FXWorks

This kind of thing is done in professional car restoration. If you aren't going to get the unibody acid dipped first then don't bother. Be aware that there are special procedures that should be followed when welding galvanized steel. There is a order of operations also: do the acid dip, do whatever welding processes you need (repairs, unibody stiffeners, etc) then do the galvanizing.

The MJ I bought did not come with a tail gate. I am looking for a straight, rust free one. I'm in Ontario, Canada but am will to pay for shipping if you are willing to take the time to package it up. TIA

You've seen this thread I guess? http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1041059 Some details about the roof treatment worth thinking about in there. Not sure what they are on about with the rear door glass shape... appears to "recycle" normal 4 door front doors so I don't get it.

LOL Damn multipage, old threads. :D

Another pshop I've seen recently.

Tend to agree. That said, XJ's have the same 5k tow rating and have an even shorter wheelbase. For the record the WJ has a 6500 lb tow rating and is not that much bigger than a XJ as far as wheelbase is concerned. I don't know what to make of it.

I'm not certain, could be. It was originally setup to cover drunks and other high risk retards when they could not get insurance through normal insurance companies because they were considered too high a risk. Because insurance is legally mandatory on the road there has to be someone to provide it if you have a valid license (i.e. license is not revoked). I'm not certain if that is a legal obligation thing or a professional standards thing. Facilty insurance is the segment that covers the drunks and retards if they have a valid license. It is also used to cover kit cars and race cars and stuff like that. For my age group and driving experience my facility insurance would be fairly competitive with regular insurance but with the extra perks associated with custom vehicles, multiple vehicles, etc. Drunks and retards normally get reamed for a several thousand a year. From what others in the car club have told me I should be able to do something for 700-800 a year which is competitive but a touch more expensive than what I pay now. I'm only paying something like $150/year for the MJ currently but it's still not done and needs to be appraised for it's correct value. I'd guess it would cost ~$500-$600/year to insure at it's finished, correct value. Likely less. That's my 40,000 ft understanding of it. I need to dig into it a bit more to get the specifics. I really need to figure out how to get insured such that the insurance is on me and not the cars I own (beyond fire and theft). I intend to add a few more cars to my collection and calling to short and activate insurance is going to get more tiresome.

Facility (IIRC). I need to get onto that kind of plan for track coverage anyway.

Depends on the type of insurance you have. I'm not worried about it in my case. Good point though - worth mentioning for other people considering this kind of thing.

Oh for certain, I'd be using a weight distributing hitch and sway control. I'm not sure how that's going to work on a 5" lifted MJ though. :) Good point on the passenger weights, forgot about that. I can get the total trailer tongue weight down to 4300 lbs I think but that means no tools, spares or rain tires/wheels for the car. That could be tough. It must be able to be fudged a bit. I mean, I've added about 500 lbs easily to my XJ in armour, bumpers, etc, etc. but I'd still go by the gross weight on the door placard. Thinking about it - if the Jeep is not sitting nose high or whatever then a little extra weight shouldn't be a big deal. The weight can help control the trailer load better. And larger aftermarket springs, brakes, etc., etc. should effectively raise the gross loading. That's my theory anyway.

Yeah, I can see the logic to that. I guess if I use 1000 lbs as the max payload when towing (lower by 500 lbs, then factor in the 500 lb tongue load and 500 lbs of gear in the bed) that will work well enough. I'm not certain how heavy the flip pack will be. I'm going to guess ~300-350 lbs and that leaves ~150-200 for camping type equipment. That's a lot of camping gear so it'll work I think. And like I said initially, the weight of the trailer will be under 4600 so that buys a little bit more payload. I once flat towed a IH Scout II with a LWB Suzuki SJ-413 (Samurai). It wasn't pretty. It was so bad in fact that I stuck to the shoulder of the road and stayed under ~20km/h. It was a good thing I only needed to go about five miles. Every time I turned the steering wheel the set up wanted to jack knife. It was a very long five miles. I really don't want to end up in a situation where I feel like the Samurai towing the Scout. That said, I'd really much rather use the MJ for the coolness factor than buying yet another special purpose vehicle (full size PU).

Trailer big enough for a K2500 is likely over 2000lbs itself. LOL You're a wild man. At least no one was killed. :D

A K2500 is likely ~6000+ lbs. Did you flat tow it?

Maybe I missed it, what is the max payload for the SWB? Do I subtract my tongue weight from the payload when figuring how much I can load the bed with? Assuming 10% tongue from a 5000 lb trailer then tongue is 500 lbs. Do I subtract 500 from the payload to get what I can load the bed with? TIA

So who has actually towed a 5k lb load? I ask because I want to equip my MJ with a flip pack camper and proper towing setup to tow my S2000 track car with a trailer and be able to camp out of the back of the truck for the weekend. But if it is marginally safe feeling on the highway I'd rather not buy a weight distributing hitch and sway control and then not use it. My Jeep is a SWB 4x4, 4.0/AW4. I'm not worried about brakes on the Jeep as it's soon going to get WJ brakes and rear disks to match my XJ. Being pessimistic I'm going to say that the total trailer load will be 2800+1500+300 = 4600 lbs. It'll likely be lighter. Anyone done it?

Any vehicle sold as a fleet vehicle will have crappy resale. The market is flooded with them. That's not to say they are bad vehicles - I like Crown Vics a lot. There's just a lot of them out there. Chrysler posted in the black the last month (quarter?) for the first time in quite a while. This was due to fleet sales primarily. Look for crap resale at ChryCo going forward.

That tire carrier in the bed is pretty cool. What kind of truck is that? An old Ford Courier or Chevy Luv or something? Finding old vehicle isn't that hard IME. Hell, I found three on the wood lot on the back my property that I didn't know were there. Looks like they were parked on an old road that fell into disuse and then stripped. Then the trees started growing up through them. The cars are late 1950s vintage. Walked past them many times. Kinda freaky to see. Expect to see some guy in a hockey goalie mask pop up behind them. LOL

Avoid.

That's a stretch. This kind of thing goes on all the time up here. Perfect example, go read BillaVista's Dana 44 build on the PBB from when he still had an XJ. Guess where the D44 came from... I was refering to in Nb that if you do something wrong its wrong.. does not matter if your on a rez or not its still wrong... I am not saying that people do not steal or take something they belive to be ok to take. There's a point where you can be pedantic about rules/laws and then there is the reality. NB, NS, ON, AB, NY, WY, AZ... it's all going to go down the same. That carcass will be picked over because no one in authority gives a damn (on a res or not - that's hardly an issue). In the end what will likely happen is some local 4x4 club will offer to clean up the area for the local municipality and only then will the truck get sent to the recycler. Happens all the time... this is hardly anything new. I know in this area the local 4x4 clubs have collectively pulled a couple hundred tonnes of scrap vehicles out of the bush, back-roads, etc. Is the original situation "right" from a legal stand point? Probably not. Is it a big deal? Only if you get caught. If your moral compass has a problem with this kind of thing then don't partake if the scenario occurs to you.

That's a stretch. This kind of thing goes on all the time up here. Perfect example, go read BillaVista's Dana 44 build on the PBB from when he still had an XJ. Guess where the D44 came from...

I've got 200,000 kms on my 0331.

4.0 is not enough engine for the WJ IMO. The 4.7 will get better MPGs if you are a calm driver. You don't have to drive the snot out of it all the time like when equipped with a 4.0. NV242 was available with the 4.7 in later years (wanna say 2002 on) but is a rare combination. Lots of information at www.wjjeeps.com I've simplified the year by year changes into a single table for easy digestion: http://moose.ca/1999-2004-jeep-grand-cherokee-wj-notes/

Love the 458. About time Ferrari started producing good looking cars again.

Not a fan of the hammer method for re-install. Do some googling for "home made case spreader" or similar. Bit of steel, some threaded rod and bolts... Not big money.

That's a pretty truck. Anyone know what kind of wheels those are?