I’m going to try to keep this short.

A little over a year ago I decided I was tired of paying $420 a month for my new Mitsu Outlander Sport so I wanted to find a car I could buy for cash and drive for a while. In high school my mom had a ’95 Cherokee Sport that I loved. She ended up putting almost 500k miles on it (seriously like 499xxx). So I wanted to get one. First thought was to get a 4wd but the ones I was seeing were trashed. I’m not into heavy off-roading anyways and figured less maintenance and less problems with a 2wd drivetrain.

I found this ’98 with decent miles, 157k, and it was clean and not too many leaks so I bought it. Probably overpaid a little but I wasn’t finding much over a few months. PO had some interesting upgrades with an intake, exhaust, clear markers, weird headlights and had a sound system (all I got were the wires and a radio that doesn’t work). It has a new headliner and the overhead console which is nice. A/C and heat work too.

The plan is to make it look cool and be super reliable. I may do a 4wd conversion at some point but I have no real plans for that.


So here it is when I got it home and where it sits now:

 

First thing I did was get it to the body shop and have the body imperfections fixed up:

 

Replaced the clear markers (I had to order another side marker because that one was a different brand and like neon orange) and put in new headlights and harness:






Replaced a lot of steering components:

 

Fixed the door wiring which fixed the front window (I only have the before photo). Also rewired the radio harness from the mess it was:









Adaptor/spacers and part of the RE 3.5” super ride kit:

 

Pre-lift fender height. Cleaning and prepping the wheel wells for bed liner spray coating. Removed silly tailpipe and welded in a normal turndown. Then lift all finished (no pics of rear). Post-lift fender height. (Note that I put the 32” wheels on too)




Front




Rear
























Front




Rear

 

Did the cross member drop to fix some vibes. Put in a new radiator and bypassed the trans cooler because the hoses were leaking bad (new external cooler will be added). Cleaned the rear carpet and rear seats.

 

Ignition coil went out, SOB. Tested red plastidip for the new paint. Was sold on it when I saw this truck that same week.

 

Prepped for dip. Dip finished and final shots.

 

The“drill a hole 3/4” over” for the track bar didn’t work for me. So ordered an adjustable RE and it went in really smoothly. Hit 159k and almost got the photo.

I'm also in the process of using the correct hardware for the sway bar links. One side is done. Ran out of time.

 

That's it, all up to date. It's about done with only a few more things I want to get. Receiver hitch, get the radio working, new tint, paint the lower part of the body under the doors. I want a stock intake or an aftermarket that was made for it. The one now looks like it came from a civic. I also have injectors to install.

 

Looks clean!

 

What, no under the hood shots?! Agreed, super clean. How does the plasti-dip hold up, holds dirt or no?

 

Here's one of the engine. The dip has been good but cleaning it has been tough. The first time I tried washing it, it like turned white. Freaked me out and I thought I ruined it. It went away almost on its own and now I've been using simple green. That works ok but if it gets wet (rain or hose) it leaves like white water stains. It's weird. And it's hard to get the water stains off.

 

The Jeep is super clean and all, but I'll never understand the allure of lifting a 2WD vehicle.

 

So I've been having an intermittent issue with my blinkers. Apparently when putting on my signal, left or right I believe, the hazards come on. I've never been able to recreate it to see it happen.


Not sure if anyone else has had this happen and if I should look at the wiring or if the blinkers and hazards are part of the same controller in the steering wheel and maybe it's something with that.


Also found some rust while wiring in the trailer harness.