What the heck, a few more shots:

 

Great thread man. I am the same as you were starting off pretty new to this whole thing other than working on all my friends rigs. Your build is turning out great.

 

your rig looks nice all polished up man. I need to get me a buffer wheel, trim looks clean too.

question for ya, i notice your driver side door is missing a couple letters in your cherokee badge, are those mounting holes I see in the door panel? I've been thinking about going badgeless but i don't want to start digging into them if they're not just adhesive mounted.

 

Clean rig! You should grab a 99 cent can of flat black spray paint from walmart and pain the inside of your front fenders. It does wonders for the look!

Will

 

Yeah, it's pretty amazing what a nice machine polisher will do. My unit is a dual-action (DA) orbital polisher which really is a step down from a true rotary polisher. A rotary polisher requires a little more skill to use, but the paint correction capability far exceeds that of a DA polisher. I've been happy with my Porter Cable, it gets the job done.

As for the driver door emblems, they are secured by an adhesive backing. There are no mounting holes, my door just has some deep gouges/scratches where the letters used to be. Not sure why the scratches are there... it's not the original door as I recently had to replace it due to a break-in.

Thanks. I will look into the idea of painting/covering the inner wheel wells. I think you're right, it would look sharp. Probably offer some corrosion resistance as well.

 

Nice jeep! Thats the cleanest Cherokee I've seen in Michigan in a while.

 

it's too clean is that thing a show jeep just joking looks great

 

Thanks bud! Funny thing is, I know you're not joking about the toll MI weather has on vehicles. Last winter was brutal on the XJ.... I only have a 2 car garage and the XJ isn't my daily driver and the other spot is the wife's so the Jeep spent most of the time out in the elements getting snow and salt thrown on it from the plows. Sucks.

I wondered how long it would take until someone chimed in

In my defense, it hasn't been that clean while under my ownership until today. Come on, it's nice to look outside and see a nice shiny vehicle every once in a while.

 

Guy in the brown truck dropped off another project. Try to get it done tomorrow if I can find time.

 

getting that for 2000 was a steal thats awesome it looks great so far!

 

Thanks buddy! It's an ongoing project

 

Place your rig on jackstands and support the rear axle with a jack.

Remove the fuel-filler neck guard by removing the four 10mm bolts:




Removing the fuel-filler neck guard affords a little more access to the leafspring hanger box:


Remove the upper shackle bolt:


Remove the shackle from the hanger box:


Then, remove the lower shackle bolt from the leafspring:

 

Now it's time to start installing new parts.

Install the frame hanger bracket and secure with factory bolt:




Install the flag nut and bolts:


Tighten down:


Now's a good time to reinstall the fuel-filler neck guard:


Install shackle hanger:


Secure with hardware:




Now, at this time, you would normally reinstall your shackles to complete the installation. But, after seeing the condition of my shackle bushings I decided to go ahead and purchase some aftermarket greasable units. I'm hoping newer, greasable shackles will help quiet down some of the squeaking in the rear suspension that was probably due to the low quality bushings in my current set up.

Here's the condition of my current shackles:




When the new shackles come in, I'll be sure to post up the completion of the install and some final pics.

 

Well I now am wondering why I dont have a fuel-filler neck guard...

 

I'm lovin every post! Complete and clear. You make it seem easy. Thanks!!