lostdoors96

so my daughter decided i will call this project :red bull:

so where to start
i'll start off by saying that i would have never thought i'd be on a forum like this but now that i am i wish i had takin more pictures of my new project
with that said i'll begin

i have a 1996 xj se



i bought it from the wifes step dad abouts a year and a half ago
he had had it sitting around in his yard for nearly 2 years and would just start it up every few months
and every time all it needed was a lil jump on the battery and it started right up
well he offered it to this person and that person and anyone that would come to him with 500 bucks could have it
but that was before i got it
i was in need of a vehicle and he offered it to me for 200 so i grabbed it up and put a lil work into it, just a few things to get it road worthy
replaced both headlights, changed all non working bulbs
cleaned it put air in all the tires, which for sitting for 2 years were still in damn good shape with no dry rot and good tread left

so i paid 200 for a decent xj with only 63,xxx miles on it
yeah thats right on 63 thousand original miles
so then what was wrong with it
well......the previous owner sold it with a lil body damage due to an accident



as you can see theres a slightly different color door there as well i found the door and a dynomax cat back exhaust for 50 bucks on craigslist

and there was some crazy knock in the engine
some said it was a bent wrist pin others said other things i cant remember right now
but anyway i had plans to drive it like it was until it died or i found a good deal on a motor i couldnt pass up
and then pretty much both things happened at the same time
found a guy on craigslist that was parting out his 95 GC and i got his motor for 200 bucks
just had to go pull it myself which wasnt a big deal since it was a wreck and i didnt have to be careful about it as much as i had to be pulling my motor out
to which i still have and plan to rebuild when i can get a lil time and cash

who wouldnt want to put an original back in right especially a 15 year old vehicle with only 63 thousand miles right
so after an all day event getting the original motor out because of those damn inverted torque bolts i was able to start swapping over parts from my motor to the new motor
alternator and ac compressor and a couple other things were set up differently so it was just a matter of swapping the parts
pretty simple right
yup sure was
well i got the new motor in which had approximately 140,000 miles on it and ran great and still does
i started to bolt the power steering pump back up and realized after a couple of minutes that it didnt bolt to anywhere and i couldnt figure out what was wrong and after comparing the intake manifolds i realized my power steering pump bolted directly to my intake but that was a part i didnt swap out because i thought they were the same
so instead of swapping i made myself a new power steering bracket out of aluminum



after the motor swap the first thing i did was make a light bar that can fold down because we go canoing as often as we can and rather then spend 100 bucks or whatever it was i spent like $40 tops and made my own



minus the rust now its not bad and it works great
funniest thing ever thou, my wife was driving my jeep one day and it was raining and she didnt know how to turn the head lights on so she just flipped the first on/off switch she saw, haha yeah she drove home with the overhead lights on

next came all the interior that i redid which included the back seats







the visors





the sound bar





and the center console
which i just realized i dont have a picture of right now haha
i also did the headliner which looked really good at first but i didnt do enough research and did it wrong so its down for now and it'll be added to this build thread when a new one gets done

while talking to my friend at work i mentioned wanting to make new bumpers and he offerend up his services since he is the welder where we work
and we came up with this





















and i threw on some black paint



in the summer time i went the doorless route of course
before anyone makes any comments my doors are back on!!
it was my daily driver and only traveled with the kids if i absolutely had to it was just easier to leave the seats in there then take them in and out plus as you can see the one held my bag pretty good haha





next mod was the short shaft auto shifter



which i friggin like alot i'm glad i did that mod

and now i have half of a zone 4.5" full leaf lift kit sitting in my dinning room waiting on the leaf springs to get here now so i can install them
ups
all 4 boxes should have come together
so now as more things happen i will add them here, i.e. paint job wheels and tires and so on

lostdoors96

Got the new lift kit in and all done up will post pictures as soon as I can the weathers pretty crappy to go out now and my phone was dead while I installef everything

campxj

How did you create that short shaft auto shifter? Did you delete the button or does it work by pressing it down?

Very interested in creating one for my jeep.

lostdoors96

sorry it took so long to get back to you
but it was easy..you can check my fab thread here
https://www.cherokeeforum.com/f58/sh...anyone-111140/

i just used the spring after drilling the ball and it fits tight and holds down the button i shortened that

campxj

Thanks for that link.

I will definitely be giving that a try whenever I have some free time.

Nice start to that build too. Good Luck!

lostdoors96

thanks alot..let me know when you get your shifter done

lostdoors96

The lift is installed.
Before of drivers rear




After of drivers rear



Before of the drivers front




After of the drivers front




And now some pictures of the rest of the parts

Steering stabilizer



Rear shocks mounted up
The heads of three of screws busted off....so I drilled them out and reattached with self threading screws and they are holding strong



Getting the old leaf was fun.
The bolt on the front was seized inso the leaf got torched and the bushing burned so I could get some heat on it and out it came.



New shackle and leaf spring mounted



And all the front components, front shock, coil spring, sway arm extensions, steering stabilizer and I moved the track bar over 3/4 of an inch

And before and after of drivers side
I believe I netted the full 4.5" but my dumb self forgot to take before measurments

lostdoors96

Had a lil uh oh this evening....



Apparently there was something in the mud hole I went through...and I have no spare at the moment...

Well I got a ride home and checked online about bolt patterns because I have a buick rendezvous sitting in the back yard with some after market universals...the patten is a lil different but being universal they did fit.....but then I tried the lug nuts and thats where things went south...my lug nut flanges where to big and the lugs for the buick are to small
My back up plan was the wifes hyundai and its spare tire and while the center hole was a hair to small I made it work and got home

lostdoors96

short little update::

i have some material that i will be making a roof rack out of, i dont know what its called i got it dumpster diving

i'll get a pic or two up when i can, too cold out right now to mess with it

XJ BoSS

Now you just have an excuse to get some big tires. And when are you gonna take that back fender off and trim?

lostdoors96

when it gets a lil warmer out i think..its been begging to come off, but just to cold right now

lostdoors96

got my news shoes yesterday, will post pics later

lostdoors96

The new shoes!!!!!!
Pro comp 32x11.5 on 15 in. pro comp steelies















And a lil off roading

lostdoors96

so i was heading to work today and i heard a big bang and some clack clack smack smack
pulled over to investigate and guess what i found?????

the 2 bolts that were supporting my engine mount broke therefore causing the engine to fall towards the driver side...i said 2 bols because somehow the third wasnt even there....

so after some fudging around i got the engine supported enough to get me home, i was literally 6 blocks from my house...

after going to the home depot and lowes i spent like 80 bucks and bought a right angle drill and some extracting bits to get the studs out...and in the end i got them out by tapping the studs with a hammer and screw driver to spin them out...not off to buy new bolts and some jb weld, because while lifting my engine i was a lil careless due to frustration and punctured a hole in my oil pan, but i have a backup and will be replacing it this weekend, just need another day or two of a quick fix

lostdoors96

Had a breakdown the other day...ive been having some noises from the front end and found out it was my front drive shaft
I wanna call it the ball joint part of the ujoint closest to the tc was busted..the outer shellof the ball anyway... I had to take it out and now my jeep is much quieter