Hello everyone.
My parents and I have a deal lined up to get a black XJ for me. (Cherokee sport, automatic, 4.0 inline six, 4 door, 4x4) I am 15 and have wanted one for a few years so I am looking forward to getting it. It has 214k miles and is mostly rust-free except for one hole on the rocker but we're gonna get that fixed. It is owned by a mechanic who is prepping it for us. I went to check it out and it looked all right, I got the vin and mileage, but I did not get the year. Based off looking at I know its a 1997-2001 but I cant tell beyond that. It is bone stock so I'm looking to modify it, and wondering if anyone has suggestions. My mom is making me swap out all of the seats for WJ seats because I will be driving with people in the backseat and she wants headrests for whiplash. I'm planning so far to do a Rough Country lift, then change the shocks to Fox for a better ride, then add some LED headlights, armor on the quarters and fenders (and possibly elsewhere) and I also want to put some sort of a rack on the roof, make the interior nice with new speakers and a new stereo, throw on a cold air intake for mpg purposes, and off road front and rear bumpers. I also want to add a stinger, lightbar, and maybe undercoat is against rust. I will do some paint work as the paint is in somewhat rough shape. I am looking at lockers and frame stiffeners, and they are appealing, but I don't think I will do those because I will not need them as all I need to do is look cool, conquer snow, and do some minor off road. After reading my ideas, does anyone have any ideas, suggestions, advice, or things I should not do that they can warn me of? Thank you. Most modifications will be allowed by my parents as they are not car people. They buy their cars new and don't modify them, just to trade them in a few years later. I have made my intentions on buying an old Jeep and modifying it clear to them and they said they thought that would be cool (an unexpected reaction)

 

Welcome! It appears that most people who buy a Cherokee modify it for off-road use. If that is your goal, then I applaud your ambition. Just remember that doing this will cost a lot of money and time and devalue the Jeep along the process.

It sounds to me like you are not planning on extreme off-roading so I will speak my $0.02 on your plans. Drive it for awhile and see what repairs are needed to keep it on the road and not on the side of the road broke down. 214K miles is a fair amount and you should expect parts/systems to be worn. Slight lift kits to look cool are fine, but stay at or under 3" so you don't have to deal with all the ancillary expenses and modifications that come with high lift kits.

Unless your bank account is unlimited, I would repair what's needed and at that point, if you want to change something up, go for it. If the headlights burn out, then look at LED's. Otherwise run them until they do.

If the springs are worn, then do the lift kit.

Fix the rust now before it gets worse.

Body armor, if not off-roading, is a waste. Covers up nice sheet metal, puts holes in it and traps moisture behind it which could lead to rust issues.

Personally, if I was in your position(not knowing your financial situation of course), I would leave it bone stock.

But don't let my words discourage you. You be you. I watch people on the forum take perfectly good Cherokees and turn them into rock crawling monsters. They love it.

 

Welcome to our mental illness.


With that said, after reading your post, I'm going to offer some advice. Don't rush into anything. I'm not sure what RC lift you're looking at, but I offer MY experience with them...it's not good.

I'm going to suggest that you concentrate on it being reliable and roadworthy first, which it sounds like you are. After that, if your goal is a daily driver, a daily with light offroad, a daily with heavy offroad, whatever, then focus on recovery. Bumpers, tow points, winch, armor all fall under this category.

Then wheel your rig, and find out where it's lacking and build accordingly. These things in stock form do amazing offroad already, but you need to adapt it to not just the terrain you run, but your driving style and preference as well.

Once you do that you can focus on lift, tires, gears, stiffeners and so on. If you plan on EVER running a cage, stiffeners are 100% necessary.

Baby steps to greatness, grasshopper

 

Thank you for the advice. After some thought and advice from the mechanic I'm getting it from, YouTube, and the people on this forum, I will likely go easy on mods. I like Cherokees because they are well laid out, simple, and reliable cars and I plan to keep it that way mostly. We are buying from a mechanic who will not screw us over bc were somewhat good friends with their family, and he is making sure everything is right on it before the sale. Therefore, I'm confident it will be mostly reliable. I am definitely not going over 3 inches for the lift, but I'm still going to do a lift because the suspension components, especially springs and shocks, looked rusted when I looked at it in person. I still plan on installing LED headlights because of the way they look and the benefits for driving at night. I also plan on an off road rear bumper because I want a built in tow hitch (which many come with) and because the current one is really beat up. (I will color match it, which wont be too hard cause the cars already black) I also still plan to put new wheels and tires as the current ones are rough. I will either buy new or get like new ones from FB off a JK or JL. (Most likely Rubicon or Sahara rims) I will also get a lug conversion kit to match the lug pattern as the JK and JL wheels are a different pattern. I may do an off-road front bumper, also color matched. Other than that I'm going to fix the minor rust, get the paint back to mint, add a roof rack and possibly lights, and redo the interior. I'll replace or pin the sagging headliner, add LED interior lights, add ZJ, WJ, or WK seats, add apple carplay, and get the interior looking mint and then I think I'll have myself a good XJ. My brothers getting a truck so we will drive that a lot but the XJ is gonna be my personal daily so I want to make it practical and road friendly while being a decent offroader too. I thought about your advice and will try to modify based on what I really want and what will be useful instead of just buying parts just to buy parts and otherwise keep it generally stock. Ill also keep the stock parts so I can return it to stock if wanted, except for the wheels and suspension components since they are rusted and kind of trashy. Thanks again for the advice.

 

Thank you as well for the welcome and advice. I have seen the memes about RC lift kits but always assumed they were ok. The "off-roading" I plan on doing is dirt trails, through shallow mud, and some small rocks. I checked out your build page, and it certainly seems like you are building your Cherokee for more technical terrain, and I certainly plan to do so much farther in the future when I can own a daily and a few projects. (aka when I'm longer on my parents insurance) For this Cherokee, I plan for only the slight off-roading I described and daily driving. Would an RC lift be ok for that? I will be replacing the RC shocks with a better brand like Fox, but keeping the other components from the lift. The lift I would be looking at is an RC 3 inch short arm "add a leaf" kit (I believe). I am also looking at others, such as Rusty's off road. I am not afraid to spend extra for better quality so I am not attached to RC lifts in any way. Would a RC lift be sufficient for my type of use or should I look for other options. I would rather spend more than have a crappy setup. As for recovery, I will most likely not do armor, however I most likely will do bumpers and a winch. Thank you again for the advice.

 

Also to follow up I filled in the vin to a decoder and realized its a 2000.