Dude! Rig's looking awesome! Keep it up. Waiting for some action shots.

 

I just binge read your whole thread. Very nice XJ! We have the same exact one. I also noticed you said something about having an F-150. What a coincidence, me too. 02 fx4 supercab in true blue. HBU?

 

Sounds awesome. Where you headed in July?

 

You and me both! I've got 2 kids under 3 years old. I live about 5 minutes from Hawk Pride http://www.hawkpridemountainoffroad.com/ & haven't been able to go in over a year. I've just been biding my time building the XJ so that when the kids are a little older the Jeep will be ready. The most I've done in the past year were a few easy trails near Gatlinburg this past April when my wife and I went with a few of our friends from college.

 

Thanks! Do you have a build thread started? I'll check it out.

I wish I had an FX4. It's a 1995 Eddie Bauer edition extended cab. I inherited it when my dad passed away a few years ago. I honestly don't know what to do with it because I never drive it, but I also hate to get rid of it because it's kind of cool to have his old truck.

 

Gatlinburg? Are you in Tennessee?

 

Nah, I'm in North Alabama. My wife and a few of our friends celebrated a couple of our 30th birthdays at a cabin up there in April.

 

I do not have a build thread... Been meaning to do that. Sorry to hear about your dad. I always liked that old square body style but when I bought mine it was hard to find any that weren't rust buckets. (I live in the salt belt)

 

Thanks Mate, yeah I'm heading 'Outback', Far Western NSW(New South Wales, Australia) about 3,300miles round trip to visit a friend in a little town called 'Broken Hill' and then North to friends who live on a 1.5million acre cattle station(Ranch)

Fitted the 33's today and I'll trim the wheel arches tomorrow ready for the new flares

 

Just ordered the 784 injectors and I found a bored TB with the half shaft butterfly mod for pretty cheap. Thinking about getting a cowl intake but I'm weighing my options. As soon as I get everything installed, I'll post some pics.

I'm also on the lookout for a 2nd XJ now. Since this one is more of my daily, I wouldn't mind having another sitting around.

 

We've had a string of hot days this summer. It's been even hotter than usual. The heat index is 105-115 with humidity DAILY. It's been brutal & I don't have a garage, or even a shady spot I can get work done.

All that to say, I haven't done as much as I'd like to. I installed my bored TB yesterday and it was absolute torture. It almost made me hate my hobby. Almost. But I did get it installed.

I read that I was supposed to erase the old ECU/PCM memory, even on a simple install like this. Is that true? I disconnected by positive terminal and touched it to my A/C compressor for a good 30 seconds before going through the rest of the process. I hope I did this right?

Anyway, I'm going to wait to install the 784 injectors until later this year, maybe we'll get a cool Saturday morning at some point soon. I just can't bring myself to stand out in this heat any longer than I have to.

 

i know exactly what you mean man. the heat is exactly why i havent done a lot of stuff to my jeep recently, i just cant bring my self to sweat my *** off in the sun all day on my day off and the go to work the next day

 

I drove to my father in laws garage so I could do some engine work and I had to let it sit for 3 hours before I could even touch it. It's just not worth it right now. Fall's coming though.

 

I realized I never updated this with my roof rack solution, so here goes.

I had been looking for a cheap alternative to a Yakima or a Thule roof basket for a while now. I previously owned a Yakima MegaWarrior which can be had for around $400. I sold mine because I needed to recoup some of the money and because I hated the way it looked. Something about it just doesn't look right on an XJ. The curves don't flow with the overall shape of the XJ. It looks big and bulky. I wanted something a little more minimalist so I started researching. Turns out that was hard to find. I thought about building one, but I'm good with woodworking, not metalworking.

I eventually came across this blog post about a photographer who built a platform on his Tacoma with wire pallet shelving. http://www.wildernessshots.com/diy-p...rack-platform/







Total cost to him? $5 (He was lucky enough to find a used one at a ReSource store.) These things were made to hold pallets full of goods so they're made to withstand a lot of weight. The one he found was rated for 1,400 pounds. The one I just purchased was rated for 3,000 lbs.

I know, what about edges, to keep things from falling off? Well there's also this thread on a Tundra forum where a guy took pallet shelving and put edges on fairly easily by flipping it upside down (the shelves come with a waterfall lip on 2 edges.) and adding bolt on sides to the 2 others.




I sprayed it with some bedliner and attached it to the top with some extra Yakima hardware I had laying around. It's connected to the bars in 6 places. 2 from the faring, and 4 extra fasteners. I've had it since this past spring and it's held up extremely well. Looks as good as the day I put it on.

 

I just ordered a rear tire carrier bumper. I'm already having buyers remorse. It hurts to spend so much money.