Jeep Cherokee Forum - Old/New member

Lol well seeing is how i never made an introduction I guess i should make one. I am eevee who has been here for a while, And back in 2008 my mother gave me her 99 cherokee sport. Being that my parents had it since it was brand new I loved it even as a child i beat my dad up for ragging on it lol. Guess i knew it was gonna be mine one day. Well skipping over useless parent divorce crap. This poor jeep was abused during as my mom got it awarded to her in court and at the time on wednesdays my dad got visitation for me and he got to use it in the meantime. Well that quickly hurt this jeep as they constantly ran it out of gas for eachother and my dad got angry as it ran out of gas down the road and just kept cranking it until the starter motor smoked and then the battery died that was a painful thing to see happen. Then a little more months of that went by and my dad got angry at my mom for something and he got angry once more and didnt think it was in drive but he floored it but realized it was in park and quickly jammed it to drive and man im shocked the trans survived. Anyways after all this bs happened my mom got full rights for the jeep and went to her, Lets just say this isnt the end for the abuse. A main one is her mindcycle is " Its a new car it doesnt need the oil done" well yes it does mind you i was still very young at the time and didnt know squat about cars at all. Well she went 2 years without an oil change or 29k miles without one and when she got a boyfriend he finally did an oil change and yeah wasnt pretty. Goopy sludge came out and it was nasty to see. So since he finally was taking care of the oil changes (Gladly it was every 500 miles). The poor thing was getting the famous overheating issues. Turns out the cooling system was just thick rusty water.

We can all assume this is where things went grim for my jeep. Radiator, thermostat and waterpump was shot and my mom was so pissed to the point she hit the poor grill with a hammer in rage. So a few hundred dollars later my moms bf and father atleast got it cooling again and a few months went by and overheating issues came back. Since they didnt use antifreeze the water turned rusty again forgoing all that work so again fits of rage and more hammer hits to it later she was desperate for it to work so junkyard rad and parts to again get it going, Hardwired the electric fan and just halfassed work done to it and at this point the enginebay was trashed, Rusty water from a blown radiator cap. Coolant bottle was solid rust (later found) and general overheating issues to the point the headgasket was blown so that was replaced and put back together (im afraid of the results of replacing all the seals and gaskets later in life). Well a few months later it can finally have a nice rest as my mom got a new car after graduating from medical school and her aunt gave her her old 04 lexus es330 (in short the thing is destroyed) so she hates the jeep at this point so naturally she gave it to me as a toy to tinker with. i think i was 12 at the point let the revitalization process begin. This was taken right when i got it as my family was poor cameras were hard to come by so there is LACK of pictures lol.
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.che...cf65141c88.jpg

Those stock bumpers take a good hit

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.che...b2dd6074b9.jpg

Front clip was the first thing to fix

Well being how ocd i am. I took the time to scavenge a new clip and take a hammer to the dents in the hood. (yes i now regret this) so this was the current bucketlist items.

Tires
Cooling system overhaul
New (old junkyard muffler)
Brake pads
Rear view mirror
Interior replace!!!! (my mom is a 4 pack smoker a day and this interior was vile to smell and look at)
air filter and oil

Well first thing i tackled was the cooling system. Shockingly enough it wasnt as hard as i imagined. I ran into rusted bolts and such, Broken fan shroud and general rust everywhere from the rusty water coolant crap lol. So man i was ballin at the time because brand new radiator, thermostat (180 temp), water pump, hoses, cleaners and actual antifreeze (gliding over the fact the overflow bottle was a rock of rust) and going through everything i got it back together and ran it for hours in 90+ degree weather and so far nothing budged! well later down the road i was getting annoyed with the fan so i disconnected it as everytime i turned the key the fan came on (fixing the child lock issue that prevents the other windows being rolled down and up). Ok now next on the list. Tires! so being as it was the last week of it being road legal i found some new tires for 100 dollars from a guy named juan (positive they were stolen) so a trip to a shady tire place later POOF
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.che...cae50304f9.jpg

Oh also i cleaned the wheels with a rag

Ok! Next was an oil change (without filter because i was so smrt and didnt think an oil filter was needed) so easy pickings i got that done without issue *checks that off* Ok next interior so ripping the interior out i got distracted from the fact i had no front speakers....... (ricer me buys kicker speakers and installs) ok back to work i began taking the seats out..... Hmm this seat is a little crusty oh well i take the bolts out and right as i got the seat out next thing i know im waking up on the driveway. ok thats odd (again young me and my mom was not at home) so i went inside and got a drink and ate and was playing games for a little. My mom came home and told her about it but she shrugged it off as being tired from being at school and such. So i shrugged it off, well a few weeks down the road i began feeling VERY weak and constantly sick and getting alot of cysts on my body well it got to the point i was in bed close to dying and could barely move. Well i finally was found by my mom and she took me to the hospital and results being i had mrsa with a major staph infection and my white blood cell count was dangerously low. Ill just fast forward this part about 4 years of fighting it im finally clean of mrsa! yay! But doesnt justify missing school to the point they kicked me out and never finished past 9th grade oh well i guess ill get my ged eventually. So anyways im getting back to the point i was in virtual school for the time being but skipping alot of school resulted in basically limited knowledge on stuff so that didnt last long until i failed out of that. So kinda feeling depressed at this point i decided to mess around with my jeep. I realized at this point some scumbag took off with my radio and speakers and broke my window regulator in the process so made a police report to no avail. So great those are gone lets just get the rest of this crap out of here i pulled the seats and then heres the horror.
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.che...57474c825a.jpg

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.che...24b2393007.jpg

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.che...ded2cb8978.jpg

Turns out there was a water leak.... Yeah this really killed my spirit for this thing after so what do you do to boost it? install some fog lights on your destroyed dreams!
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.che...b7049037bc.jpg

Yep managed to corrupt my only night picture of it *sighs*

Well anyways after losing complete motivation for my jeep i moved on a little from it and there it sat for a few months until i was looking through my moms old documents and *gasps*
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.che...a2ccdc741d.jpg

The window sticker! so this really made me happy for some reason and got my motivation back to fix it so off to the junkyard i go so having my dad as a helper and his awesome tools we went the completely wrong way about this as we got a spot weld remover tool and was using it and removing each spot weld off the unibody rail and this was a 3 day ordeal well the 4th day was d day it was coming out it was the final stretch and come to find out it was crushed....... So angry i just went to a different jeep and just hacked right through the rail all the way up to the transmission tunnel and all the way to the back seat and back through the unibody rail and past the outside door parts lol i wasnt making another trip! So chaching we scored a floorpan! so time to go hone and remove the spotwelds as i was becoming pretty good at removing them by now i got the rail off and got the pan so here comes the fun part (lack of pictures) chiseling off the old crap and angle grinding the whole piece and premeasuring and getting it all ready to get welded! well that quickly grew old as what we though was gonna take a week took 5 months in total to get it half assed in there and foil taped in the cracks and seams (insert screaming here) so Heres the best part my dad wanted to surprise me with the bedliner that i always wanted in there so 500 dollars for the entire job we werent happy as the surface wasnt even prepped at all and it basically was painted over all the rust bits and pieces and padding hairs and looked like an awful job. Turns out the guy closed shop and never came back so shafted on it i finally got it running again after once replacing the fuel pump with yet another one as apparently letting your gas sit for 2 months will make your pump look like something at the bottom of the ocean so a new pump later and hacking together new gas tank strap studs its time to take it for a maiden voyage around the block! WOO so putting a lawn chair in place i set off and ohhhh it needs work the old gas wasnt playing nice with the engine and was causing knocking and nasty things. so i put a half a tank of fresh gas in via gas can or so i thought as my gas gauge was way off lol. so ran out of gas and pushed it home and assessed what i found. Man sitting doesnt do well for a car. Bad flat spots in tires, dragging front brake calipers, exhaust leak electrical gremlin (turns out was a shoddy job explained later) and a little tiny oil leak but quickly remedied with a new oil filter. So road worthy! took my grandmas car to the dmv with my dad and got it registered and insured (982 dollars in total for me all in my name as my parents wont let me on their insurance) and man! 300 dollars for a plate, 200 for registration (title crap as it needed to be remade as it was lost and recovered yadayada) and 400 dollars for insurance and other things i cant quite remember so finally i can take it on the road so i ran it yet again with dragging brakes again but slowly went away and the more and more i drove the more it cleared up and ran well so being i didnt have the proper stuff i got the oil changed at a lube shop (more on this) and day by day it was getting reliable and better until it needed brakes please refer to here: https://www.cherokeeforum.com/f2/ext...g-nuts-234325/

and then a little down the road heres where the oil filter bit me in the ass: https://www.cherokeeforum.com/f2/hol...filter-242993/

But anyways lets wrap this up: Jeep is going good! I still have a bucket list i got the interior finished: https://www.cherokeeforum.com/f2/pre...arpets-238428/

Need new o2 sensors but before i can overhaul this thing i would need a second vehicle as im tearing this entire thing down new front end stuff, driveline and overall maintenance items as brake rotors, drums, lines and calipers and all. basically it will be like a caddy when i get finished with it. New shocks, springs, leafsprings and such. The ac needs work i need to get it fixed once and for all as it has a tiny leak. The hvac controls i fixed with a new relay as my mom *****ed about it not working from a faulty blower motor resistor so my uncle hardwired it and was grounding out in a weird way but fixing everything its all working perfectly. Recently had the cps replaced as it went out. doing simple things here and there such as currently restoring a rim for a spare tire. Locating the hardware for said spare tire. Redoing the headliner as its just spray painted for the time being but gonna get a new board and all. replace the rear bench as its cracked and you sink into it, and all this small nitpicky crap it still needs a new exhaust system and basically everything that isnt the interior needs to be either fixed, replaced or tinkered with to work right lol. Its a wip but its kinda nice to see where it was before to where it is now. Paint will be down the road i got new tires for it but gonna get an upgrade. But for now im kinda setting everything at certain points as i am planning on getting a tutor and redoing my entire curriculum steps and go for my ged and get that to get into some sort of trade school. Somewhere along technology and automotive spots. But im not exactly sure what i want to do or know what to do and ect. But for now im happy with my jeep and i will never get rid of it lol. So theres my jeep story and how its helping me along in life. Im still learning everything and how to do stuff and such (explains the excessive threads by me lol) but id rather have help than rather going in like a blundering idiot and breaking something as i did with my door panels a while ago lol. But now im focusing on bigger things in life and hope to keep my jeep in the picture the whole way and maybe have it completely restored by then because thats my ultimate goal for it. Slow slow process. But here is a very recent picture of it before moving and my nitpicky self with my wheels and keeping them clean lol
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.che...594c6111ad.jpg

Im positive i am leaving alot of unsaid details out but you can ask me anything to clear them up. Current value for it is 1000 dollars from a dealer lol