Thought I'd start a build thread for my baby! I bought this '98 a few months ago, and it is my first Jeep (I'm more of a Chevy guy generally). I had a lifted full-size Jimmy a few years ago, and I'm looking forward to hitting the trails again in a smaller and more capable vehicle. After some searching on craigslist, I found this XJ just a few miles from me. It met all of my criteria: relatively low miles (122k), no rust, 4.0L, auto, 8.25 rear, and unmolested. The black color was a bonus. Here are some shots as I bought it:





Since I bought it, I've been planning my lift choices and fixing all the little stuff that was wrong with it and doing general maintenance.

 

My plan for this XJ is to use it as my daily driver (mostly around town, with occasional longer trips for work with gear in the back) and weekend warrior on the trails in Colorado. I didn't want to get too crazy with the lift height because it will see the road a lot, and I like the low COG philosophy. As far as trails, I like to do more expedition/exploration style wheeling, not just driving over extreme obstacles because I can.

With that in mind, I wanted about a 3" lift and 33" tires with the fenders cut out. Quality and comfort were important too, because this is my daily driver. I planned out a lift with OME components based on posts here, and by the time I factored in those parts, new trackbar, new control arms (adjustable for proper alignment), etc. I was looking at close to $1500 for everything. I thought, "hell, for that price I'm getting into long arm territory." So, here we are! I got a great price from Allen on here for the Full Traction 3.5" long arm kit for not much more than I would have spent on the short arm OME setup.

Here are the parts I have stockpiled so far, and I'm slowing getting them installed:
- Full Traction 3.5" 4-link long arm kit
- Bilstein shocks
- Bushwacker flat flares
- Kevin's Off Road deluxe tire carrier w/ hi-lift and shovel attachments
- 33" Goodyear Duratracs on 15x8 D-window style wheels (got an amazing deal on these from craigslist)
- Rusty's crossmember with 1" drop built in (will probably go with a SYE eventually, but trying this first)
- Ricer hood vents ala Tom95XJ, I think
- a 48" hi-lift

At that point, my current budget is tapped out, so future plans include:
- 4.56 gears and a front locker
- bumpers and skids
- winch

So far, aside from the maintenance work and getting to know the Jeep, I have installed a new CD player and I'm starting on the Bushwacker flares. I pulled off the side trim and stock flares, and last night I got the front passenger fender cut out. Hopefully I can get everything else put on in time to do some wheeling next month. I'll update this thread with some pictures as I go.

 

Looks good! Nice start to a solid build subscribed.

 

Time for more pictures. First, I picked the name "Bam-A-Lam" for the build because Black Betty was already taken. Here are some shots with the Collegiate Peaks in the background. This was on the way back from a trip to Durango for work. Unfortunately I had no time to check out any of the trails in that area while I was there. This was my first road trip with the Jeep, and it did great.





Here are some shots of my Duratracs from craigslist. They barely fit in the back of my old Caprice wagon. I posed one next to the 235s I have on the Jeep now. It was dark when I unloaded, so the shots aren't the greatest.

 

Last night I cut out the front passenger fender for the flares, and tonight I did the driver's side. Here is a shot of the passenger:



I tried using my angle grinder and my sawzall, and the angle grinder was way better on the fenders. It cut through the thin metal like butter, whereas the sawzall made it vibrate so much that my cutting line became a blur. The sawall did a better job on the thicker metal of the bumper. I lopped the corners off like so:



I'm hoping to cut out the back wheel wells and finish the flares this weekend.

 

This week my modifications have been stalled in favor of maintenance instead. I flushed my coolant and put on new radiator hoses and thermostat, and the Jeep runs cooler in traffic now. I replaced my old serpentine belt too. I don't want those things to fail on a trail somewhere. Then my check engine light came on, codes 700 and 705. Some searching pointed towards the Neutral Safety Switch as the culprit. Removed it and cleaned it, and now the codes are gone. Now I can get back to installing the flares!

 

Making progress, slowly but surely. I got the front flares on, and last night I cut out the rears. I couldn't resist putting on the 33s even though I haven't lifted it yet. Rubs a little when I hit a big bump, so I'm going back to the stock tires until I can put the lift on. It's sitting a little uneven in the back. I don't know if it's the way I'm parked, the load in the back, or if the springs are uneven. Hopefully the lift kit will fix that. Here are some shots of the stock suspension, flat flares, and 33s.









I also put on my first sticker!

 

looks real good clean cant wait to see how it goes along

 

Looks nice!

 

Well, I had a productive weekend for a change! On Saturday I finished up my rear flares, and they look pretty sweet:



I put my 33s on the back only - who wants to go drag racing??



Then I put the fronts on to see how it would sit with just the flares and 33s with stock suspension. Pretty cool actually.





OK, enough of that! It's time to go higher! On Sunday I finally started on the lift kit. I replaced the rear springs with the new ones from the Full Traction kit and got my Bilstein shocks mounted up. It took me a while (working solo and my first lift kit), but it actually went very smoothly! The shocks had been replaced by the previous owner, and the upper bolts came out no problem. I didn't break any bolts on the leafs either. I just had two issues that slowed me down really: 1. the centering pins on the new leafs were too big for the holes in the spring perches, so I had to enlarge those a bit, and 2. getting the new shocks on was an adventure because they are so long and didn't want to compress. But now it's done, and I'll be moving on to the front and the long arms next.

New springs are on:



Riding high in back, whoo!

 

Awesome! About time I found a thread where someone put the flatties on a stocker. I'm in the middle of doing the same thing, lol

 

Look nice and clean! I have a black xj too.


What is you next project?

 

Thanks guys! This weekend I finally scored a cheap spare tire on craigslist and I started the long arms. The Full Traction site doesn't have a lot of photos of how their brackets go together (and the instructions aren't much more detailed), so I've been taking photos as I go. Some of these are in the dark, so they aren't the greatest shots. Here we go:

Long arms and track bar waiting patiently in the box:



Here are the long arm brackets. The upper and lower arm brackets sandwich the frame rail. Next to them is the Rusty's crossmember that I had hoped to use (more on that later).



The brackets require lots of bolts. They attach with the crossmember bolts in a few places, but the rest are self-tapping bolts, so there is lots of drilling to do. Here is the lower arm bracket in place:



On the driver side, the bracket is really close to the fuel and brake lines, but it doesn't interfere:



Here are some shots of the two brackets bolted in place:







Here is the issue with the Rusty's crossmember. There are two holes on the stock crossmember that the inner (upper) LA bracket bolts to (no bolts yet in the picture). The stock crossmember doesn't use these holes, so Rusty's deleted them, so I can't bolt the upper LA brackets to the crossmember. I thought about drilling a hole in the Rusty's crossmember there, but it's at angle, so it would take some creative spacers to make that work. I might still consider it, but for now I just put the stock crossmember back in. You can see the area in this picture:



Here are the brackets mounted up from the side:



It was a long process! I had to drill 8-9 holes per side and broke 3 drill bits (2 of them titanium) along the way. I also managed to drill one hole too large, so I have to get a bigger bolt. The Full Traction brackets are made to very tight tolerances, but my Jeep is not that straight anymore. I had to widen some holes and pound the crap out of a bulge in the passenger frame rail so the bracket would sit flush. I got them in there though!

 

Love the flares.

 

No new pictures yet. Since I got the long arm brackets bolted on Sunday, I've been removing the front suspension in the evenings this week. So far the tie rod, track bar, sway bar end links, shocks, and brake calipers are off. I tried to droop the axle enough to get the springs out by hand, but the drag link is still holding it up too much, so I'm going to unbolt that and the stabilizer next. This morning I dropped off the rotors at Firestone to get checked/turned. I'm going to replace my calipers and pads too since I have to swap the brake lines and bleed the system anyway. One of the calipers seems to be dragging.

BimmerJeeper should have bought this Jeep instead. The front shocks came out so easily it was ridiculous. The previous owner said they were relatively new, and I don't think the shop torqued them down much at all. The bolt under the master cylinder was the hardest because of access, but I just put a wrench on it, grabbed the shock by hand, and it turned loose. Got it done, even with less than $1000 worth of tools!