Project Fishing XJ
 

Well, I always wanted an XJ. I am an avid fisherman/surfcaster here in Ct. and Ive always wanted to turn a Cherokee into my fish wagon. Finally purchased this stock 2000 sport in early march. The first few months have really been taken up by working the bugs out of it. The ****ing check engine light which goes off for no reason, etc...

I Love the truck and it has been great so far for hauling around fishing crap and getting into slightly rough places.

Nice XJ to start with. What are your plans?

Then came the roof project...

Found I had bad paint checking on my roof and a few small rust spots... decided to chemically stripp and re-paint my roof.

Did it rattle can style. Need to put another coat of clear on tomorrow.

This weekend I will be doing a homemade high flow air intake, and will include pictures.

So plans right now are:

Finish roof job
New air intake
Hella 500's on the bumper
CB (maybe)
New tires (thinking toyo a/t's)
Possibly a 2in budget boost(not for a little while)
Bumper with tow points

This truck isnt going to be too big. Mostly going to be a fishing/beach truck. Nice to keep a lower center of gravity when bouncing around on the sand. Possibly some light wheeling in the near future. This is my DD, so it needs to stay fairly fuel efficient and un-broken. hahahaha

good luck with your jeep and remember :worthless:

5/29/10
 

Some of today's work.

Finished up the roof, came out ok.

I did a full radiator/cooling system flush,clean, and fill.

I then installed my new intake. 3in. exaust pipe expanded on the back end to fit the stock air hose. And on the business end, a big sexy K&N high flow cone filter. :cowboy: Sounds really nice, and I notice a little better throtle response.

By the way, there is a small metal nipple welded onto the intake pipe that the hose from the valve cover conects to. Got the K&N at cost through my dad's job. The pipe is just scrap. A friend did the welding....

And thats my $40 high flow intake system.:sailor:

how much was the xj?

I paid $5100. It had 119,000 on the clock. A new water pump, a new radiator, a new cat converter, and some other stuff. CT. sucks for car prices . But it is ver very clean. Other than those tiny surface rust spots that were on the roof, the thing is totally rust free.

I like the roof rack for the poles. I want to make one for inside the jeep.

update 6/27/10
 

Havent done much as far as work goes, but Ive started wheeling the jeep a bit. For a basically stock XJ I am very impressed at what this thing can do. :cheers:

Hella 500's coming this week.

exactly what mine used to look like except mines a 99'

Update 7/22
 

Finally got around to installing my fog lights. Hella 500's mounted on the bumper. Super bright lights here. I really like em...:donatello:

8/7/10
 

Alright, today I decided it was time to loose the stupid factory door trim. I removed the trim using a blow dryer as a heat gun. The next hour was spent peeling/rolling off the remaining adhesive. This was a huge pain in the ***...:2guns:.

I then used bug/tar remover to clean up any remaining sticky crap, and washed the whole truck down.
I decided that I wanted to bedline the entire rocker area. I picked up some black spray on dupli-color bedliner and went to work. I went with the spray on to make future touch ups easier. I masked off everything, sanded the paint with 220 grit, cleaned the surface, and removed all dust, etc... The bed liner went on nice and easy. I did a fairly thick coat and hit the under side of the rockers a bit as well.

The last step was adding some vinyl pin striping to make the paint to bedline transition look a little better.

Here is the final result. I am pretty pleased with how it looks. What do you guys think?

Oh yeah, I also got some new tires last week. I got a set of Toyo A/T Open Country's. I really like them. Pretty agressive tread pattern for A/T's. I've got to try them out on the trail soon.