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Hello my name is Ethan and i have been into cherokees since 2012 when i bought my first one when i was in high school. I have always wanted to start a build thread sharing my experiences and how far building jeeps has taken me. So might as well start with this jeep. This build is my second xj. After building my first one i have learned alot and know exactly how i want this next one to me. Im not an extreme crawler my any means however i enjoy using to take me on several trails for exploring and also to be used as my hunting rig. So here she is my second jeep a 2000 cherokee XJ Sport. I got it at a decent price but i was a sucker for the green paint and i have always wanted tan interior so it was a start. Paid 2000 cash and she has alot of miles with 268K on the clock! The paint was checked and faded on roof and hood but i had plans for that.
Now before i tell the story of this jeep i need to explain the story of my last jeep. The last one i had was a 1995 green cherokee xj that went thru hell as i owned it. From jumping it, to beating the snot out of it on the trials it was a blast. However the jeep was very unreliable. The jeep was built with 35 inch tires, a mid arm kit from skyjacker (terrible kit), ford 8.8 rear end, and 4.88 gears. i also blew the motor in the jeep and did a full rebuild with several performance goodies including a bigger cam. After 10k miles after rebuilting the motor i rolled the jeep doing a complete roll totaling out the jeep. I thought about caging it but at the time i didnt have a tube bender or a welder to take on such project and insurace paid me out plenty to have room to buy a newer jeep and buy back old jeep to use as my parts jeep, so that what i did. here are some shots of the old jeep when it was rolled. Note: jeep did complete a full roll and landed on its wheels.
To begin this project i had to take apart the original jeep to store all parts for new jeep and salvage as much money as i could to help with new parts for the new jeep. so i started ripping it apart! Plans for new jeep was to ditch the crappy skyjacker "long arm"
After I salvaged the first jeep i said my goodbyes and decided to start my build on the second jeep and my first goal was to remove all suspension parts and get jeep to bare frame to install frame stiffners. The first jeep i realized how weak the unibody was after cracking it and actually teared it in several spots. Doing this was wayyyyyy more work then expected but i knew would be worth it.
i apoligize as i dont have many pics from some work that was done but im trying to catch up to current date. But i pulled the jeep in and removed both axles and striped down to frame i also removed the NP231J transfer case to install the one from the donor jeep that was another 231 that had a SYE Kit already installed.
I wish i had taken more photos of this but it was very in sketchy the budget set up i had trying to get the jeep lifted as high as i could to work on so i swapped the rear axle in which is a ford 8.8 that has 4.88 gears and a truss kit from iron rock offroad.
once all finished i did buy a real long arm kit from serious offroad and must say i really do love the kit! much better then the skyjacker kit but too bad they are no longer in business from my understanding..
at this point i had the lift installed and i threw driveshafts on and shocks and limped it to an alignment shop and picked it up the next morning and took it straight to northern arizona on a camping trip to test it out. but here is how she looked lifted 6 inches and had my old set of 35x12.5x15 goodyear mtrs on it
09-05-2018, 09:44 PM
Project Roxy (Done right)
