Thank you all for your honest comments. All of you were right on or close to it. I did some of the bolt work. I removed the rear end myself, and had it rebuilt ($800], and of course reinstalled it. The trans and transfer case and labor ran $1900. including reinstall. I used Novak's engineered materials totally, I'm not sure of the cost, but I didn't have to reinvent the wheel, everything fit and worked. Saved a lot of time and frustration. Rebuilding the front end suspension was jobbed out, I didn't want to kill myself, and the way it drives, paid for itself.
I can afford to do it right. I know what I want and I like it done right. That's way I said You wont be disappointed with the car It's not thrown together by a want to be.. Here is another example. I had one of those dent removal guys remove all the door ding dents, on the body before it was re sprayed. The front fender's are from a 2000 I found in a junk yard, which updated the look.
I don't have to apologize to a buyer for a piece of junk.
Dennis

 

I'm just a cheapskate.

$12,500 might at first seem high but you have a very nice jeep and lots of premium parts, unique, V8 swap done and done right, and 2 door rarity tax.

 

exactly. and honestly look at what you can get for $12k in the vehicle market. this xj is a lot of vehicle for the money, on all fronts.

 

To me the kinda person that will spend 12k on a jeep wants either a pro crawler type or they get a late tj or early jk.The xj fans is a small market anymore but there is that one carlot that sells xj sky high with bare basic bolt on mods.