Operation Jeep Cherokee Resurrection (2000 Cherokee XJ Silver)
 

I figured since I already built one Cherokee with no build thread I better do a build thread of the second one. A little about myself, I am 22 and live in California. I am a 12B, Combat Engineer in the Army and work full time Operations. I am majoring in accounting and own my own Airsoft business, check us out: www.hhairsoft.com (shameless plug). I come from the world of cars and autocrossing. I went from a 2000 Honda Civic SI to a 2003 Subaru WRX to a 2005 Subaru STI finally to a 2007 Lotus Exige S. I had tons of fun in them but they just werent practical to my current life style and saving for a house, so I decided to get a Cherokee.

Now the good stuff. Back in January of 2011 I purchased my first Cherokee! It was a 1999 Cherokee Sport in Chili Red Pepper. It had factory tint, tow package, cruise, power everything, overhead console, ABS, skid plates, Rubicon Express 3.5” lift, and BFG All Terrains. This is what it looked like the day I bought it:
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I told myself 3.5” was enough but I soon found myself at 4.5”. I told myself that was it but then found myself wanting to go to 6.5” and pondering a long arm kit. After a lot of debating and learning from my brothers trial and error, who also has a white Cherokee, I decided to go Long Arm. So I ended up with a 6.5” Rough Country Long arm and a ton of other bits and pieces. She ended up looking like this at the end of it:
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This is what it looked like in June of 2011.

Then this happened...
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I was sitting at a red light waiting to turn left during a freak thunderstrom in the middle of June and some idiot who doesnt know how to drive in the rain with a trailer rear ended me. As you can see he hit me on the passenger side and pinched me between the car in front of me. There was damage to the rear bumper, tailgate, bumper cap, and passenger side quarter panel. It doesnt look that bad from this angle but this is part of the frame in the rear

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No bueno. If you cant tell, that is a bend in the frame, its also peeling away from the uni-body. None of the doors lined up, passenger side doors overlapped. It was all bad. Literally had the Jeep for 6 months, put 5 months of work into it, thousands of dollars, only to have this happen. So insurance totaled it out and I bought it back knowing I wanted a new Cherokee.

I decided to be really picky this time and wait for exactly what I wanted. I wanted a 97 – 01 Cherokee XJ Limited in Silver with grey interior. I wanted the 8.25 so I didnt have to do an axle swap again or delete the ABS. I also wanted all power with the over head console. Needed to have the OEM tow package and a clean exterior and interior for around $6k. Looked around and came up with this:
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Look how tiny it is between the two built Jeeps
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First thing I had to do was replace the lift shocks because they were crap! So I took the ones that I just replaced on my red one and put them on the new silver one.
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Thats all I have really done for now. I just bought it about a week ago and had a wedding and work so havent had much time. The major plan is to swap all the parts from the red jeep onto the silver jeep. I will also be swapping the cloth Sport seats from my red jeep into my silver Limited. I am giving my brother the leather Limited seats to put into his Classic since he likes the leather and I dont. Need to get the front windows tinted and the system taken out of my jeep and put into the new one. I will definitely keep you updated with things and hope you enjoy the process!

Will

how much did you buy the red jeep back from insurance for?

Good looking silver jeep man! Bummer about the red one being totaled.

I would have cried. Then hired a hitman.

TylerL. 94 ZJ 3" lift. My DD.

Damn nice looking driveway!

Dealing with the insurance company was an absolute JOKE! It took about 3 weeks to come up with a number i was "okay" with accepting. More so i just wanted to put this behind me so i caved and settle for a number. It cost me about $1300 to buy the Jeep back.

Yeah the Silver is nice because it is all stock, never wheeled, owned by a retired couple that pulled it behind an RV. Only thing wrong with it was a **** load of rock chips on it. Cant really complain.

Yeah i was pretty upset not going to lie. I put blood sweat and tears into the red jeep, it was hard to see it like that.

Haha thanks man!

Here is a little update on the progress so far. Been pretty focused on parting stuff out from the red jeep. Didnt expect so much interest in the parts off my red jeep so been trying to keep up with all the sales. Feel free to check out my part out post if you are looking for parts:
https://www.cherokeeforum.com/f11/fs...-silver-95006/

Another shameless plug. haha anyway got the whole front end ripped off the red jeep and the Smitty Built Winch pulled out and the ORFAB bumper off.

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Took the opportunity to pull off the front bumper on the new jeep, relocate the charcoal conister, relocate the horns, move the temperature gauge, and paint the front end parts so they are flat black and dont stand out behind the ORFAB tube front bumper.

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That is so sad. That was litterally one of the nicest cleanest xjs ive ever seen. if i wouldve been rear ended like that i would have gotten a tire iron and woulda ended up in jail. and i loved the chili red. how long do you think itll take you to swap everything over?

damn those are my 2 favorite color xjs and man are they perfect!!! :) shame about the red one :( it happened to me to.

Glad to see it coming along. But seriously. You had to pay extra for that driveway.

TylerL. 94 ZJ 3" lift. My DD.

Damn that sucks about the accident. Can't wait to see how the silver XJ turns out.

Thanks for all the support guys! So i have gotten a lot of work done the past couple of days. Its been 100+ degrees outside so its been killer hot and i have a horrible sun burn to show for it! Ended up picking up one of these at Big 5 during their 4th of July sale.

EZ UP FOR THE WIN!
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So i started to rip out all the interior inside the totaled jeep so i can start parting all that out. I also wanted to swap over some of the parts from the total jeeps interior to my new jeep. Here is whats left of the totaled jeeps interior.
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Got my Pioneer swapped over, my Boston speakers and my CB set up in my overhead console.
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Well didnt get any pictures of it but when i was removing my stock bumper i found a wonderful suprise...my steering box was leaking! So i weighted my options and decided to just replace the whole unit, so now i have a brand new steering box. Anyway got my ORFAB bumper mounted, which faired well in the accident. My PIAA 520s and 2100s swapped on but still need to run all the wiring. And my new Smitty Built winch got swapped into it.
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Then the fun started of swapping out the back ends. I removed all the stock parts from the new jeep and set them aside to be installed onto the red jeep. Figured this is the best way to still be able to move the red jeep around throughout the rest of the part out. I then removed the Rubicon Express 3.5" leafs, Rough Country shackles, Rough Country 2.2 Shocks, and extended break lines and installed them onto the new Jeep.
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The outcome was quite comical
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This one another picture to help compare 33's on a stock lift.
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Next up is going to be the front end, wiring up the PIAAs, and wiring in my compressor. Was going to work on it today but its too damn hot and the sunburn is quite gnarley. Hopefully ill get a little done this evening.

Will

Can't wait to see it

Ill get some pictures up soon. Have the front end almost complete. Just need to put on my shocks and it will be good to go. unfortunately she has to stay on jack stands just a bit longer. When i pulled off my 33's i noticed a huge bubble in one of them. So it got sent back to Mickey Thompson for a replacement. Should have it back on Tuesday. Cant wait im dying to drive my new cherokee!

how fast was the guy going when he hit you?