Gjeep

Many thanks. The switch immediately to the left of the steering column is manual aux fan on/off.

I wanted to confirm all was good with the woofers before moving forward on the interior, so I grabbed my spares…and they thumped away. Cranked it up and sounds awesome. I’ll be using these same under the seat type subs for the final install though they are painted black to match the rest of the interior. Really happy also that at a glance everything looks bone stock inside. Also, been absolutely starving for some visible momentum lately as I’ve had been buried myself in the weeds of crazy-land detail work. AND, FINALLY…Driver seat is bolted down, kick and door step-in panel into place – with all looking factory fresh. New HVAC panel, switch pods, and cigarette lighter (mostly in place) – all tested/working. Can’t install the clock just yet because the factory radio/bracket needs to go in first. And I’m waiting on an R/C car metal ‘Jeep’ emblem to place on the display of the radio where the old painted non-‘Jeep’ logo was. Onward! And plenty more to do!

It’s been a bit since I tinkered on the MJ… During my hiatus I decided that I want to use a stock head unit from my favorite era of Jeep audio, AMC. The 4 dial AMC era radios I think are the best looking of all XJ’s first gen. Classy looking and the font used on the radio and texture of the faceplate is identical to the HVAC and other rocker switch pods. Took some amp gain fine tuning of the Rockford Punch 4-channel to make my aftermarket backend sound good with a near non-amplified factory head unit. To keep connections clean I used the proper plugs for that era along with female RCA adapter wiring and a high to low level RCA adapter for the under the seat woofers. In addition to the AMC era radio, I wired in a NOS factory quartz clock to keep things looking classic on the dash. Then from my arsenal of old junk I remembered the one and only XJ sun visor spacer I have even seen/pulled from the wrecking yard. Way back when Cash for Clunkers was taking many an XJ off the street, I was pulling goodies off a ’96 Classic when I found this spacer. Fast forward to now, I asked Dzimm here on CC to reproduce a couple for my MJ’s (note he has them listed on eBay), so that when I installed my sun visors I wouldn’t bend/crease my headliner. I’ve noticed the MJ crinkles easier when battening down the visors possible because of the arching shape of the headliner. Not sure. Anyway, many thanks Dzimm, what you produced was spot-on and worked like a charm. I just put some ¼” 3M double sided tape metal-facing side and stuck them in place. Installed the visors – and all good.

86 blue is significantly different than 89 blue.

Good looking MJ!

I like the 0.0L badge.

I may change direction on the head unit I use for this build, not sure. Jeremy's Radio Emporium will be adding an aux line to an AMC era radio (yes, I changed the cassette door to later model so to have a Jeep logo...It looks crooked in the pic due to the angle/ shadows. Also removed chrome from the knobs as an option). I'll be able to bluetooth through Rockford speaker line RCA's and high to low level adapter add-in's so I can run the same setup with only minor wiring mods backside. Also rough cut a scrapper driver side step-in interior panel backside, reducing some of the plastic reinforcement webbing so it could fit/ sit flat around the wad of extra wires I ran down the drivers side. Along with this was a whole lot more cutting to the carpet to fit right around these driver and passenger side panels. The last carpet area I'll need to trim up is up against the back of cab wall.

NOS 97+ XJ door seals and glove box attire top and bottom with new lock cylinder.

'Tis the season for slow progress on the MJ... But, I got the visor vanity mirrors in and tested as good. Thank you blue oval for making mirror assemblies molded in black that fit Jeep sun visors. Woo-hoo!

Wrapped up in black – Looking forward to seeing this interior together. Don’t know why Jeep didn’t keep this color as an interior option for more years. Final steps on the visors will be inserting the post at visor ends and installing the vanity once the new light bulbs arrive in the mail tomorrow.

Back to the visor project – I went into this a while back, but basically the first 1.5 years of the shorter style sun visor that arrived in the XJ/ MJ in 1990 was somewhat different than those thereafter up to 2001 (not counting the maddening ground wire/ no ground wire variations throughout the years). The shorter visors initially had interior (color matching) mounting points. (The 3-hole screw in base was the same color as the interior…so, if you had a gray interior, your base was gray; cordovan interior, base was cordovan, etc.) The reason I'm using these first gen visors is that I can use the Lincoln Town Car vanity mirror assembly in them as they are identical and were available in black. I don't want to deal with painting a part that can scratch/ chip from use. (As side note, in 1992 the sun visor base became black across the board, as did manual window cranks in 1993-1996.) My hope, instead of painting the sun visor base, was to swap them out for the black ones since the visors are already disassembled, but at second glance that’s not possible. The newer (black) bases have more plastic on the arm and a slightly different retaining clip than the old. Main problem is the visor shell retainers for the bases arm are smaller and won’t surround the newer base assembly. Final result is me painting the older (interior color) bases black. I needed to do the same for the visor post retainer clips that mount beside the overhead console, as the closest to black ever available was a dark gray used on the ’98 XJ with the contrasting mist gray interior. Life goes on. First step in visor recovering process for me will be cleaning/ detailing the plastics inside and out/ vanity bulb replacement. The bulb is a Ford only bulb – not available in auto parts stores – but fortunately there are many still available out there in Ford inventory land. I stocked up as who knows how long they’ll be out there. Once I’m done with all this prep, it’s on to recovering them in the black headliner material.

Carpet is 95% done. I used a scrap center console to test fit the console to carpet. I wanted to remove any gaps between the two using insulation. Then I buttoned up the trans tunnel area using zip ties (like shoelaces) to snug up the sides. The final cuts of carpet at door sills and back of cab will happen when those interior panels are installed. Clean up of all the lint/ mess is a work-in-progress.

Another day of working the carpet. It’s getting there. Rollbar (highbeam) switch grommet surround is in place as is its pedal pad. All-in-all a good day, though I do feel a fur-ball of insulation in my throat and my fingers look like they’ve been chewed on by a small animal. Onward…

Headliner and overhead console in place. After I don’t remember how many times measuring prior to paint, then tacking the rear-most bracket into place on the roof of the MJ all lined up. Screwed into place. On to the carpet – so far 8hrs into it and I figure I have another 4-5hrs to go to get it to fit as it should. XJ’s are a ton easier to lay carpet out in that’s to the back seat area. MJ’s tight quarters.

Got the overhead console together this morning with ‘hands-free’ microphone in place. Found an appropriate spot that just clears the main console shell cross-brace and looks right. Cut and wrapped the headliner areas required for the overhead console to fit into. I left the rear sides undone just in case I need to trim back the headliner itself a bit during console installation. Doubtful, but you never know. Will adhere those sides once I’m 100% with the fit of things. Getting it mounted to the roof of the cab uses a mix of a modified front XJ console bracket, and rear mount bracket tacked to the roof that screws through the console sunglass bin existing hole. And here it is in place on the headliner itself. It’s sitting a pinch high because of the microphone wiring that’s bundled up underneath it.

I had purchased a few Hurst short shifters for the AX-15 prior to them being re-sold under the Core brand without the billet towers. One of the things about the original exterior Hurst shift boot (under the stock interior Jeep boot) was how dry and brittle it was out of the box. This is the brand new one I had installed a few months back and just removed – and it’s never seen the outside world. Going to be installing carpet, so I pulled the shifter and found it by chance. Never outside. Cracked up like a 30 year old boot. Just took delivery today of Core shifters replacement boot. Thicker and higher quality. Come on Hurst. (When I had pulled the Hurst shifter I put in this truck back in 2011 when I started this rebuild, it too was cracked up – I assumed because of the decade it has been on the road.) Also had some time to start building the overhead console up – only after components has a good cleaning. Dust free environment inside the MJ. Didn’t quite get finished as it’s been windy/ rainy and lost couple trees I had to cut up and clear. Back to it tomorrow.

You need another Comanche. Maybe two. The trailer looks right at home! Congrats!

Took a NOS stripped/ prepped headliner to the upholstery shop and the owner was working on a larger job, so he had his many years in the business apprentice (recently hired) do it. No where near right -- lumpy, stretched, couple of glue finger prints on the edges of it. Good grief. Took it home and stripped/ prepped again. Much harder this time because the the glue was fresh. All in all, lost about 2 weeks. Just got the headliner back yesterday and the the owner had done it this round -- flawless. Color is black though the lighting in the pic makes it look charcoal. Really happy with how it turned out. First gen XJ modified overhead console atop. Now to assemble the details of the console and get the headliner into place.

Grab it. Like finding needle in haystack of D35’s.

Lookin good!

Are they running boards or step/nerf bars? Mopar accessories had both.

Painted near everything. Even lower outer window wipe. That’s rubber. Amazing.

The rear seat won't have enough vinyl as carpet-backed. I believe he is looking to repair the cracked vinyl on the side of his seat.

Jeep Air in FL has them. https://jeepair.com/collections/ac-hoses

For something like that best option is the wrecking yard — xj sourced. The seat back of the bucket seats provide a nice stretch of upholstery you can use. Cut it out and bring it to the upholstery shop. I’ve done it a number of times to repair the driver seat side.