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Super excited to be apart of the XJ crew. I have always wanted one but I have always needed a pickup for practical purposes. I am finally at a point I can buy and build an XJ. Yesterday 3/21/21 I was able to find a super clean 1991 Larado. It has 229,xxx miles on it. However there is ZERO rust and for the most part all of the panels are straight, minus a few dings. The XJ is stock for now.
1991 XJ
I have some big plans for this beaut, some of the parts are already on the way.
Last edited by Yukon Cornelius; 05-06-2022 at 11:03 PM.
Today I spent most of the day removing the old purple window tint #fishbowllife. A little heat gun and some adhesive remover did the trick. I really like the end result and had to go for a spin after. I was also able to install new wiper blades, spark plugs and a couple interior light bulbs. The fog lights do not work so I will find some replacements soon, hopefully using the factory switch. I also greased the whole rig and checked it over pretty well wile lubing up the pivot points. So far I found a pretty good leak coming from the power steering pump and a transmission pan/line leak. I will first dig into the power steering.
But...... I have to put my spin on it. Hopefully it will be more capable yet maintain most of the classic looks.
Of course we can make them betterer.
Looks like the suspension on it's in very good shape judging by the wheel well openings.
As far as lighting goes I replaced the two dome lights with LEDs after the rear OEM bulb melted the switch. Seems it's a common occurrence. Also you should consider a relay equipped headlight harness. Give a 30% increase in light output to the stock bulbs. Also the OEM harness is hard on the dash mounted switch.
I have been waiting for parts to show up the past few weeks and this week most of them came in. Ill start with the wheels and tires. They are 16x8 with +-0 offset American Racing wheels. I spent A LOT of time looking into tires and I ended up with Nitto Ridge Grapplers in a 285/75/16. They measure 32.7 inches tall by 11.3 wide. There are a ton of good reviews on them and I like the size and look as well. I wanted something aggressive but I didn't want the road noise of an MT. As far as the lift goes I chose a 4 inch long arm kit from Iron Rock Off Road.
We decided to break up the build into two parts. First the front end then when we have time work our way to the rear so it does not take up the lift for to long. The shop has been crazy busy with rear end rebuilds. We started on the front end first by pulling the axle and most of the steering components off. The front end is going to get a true track and we will put a Yukon Grizzly locker in the rear. We will also put some 4.56 gears in it.
It would have been real nice if who ever painted this thing removed the license plate before hand.
We then cut the old factory short arm mounting locations off to make room for the new long arm kit.
My buddy was the chosen one to do the frame stiffeners. As you can see he was stoked to do it!
At this point the frame stiffeners are almost complete. We also got the main crossmember in and bolted on the long arms for there first test fit.
You know we had to see what it looked like with the tires on. We will have to do some trimming and most likely find some new fenders. I am really liking how it looks at this point. Not sure when We will have time to do the rear end but it should be within the next week or so. We have some big plans for the rear end!
What do you guys think of the color combo?
Last edited by Yukon Cornelius; 05-11-2021 at 10:50 PM.
Maybe I should just drive it like this? The tires do not rub just driving around but I am sure they will once the axel starts to articulate. I will have to do something with the fenders and maybe trim all around. I am looking to see if it is possible to keep the stock fenders but trim them enough to make room for the tire to move and flex freely. If not what are the best technics to trim and what fenders work well and look good?
Last edited by Yukon Cornelius; 04-19-2021 at 10:50 PM.
I got a day off work and rallied up the guys to get a solid day in working on the XJ. Moving onto the rear end. At this point we had just removed the old dana 35. The old axel
We got the rear cross member in for the four link. I now see what all the fuss is about the unibody frame. I had to drill a one inch hole in the frame between the mounting bolts so that I could drop in brackets for the bolts to thread into. The frame stiffeners made this job quite a bit tougher.
The NEW to me Ford 8.8! I got this thing for 250$ and I believe it was out of a 1998 ford explorer.
This is my brother welding on the truss kit and the four link mounting tabs. He is a much better welder then I am. Unfortunately the spring buckets and the shock mounts did not come in the kit like they are supposed to, So I will have to wait to finish it up later.
Last edited by Yukon Cornelius; 05-11-2021 at 10:38 PM.
Not 100% complete but getting closer.
Things that still need to be done to the axel
- Spring buckets
- Shock mounts
- New rotors and pads for the brakes
- Install new electronic grizzly locker with 4.10 gears
- Paint Some mighty fine looking welds. We got the rear axel in with the four links, as well as the new shocks and bump stops. A keen eye will see the top two bolts on the upper spring mounts are welded in. This is because the kit uses riv nuts for the mounting bolts and even using a smaller drill bit then the instructions asked for they still spun long before the bolts were tight. Not real stoked on the riv nuts and will probably weld in the whole plates. As it sits today. The rear sits a bit high because the way we had to put the rear springs in. We just tac welded a couple old random perches to it so I could get it rolling and off the lift. I would also like to add this lift kit takes a LOT of time, tools and skill to install. We have a fully tooled up shop with a lift and it is taking far more time then any of us expected. At the end of the day I am getting pretty dam excited to finish this thing up soon!
Last edited by Yukon Cornelius; 06-23-2021 at 09:03 PM.
03-22-2021, 05:41 PM
Yukon Cornelius 91 resto mod
