Hello!
My name is Rich. Thank you for checking out my SAR XJ build. I'll start at the beginning. I am a painting contractor in Olympia, Washington. I have always loved the outdoors, Hunting, Fishing you name it. My hunting partner had an 88 xj and I loved hitting the trail come hunting season because I knew that meant Wheeling to and from where ever we hunted. So I was hooked! My hunting partner told me he knew of a new Search And Rescue unit starting up and the first meeting was tonight. He asked me if I would be interested in joining. We went to the meeting and I was a new member of South Puget Sound Mobile Search And Rescue.
I thought SAR would be a great way to give back to our community and at the same time, enjoy the outdoors, my jeep and be able to help someone who may be in trouble. Putting my XJ to use for a great cause.

I bought a 95 Cherokee SE bone stock as my search and rescue/ hunting rig in 2004.



I then lifted it in 05. We installed a Rough Country 4.5" lift with full leaf packs.







And now here it sits looking really funny . and this little girl did all the work.




This is my hunting partner and great friend Jason and his daughter (our little helper)!
So now its off to Discount Tires to get some wheels and tires. I went with 32x11.5 BFG A/T and MB Motoring wheels.

Then some DIAMOND PLATE!



Please keep in mind I dont have a bender or any fancy fabrication tools. Just my two hands and the wet noodle between my ears. Lol
This project took me two days the first day was to cut the templates, setup my cutting area and to get a feel for how it will go. The second day I did the rest. Ok here we go! I bought 4 1/8"x 24x48 plate's on EBay here's a link. http://cgi.ebay.com/Aluminum-Diamond...item19b6b43e2f
I used most of three of them on the rockers and used what was left and the 4Th one to do my and my son's front bumpers and my rear license plate area.
CUTTING: Where safety goggles when cutting.
You will want to do all your marks and cuts from the back. Just remember that your looking at the back of it and the shapes will be backwards when looking at it from the back. I marked my cut lines on the back of the plate with a Sharpie and used a sheet of plywood as my cutting area. Use a factory cut edge of another piece of ply as a straight edge to run your grinder against. Use wood screws to clampdown your diamond plate. Use a hand file to round the cut edges.
BENDING: I would recommend using a sheet metal bender if you have access to one. I did not have access to one so this is what I did.
Mark your bends after you have cut and filed the edges on the piece. This will keep you from accidentally cutting on a bend line, and so you don’t get cut while bending.
Score along the bend line with steady speed with the grinder, be careful not to cut to deep. I have a heavy wooden bench that I used to secure the plate to. The same way I secured the plate to the plywood to cut it. Clamp the straight edge to the bench loosely and slide your plate under and line up your bend line with the outer edge of the straight edge with the other part you want to bend hanging over the edge of the bench. Now clamp it down tight. Lay a 2x4 on the part, bend it down over the edge the bench and then take out and dry fit. Then repeat as needed.

FASTENING THE DIAMOND PLATE:
I used pan head Philips screws to fasten my new diamond plate to my XJ. I also used a thin sheet of toolbox tray liner as a gasket to keep the moisture out. You can pick them up at Fred Meyers for a buck a piece.
Just lay the liner on the back and if it’s the same liner that I bought it should stick to the new diamond plate like glue. If not you may want to get some spray on glue to secure it. Once you have it secured, then just trim with a razor blade.
Pre drill the holes and screw into place.

 

Keep it coming Richard. I like my cousins sticker the best so far. TNKFK

 

Nice rig. Wanna see how it comes out.

 

Teds your cousin?

 

Thanks Dan

 

Keep it coming. I love SaR rigs always another way to get better ideas for my own rig.

 

Nice lookin rig....I love the diamond plate fab work, good job.

You could make some $$$ selling those diamond plate sets to lazy people like me, ha, ha.

 

Lol, i'll do my best to keep it coming. Thanks for stopping by!

 

Thank you lol I just might do that. You will be the first one I contact with them lol

 

My first real wheeling trip with my wheelin buddys after I lifted it, and I went right home and made a music video.http://www.streetfire.net/video/rock-roll-jeep-cherokee-music-video-mudplay_49356.htm

 

Nice vid, where is that? A logging place or something?

 

lookin sweet so far

 

Dang, we never had cool technology like that when I was a kid.

After wheeling we would call our friend's on the phone, no cell phones, and play space invaders on the Atari set.
The idea of making a music video to a wheeling video???? now that dude would definitely have all the chicks in my day.

 

yup. 3rd cousin
great video! I think I saw Bigfoot in the background!

 

Thanks! Yeah local woods, but that was a long time ago.