Greetings all,

I picked up a red 1997 2-door 5-speed 4.0 with 138k on the clock about two weeks ago. This is my first jeep, but have some experience driving and working on my family's 95 YJ. Since purchase, I've had to replace the cat, muffler, and tailpipe due to rust. Passed VA safety and emissions inspections and I just finished checking all the fluids for proper fill. Still have to change them all, but at least I feel at ease putting some miles on her. I have also stripped off the plastic door moldings after the passenger fender got crushed from the leading edge of the molding having peeled away from the door (I would figure that the fender would have just peeled the molding back further, but it went the other way ). I was able to get the fender more or less back in position using a pry bar covered with a t-shirt. I have spent many hours researching lift options, and recently placed an order for Metalcloak's 3.5" ARB edition lift kit during their free-shipping weekend (ground shipping is normally about $220 ). I am still in the process of deciding what I want to do for the slip yoke and driveshaft. I am a little nervous trying to put this all together so close to winter (which was my excuse to my SO for buying it in the first place, as a secondary 4WD vehicle for inclement weather), but hoping everything goes ok.

 

Welcome to Cherokee Forum Slappy.

 

Welcome!

 

Welcome to cf.
Sounds like u have a lot of work to do.

 

Welcome from NOVA as well! Where abouts are you located?

 

Manassas. You?

 

Western Loudoun. Not too far

 

Nice. You do any wheeling locally? I am only familiar with Flag Pole down near JMU (but it has been a few years). All the little local spots I knew about growing up have since been developed. I also intend on checking out Chaos next year.

 

I've only wheeled on private land so far (I have some land with some trails, and a few friends have land with trails. Nothing serious.) There's 3 places that I have been meaning to check out though: Red Cloud in Woodbridge, The Cove in Gore, and Chaos as well.

 

Never heard of it before and it is only 20 minutes from my house. Thanks for the heads up.

 

It's supposedly a cool place. Look up novajeepers.net. A good group of guys and they're having a trail ride there this Sunday (Nov 23.)

 

Cool. It will probably be a couple months before my xj is ready for any trails. It is totally stock and the suspension appears pretty worn out. Hoping to find some good deals on suspension and bumpers come Black Friday.

 

Good plan man. You can get some pretty good discounts around Black Friday. Hopefully I'll see you on the trails one of these days!