Time for the seat info. The seat swap was honestly very simple. If you have a chop saw, welder and a drill, you can do this.

Step one

Remove the seat and pull off the seat mount.

Attachment 305197

Then mount the brackets back in to the Jeep. If you can, pull the carpet out at this point. Welding will be going on shortly. Put the seat back in the Jeep and center it up. (see previous post to see the adapters) Tack it in to place. (don't light anything on fire) Then pull the seat and bracket back out. Remove seat mount from seat.

Attachment 305198

Attachment 305199

Now the fun part. Welding!

Attachment 305200

Attachment 305201

Attachment 305202

Attachment 305203

And the final product! Ready to go back in.

Attachment 305204

I also got a good portion of the new carpet in. Carpet is not a fun project.

They are called square head nylon push-in nut

http://www.clipsandfasteners.com/Nuts_Nylon_s/126.htm

Thank you very much! I have 2 very odd size holes on the new grille that the old clips don't fit in. So that link will help out a light on getting the odd size needed.

Well it is raining sideways over here so I cant get too much more done until the weather clears up. So instead, I figure I would start adding up what I have in this thing so far. No budget has been set, but I would like to keep it around $5k.

$1100 - Jeep
$1000 - AX15
$250 - NP231
$230 - Seats
$300 - Carpet
$20 - Clear sidemarkers
$130 - Front bumper
$25 - Bumper brackets
$85 - Front grille and surround
$20 - Shifter rebuild kit
$55 - 4wd shifter and linkage
$25 - 4wd shifter bezel
$90 - Random parts from Lowrange2
$25 - 2017 CF calendar

$3355 - Total so far

At this point, the XJ pretty much looks new again inside and out (well once all the parts actually make it on). I am pretty sure I have all the small things covered. Then I still need the big stuff like wheels, tires, lift, dana 30, gears, driveshafts and steering components... Yep I will be going over the $5k mark by far. This is why I did not set a budget cause I knew I would go over it... But when I am done, it will be just like a brand new XJ!

Hope everyone had a good Christmas!

I got a little bit more work done on the Jeep over the weekend.

Attachment 305159

I got the front end put back on. Still have to add a few more bolts and the lower valance. But it looks pretty good to me!

Attachment 305160

I also finished the front portion of the carpet.

Attachment 305161

And I threw the seats in. Everything clears but these are some wide seats.

I really want high bolstered seats like that in my XJ but it's already such a PITA to get in and out of....

I know exactly what you mean! With a lift like yours, I am sure its pretty bad already. Add in some bolsters to climb over and its even worse. The good thing about these seats is that there is no frame in the bolster. Its all foam so they do smash down pretty easily. All my cars have deep bucket seats so I am kinda used to it. My Bug is the worst since it has a cage to climb over, you have to pop the steering wheel off, and then once you get over the cage, its like a 12" drop to the seat. So I should be able to deal with the seats in the Jeep with ease. And its not a DD which helps deal with these minor inconveniences.

Attachment 305147

Now imagine this setup in the Jeep. No thanks. (I do want to put an internal cage in the Jeep though...)

I know the struggle of a cage inside a car and sliding past door bars into high bolster seats lol. Had an 05 SRT-4 I played with and made the mistake of an internal cage.... That got old real fast. It was a DD too.

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.che...8500dd414b.jpg


An internal cage would be nice but the XJ is so small inside I would rather an external cage. A hybrid would be pretty sweet too though

Yep you definitely know the feeling! Hopefully it was just a bolt in cage. I dont think I could do it in a DD but for just a weekend toy, I could live. Maybe not even a full cage. More of just a roll bar. Something that I could keep out of the way.

If I was building a full on trail rig, external cage FTW! You cant go wrong there. I am trying to keep the external cutting and welding down on this one. The body is in too good of condition (as of right now) to want to cut it up or weld on it. I think trimming the fenders is as far as I will go on the outside.

Seeing that it is still in the holiday season, sales are still going on! So I decided to make a wheel and tire purchase. I think I did pretty good on this one. So I ordered up some 31x10.5 BFG KO2s and some black D window steelies. Got them mounted, balanced and delivered for $765. Dont think that was too bad of a deal (hopefully it was). They should be here next week sometime. Then time to put them on and see how it looks.

Sweet! Not a bad price at all!

Jeepin - Hope you are right! I had 2 days before the sale was over so had to make up my mind fast.

I also got my box of random parts in from LowRange2. Haven't opened it up yet, but it is a big box full of parts! I will dig through it tonight to see what he sent me.

I am still having a hard time finding someone local with a Dana 30. Might just have to go down to pick-a-part and pull one myself. Possibly find one from a 4 cylinder XJ that has 4.10s. That is pretty much the last piece I need (except drive shafts which I need the D30 first so I can measure) before I can turn this thing into 4wd!

My goal is to get it done before KOH which is the first weekend of Feb. I am going to be cutting it close!

It's hard finding a 4 banger XJ front diff. I notice a lot of them were 2wd

Last time I went to the JY, they actually had 3 of them! I was blown away. But like normal, most of them were 4.0 autos. I have a feeling I will be stuck swapping gears in the front and rear.

Speaking of gears, since I will be going from 3.07 to 4.10, can I still use the same diffs? Its been a while since I have done a gear swap in anything but I thought I remembered if you go above a certain size gear, the diff had to be swapped. Might have been on a GM axle though.

Oh yes you can use the same differentials no problem. You would need a 3.73 and up carrier for the D30 though.