New '97 XJ Owner
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Joined: Dec 2023
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New '97 XJ Owner
Hi Cherokee Forum,
Eric here with my son Trent 11, (12 in February) who has been dead set on having an XJ for his first car for over a year now. He's been saving his Christmas / B-day/ Grade/ money and started doing odd-jobs around the neighborhood to save up. We finally found one locally within his price range with 4x4 that wasn't all rotted out with the goal of it being a budget resto-mod into a daily / mild offroader for the next few years as funds allow. He purchased this XJ with his own money and I will be teaching him how to do all the work along the way with as little financial involvement as possible lol. I did buy him a full set of 1997 Factory service manuals for Christmas and we are signing up here to learn our way around the XJ and research what way to go with mods throughout the rebuild.
1997 XJ SE Auto, NP231, Dana 30 and 8.25
Runs & drives but needs a lot of TLC.
It has some minor rusting going on on the roof so our first priority is to take care of body body work & repaint since the rust won't sleep over the next few years while it's in the rebuild phase. We are also going to flush the coolant system and get that cleaned up with fresh antifreeze for storage purposes. Then we are going to move onto the mechanical stuff as $$ allows.
by https://www.flickr.com/photos/189256287@N07/, on Flickr
I have a 2017 4Runner I regularly wheel and he wants to be able to take his own truck on trips with me when he turns 16.
by https://www.flickr.com/photos/189256287@N07/, on Flickr
Eric here with my son Trent 11, (12 in February) who has been dead set on having an XJ for his first car for over a year now. He's been saving his Christmas / B-day/ Grade/ money and started doing odd-jobs around the neighborhood to save up. We finally found one locally within his price range with 4x4 that wasn't all rotted out with the goal of it being a budget resto-mod into a daily / mild offroader for the next few years as funds allow. He purchased this XJ with his own money and I will be teaching him how to do all the work along the way with as little financial involvement as possible lol. I did buy him a full set of 1997 Factory service manuals for Christmas and we are signing up here to learn our way around the XJ and research what way to go with mods throughout the rebuild.
1997 XJ SE Auto, NP231, Dana 30 and 8.25
Runs & drives but needs a lot of TLC.
It has some minor rusting going on on the roof so our first priority is to take care of body body work & repaint since the rust won't sleep over the next few years while it's in the rebuild phase. We are also going to flush the coolant system and get that cleaned up with fresh antifreeze for storage purposes. Then we are going to move onto the mechanical stuff as $$ allows.
I have a 2017 4Runner I regularly wheel and he wants to be able to take his own truck on trips with me when he turns 16.
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Joined: Dec 2023
Posts: 15
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Thank you, we are buds and I intend to keep it that way. I hope we can both look back at this with nothing but good memories and set a good example for my second son who is 9 years younger to do something similar.
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