all... then my neighbor hit one with a rock while mowing his lawn and broke it (as you can see in the pic above). I decided though cool, the vent windows were kind of a PITA, so I grabbed some non-opening ones from the junkyard. Nice and quiet now and no leaks.

WantACherokee

When I bought the Jeep it had an old door mat for rear carpet, fine with me as I wanted to Herculine the rear floor anyway. Unfortunately it had some rust underneath so I needed to address that first. Most of it was just surface rust, but there were a few small areas that looked a lot worse.



I'd always wanted to try POR-15 to see if it lived up to the hype and decided this would be the perfect test. In short, this stuff is every bit as good as you've heard. I will probably do a writeup on how to use it as it's very important you follow the directions, but it turned out great. I used both of the prep products they sell with it. A little pricey, but a lot cheaper than a new floor. It really does cure rock hard and I feel it helped to reinforce the areas where the sheet metal was starting to get thin. I did two coats as recommended.

Here's the floor after wire brushing, cleaning with Metal Ready, and treating with Prep and Ready. At this point all of the loose rust is gone and we're ready for the POR 15 to go on:



Finally here's the floor after application of POR 15:

LeRoy90laredo

where'd you find the sealed wing windows?
were they on another cherokee?
ive been going back and forth on just doing a door swap off a 96+ but havent found any in good shape.
looks really nice though, good find!