AWOL

So a few months ago I picked up my first XJ. It's a 97 4dr. 4.0L
It was a company car for the first part of it life and then became a ride for a kid going through college. Now it's mine with 161,000 miles on it. It is my 3rd Jeep but my 1st XJ. I plan on keeping it my DD and making it capable of some good wheeling. I decided to start my build thread now while it wasn't too far behind.

Here it is stock after I started trimming the fenders. I have the fronts trimmed and was deciding what to do with the back. Cut and fold or trim and re-weld.

I picked up a set of 31in. BFG A/T's on some AR wheels for $150.00 and thats when I decided to cut and fold the rear. Haha! I just wanted to get the tires on without rubbing.

Now that I have the rear trimmed I have decided to go back and re-do it to get rid of the cut and fold deal. This week i am going to work on cuttin and welding to get it to look smooth as well as cutting out some sweet body cancer in the bottom of the rear quarter panel. Decided I am going to box the rear quarter up higher for the clearance and then start my bumper build.

Other things I have accomplished so far are replacing U-joints and rear leaf springs. Just replaced my fan clutch and shroud as well. I have been looking at air intake setups and decided to go with a in the cowl setup that I found.
http://www.ericsxj.com/intake/intake.htm

In the weeks to come I will be swapping my front sway for a ZJ bar. Also working on a cargo rack for in the rear of the XJ. I am toying around with SOLID WORKS to come up with ideas for my bumper build. I have a buddy that should be getting me a Ford 8.8 axle to put in the rear and maybe a HP44 for the front. Idk. I see a bunch of different ideas and haven't made up my mind on some of them.

I know this isn't much of a start but being un-employed has its draw backs... Hence the title of EMPTY POCKETS. At least I have a shop with all the tools I will ever need and can do the fab work myself! I'll update this as much as possible. Thanks for looking! Sorry if it bored you!

gpXJ

Dude, nice looking ride. I just bought a '00 XJ Limited, waiting for the AC to get fixed before I pick it up. So that is at stock height? You got no problems with the 31's rubbing or binding when making turns? The fender trim pieces on mine are all coming loose so I'm just going to pull em off and go ahead and cut the fenders up.

Anyways..looks sweet and sounds like you got the skills to make some nice new accessories for it!

ToyComa

wow, you and I have some things in common. I too am unemployed. And luckily I can do a lot of my own fab work. Which as you know means less money is needed to be spent when doing this type of work.

Anyway, on to your truck. Why would you use a ZJ front sway bar? Are they smaller and you are trying to get more flex or are they bigger? Are you planning a lift?

Currently (since I have no job) I am helping a buddy work on his 91 XJ which we put on some 31x10.5 on 93 grand cherokee rims. He removed the fender flares and I pulled the front fenders some to clear the tires but that wasn't much since the ZJ rims do not have the same backspacing as the rims you are running. I am going to buy an air saw to trim up the fenders and fold over and weld up the seems inside the fenders. We are not lifting it and I plan on getting it in trade for my pit bike once he buys another XJ. So your build looks like a good one for me to follow and learn from.
By the way, good start on your build. Truck looks nice.

grn99

Very nice start. Do you plan on keeping it low?

AWOL

Thanks guys! At the moment it at the stock height. The front sags a little. I replaced the rears with new stock HD packs. As for fitting the 31's on. I had to trim the fenders otherwise it would rub when it flexed the rear and when turning the front. You can see some of the trimming in my pics I think.

As for picking up the ZJ sway bar. The ZJ bar is thicker in diameter but bolts right into place with no modification. Just going with this for a little more stability in the turns.

As money alows I am planning to lift it around 3". Once it is no longer my DD then I will do something crazy with it. HAHA!

AWOL

Here is todays update!
When I trimmed my fenders I found some sweet body cancer! Yesterday and today I decided to fix it and make my rear corners tuck up. Here goes!
Remember...Safety 1st!

Here is what I started with looking at it from inside the fender...

So I started with kinda following another write up I found but ended up bringing everything up a little more.

Nice rust! At first I was going to trim it up to the first change in the body line but when I started cutting into everything I realized that something had crunched this fender before and it had lots of bondo in it. This prompted me to trim higher and make my new line to follow the tape you see here.

This left me with some rust to grind out but that was fine with me. I mad a couple quick measurements and grabbed some 16g steel I had lying around.

Since I didn't have access to a break I just clamped my steel to a bench. I wanted to make about a 40 degree bend and wanted it to be 1 3/4" in on the steel. After I had it clamped I just beat it with a BFH until I got it like I wanted.

AWOL

Then I took it back to the XJ and held it in place to see what else needed to be trimmed in order for it to fit. Once I had made my cuts I started to tack it into place.

I wanted to use our MIG welder but it wouldn't reach to the XJ. So I wheeled the TIG over and went to town. It kinda sucked but got the job done for the passenger side. I buttoned it up and left the drivers side for today. Once I got the DS all cut out and was ready to weld it in I decided to head over to the place I work (when they are busy) and used their MIG welder and things came out much nicer and faster. Here are some shots of it in primer but finished. I am going to seal it up good and cover it with bed liner. This whole deal went pretty smooth. The other write ups I had seen lead me to think it would be a little harder... Oh Well!

mobilecherokee4

hey looks good man, nice fabbing skills with the sheet metal repair

ol"blue

Lookin' good so far. Skill is more useful than money sometimes.

mobilecherokee4

sure is

AWOL

Thanks! It was actually my first attempt at any kind of sheet metal repair.

mobilecherokee4

well looks like you did a pretty dang good job! good luck with the build

ToyComa

thank you for the pics. I am lucky that my buddies xj doesnt have rust back there so it will not be as much work as yours. I don't think I am going to cut that high on his either. What does 16g steel measure out to? thicker then .125"? I was thinking about going to the metal supply wearhouse but then realized I can probably get what I need at Home Depot or Lowe's.

AWOL

It is about .06 I think I picked this piece up from farm and fleet...

ToyComa

ok, so about 1/16th of an inch not 1/8. I see you tig'ed it (I will be mig'ing) but how was it to weld up? Did it burn through the sheet metal to easy or was it about the same. You butted the metal right against the factory metal?

Edit: DO you think you are going to just keep the rear bumper and just box/cap the ends or cut the width down and then cap the ends.