Jeep Cherokee Forum - QSTG01's DRAGONEER Build

Hello everyone! This is my budget back yard build Jeep Cherokee known as the Dragoneer. She was featured in JPFreek Adventure Magazine Fall 2016.

If you want the short story: (this is last years videos - will be adding 2017 Walk Around video with suspension upgrades & More)
The Walk Around (shows the most detail):

The Evolution of the Dragoneer:

I guess this story must begin way back when............ almost 10 years ago - I decided to buy another Jeep Cherokee. :) This one was stock as heck when I got her.

I took her off road with some family members....... you know one of the "unique" holes and quickly realized ...... I'm not getting it done like this. I already knew I wanted to lift her.... just time to get my rear in gear.

So being a broke arse college student divorced mother of 4 I bought a Rough Country lift kit 4.5 lift baby. Some one was supposed to sell me some 31" Thornbirds but they were dry rotted super bad so I ended up buying new 31x10.5x15 snow tires.... not what I wanted but what is in the budget and since I already had put the lift on it I needed tires fast! This is my daily driver.

So next thing I wanted KC lights but not in the budget either so I went and bought lights from Harbor Freight and made a light bar out of the luggage rack. I found a used roof rack and put that on it.

So now I am ready..... lights before lockers you know! Well it didn't take long to realize that there was a few issues with my bumpers...... oh yeah they suck and have no tow points. I can't get into the offroad parks or mud bogging cause I have no tow points. So time for new bumpers. Just a basic no thrills bumper made out of tubing.

First trip to Wa****a Off road park rock crawling - ripped the cat and exhaust off ..... good thing I had that roof rack because that is how the exhaust made it home. I never put the catalytic converter back on but just welded a cherry bomb muffler on (still like this cause it's obnoxious and I like it although I am missing an 02 sensor). Also ripped out the carpet and painted the floor boards. I made drain holes cause I kept taking her in deep enough water that the floor would be covered and anyone who has a Jeep knows that water has no way to drain.

Time to get rid of these tires! I grabbed a jigsaw and cut the fenders and shoved a set of used Kumho 33x12.5x15s under that girl .... sweet. I ran those for quite a while but then I cut again........ and again and shoved a set of 35x12.5x15s under there! Awesome! Due to unforeseen circumstances I no longer have the 35" tires and I am back on those same old Kumho 33's (still today- like 7 or 8 years later). Hoping to get new tires this spring.

Second trip to Wa****a and I soon ended up with this nice huge battle scar down low on passenger door. Well better late than never I decided I needed some sliders on that thing. So we found some galvanized steel tubing from an old car wash and laid it out in the yard. Measuring and cutting laid out the slider design in the yard. Welded it all together and crammed it under there. It is off a little bit if you really really look..... but that thing is beast and doesn't rust (except end caps are just steel).

Rear bumper mounts got ripped off at Brownstown Mudfest - so the back bumper got modded quite a bit. Also the addition of a custom home made grill. *** The white Cherokee that is behind me in all these pictures is my brother.

It's a typical Jeep that runs hotter than heck so I found some cool stainless steel house vents that I liked so we put those in the hood. They even have close levers on them so I can close them.
My paint job being dark purple blue showed every scratch and scrape in the clear coat so I sanded her all down - primered, sanded, primer, sanded, and rattle canned it Blue.... I used blue high temp motor paint. I was going to shoot actual auto paint cause I had the guns, compressor etc. but time and money it ended up being a rattle can job.

So I was going to put Bushwackers on it but I fender cut it too hard and they wouldn't fit... then I bought some TJ flares for it but again I cut too hard and they wouldn't fit. My brother ended up with them. I have the fenders cut up to the bottom of the washer bottle that is located on the drivers side.

Next my brother had a found a pair of race seats cheap but didn't go get them right away so I beat him to them! We had to make home made brackets to install them but they are cool cause they sit a little higher than stock seats.

Next Mods:
Home made winch plate
snorkel
Smittybuilt winch (that died this winter)
Actual KC lights and light bar
CB Radio & antenna (mounted on passenger side of the hump)
Do you guys know a better place to mount them?

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2016 I decided to learn airbrushing..... I had tried about 6 years ago and never really got anywhere with it so I put it up. This year I done about 10 practice sheets of skulls, wood, etc. I had not practiced that much at all but I decided I wanted to airbrush my Jeep - for practice! Why not? Well it went way out of hand.

I wanted something like a lizard skin... oh heck lets do Dragon scales. I want my Jeep Blue so blue dragon scales. Instead of wood holding it together I thought of the metal grid work.... all rusty with rivets. Of course you cant airbrush something and not have skulls of some type.

I just started with the front bezel, I wasn't even sure if I was going to do the whole Jeep or not. I brought it into the house and primered it. I used AutoBorne Sealer white base coat and then taped off where I wanted the metal grid work. I created some skull stencils and a tribal stencil that I taped on. then I painted the blue dragon scales. I used some gear stencils that I collected here and there and airbrushed gears on top of the dragon scales. Then removed the tape and painted the metal grid work adding rust and deterioration to it. Last I removed the skull and tribal stencils and airbrushed them in. It looked pretty cool so I decided I was going to do the whole Jeep...... hmmm what was I thinking?

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.che...2737d7a07d.jpg