BBCchris

I'm starting to think that Alex Parts has never seen a real 2500 and just copied the stuff from photo's. The headlamps fit like crap. From what I can tell the 2 studs on the back locate it in the header and there are 2 screw clip on the top of the lamp to secure it to the header. *If you use the studs to locate it..... they are cantered and the gap is not consistant. So I removed the studs to try and get a better fit but it's not much better. *The 2 screws on top of the lamp assy. are 3/4" away from the header panel and if you were to tighten them down it would either break the lamp or crack the header. So I don't know really how much more I want to do..... It's no fun getting kicked in the bag everynight, it's like one step forward five back. This stuff is holding me up. And I hate to say it but if I don't see some more progress in the next week I'm going to put the 97+ stuff that was on it back on and get on to the paint. And the 2500 stuff can wait until another day when I have more mock-up time. -Chris

I have no idea yet...... expando foam? :shake: I'll figure something out..... I guess.

And here is the truck with the 2500 nose on some hybrid fenders. Still needs some fit and finish work but it is looking better than the first attempt with the China fenders. It's weird how much the header hangs over where the stock bumper goes. ;) -Chris

33'ish

I think it has to be out of an early XJ, I had one come into the shop a few years ago and I think it was an 85???. There was no ZJ until 94. And to be honest just due to the weirdness of it.... it might be better to swap it out for the u joint version that you can find anywhere. You might be able to just swap the shafts with the more common version, but I'm not sure if the knuckles and unit bearings are the same. -Chris

Funny I was thinking about it. I do like the look of the Amber Fire TJ's or even Sunset Orange Metallic...... get outta my head Sam :yes:

I was thinking about Rescue Green like my JK, but someone on here has one.... Then I was thinking bright red, but Sir Sam is doing his that same color and is also using the 2500 clip. So bright metallic silver keeps popping up as a good choice. I remember seeing a copper or burnt amber color on a TJ that was pretty sharp.... but don't know how it would look on an MJ.

I can't seem to come up with a color to paint it yet..... any sugestions? I was going to paint it the brighter red of the newer XJ's (PR4) IIRC, but now I'm leaning more toward a bright silver of some sort.

5.5.09 I did not end up using these parts.... I just made my own and went with a different style. And your going to need to remove the header panel mount pieces off the Alex 2500 fenders to use on the OE US fenders. I'm going to remake them because they are of the same top notch quality as the fenders. Note the rust under the grey paint/primer. And if there was any more doubt about the quality of these fenders check out the lower mount stud. Nice phillips screw. :shake: enough said. Looking forward to getting this done because it's holding me up from getting the bodywork and paint.... -Chris

Well I just thought about how I wanted it to look and made the decision that it needs to look OE. And there is nothing you can do to the Alex fenders to make them right. The lines are not as crisp, the edges are not as crisp, the rolled area is sloppy, they are too thin..... ect. Since I totally gutted the truck I'm not going to waste my time just to have it look shoddy. Now don't get me wrong I'm not going to do some concoure d'elegance restoration on it, I just want it to look right. And I understand that some people hate the 2500 clip, I get it, it's not for everyone. But if everyone is looking at it... it better look right. -Chris Yup, everything about those alex fenders are sloppy. What kinda wire(thickness) did you use to weld in that part of the fender? This should give you the best finished look, after seeing how the alex fenders were made I knew I couldn't deal with it. .035 wire

Well I just thought about how I wanted it to look and made the decision that it needs to look OE. And there is nothing you can do to the Alex fenders to make them right. The lines are not as crisp, the edges are not as crisp, the rolled area is sloppy, they are too thin..... ect. Since I totally gutted the truck I'm not going to waste my time just to have it look shoddy. Now don't get me wrong I'm not going to do some concoure d'elegance restoration on it, I just want it to look right. And I understand that some people hate the 2500 clip, I get it, it's not for everyone. But if someone is going to looking at it... it better look right. -Chris

Well after thinking about those 2500 fenders from Alex parts I came to the conclusion that they just won't fit and look "right". They just don't fit good enough to get good gaps. To get the door gap looking right it won't reach the header panel :dunno: ..... so I went to the wreckers and got 2 OE fenders and made some 2500 fenders. Well now they fit right and have have the quality of the OE fenders.... because they are the OE fenders. :shake: And now when you knock on the fender it sounds more like a Jeep and less like a Daewoo. -Chris

Welcome :thumbsup:

Yep, its on its way out. The outer ring is seperating from the rubber part.

Remove the adjustment bolt too.

Here are the 2500 fenders mounted to the truck. I had to re-shape the part up by the windscreen, and still have some more work to get it to look right. This fender had a pretty bad fold where the headlamp cutout is located. Picture of 97+ fender that was on the truck. Now with the 2500 fenders So are they useable? Yes, but it's going to take some work. I'll put the header panel on this weekend to see how well it goes together. I didn't really want to use the clip on the truck, but if I rework the core area to fit the header..... there is no going back.

I didn't hate the bench in my other truck.... I just hated the fact the PO was a fat bastard and darn near blew the springs and foam out the bottom of the truck. And the passenger side looked like someone slaughtered an animal on it. So bucket seats looked like a nice option.

Yes I did, but I don't feel like drilling holes in my diffs and everywhere else they go. I even got the blue computer-ish box that goes with it. It's always been more of a joke but it is kinda cool.

Oh, but I did find over $18 bucks in change in it during the break down

Funny is not the word that comes to mind when I think about it. I'm going to stick with the pre 97 style interior because it just feels cramped with the newer dash. But I dunno might change my mind. Figure I would try to use some of the stuff cluttering up the garage..... ie Rubi wheels, dashes, 4.0's ect. And if I stick with the older dash I can use that weird information cluster that goes under the clock that was in an 86 XJ I parted out.... for that retro feel :shake: -Chris

I thought would ask if anyone on here wanted any of the bolt on parts on the motor. Then I was going to strip it down and drop it off at a motor shop so they can rebuild it for the next guy. 2500 front end parts....... I don't know yet, I'm leaning towards just using the 97+ clip that was on it. I think it would look ok with the 2500 parts on it but am concerned that the back of the truck will look too dated (tail lamps, tail gate) if that makes any sense. Although I could pop in some different lamps and that might freshen it up a bit. To be honest..... I'm really burned out on the 2500 stuff. Working on getting it all here, answering questions, shipping and seeing the quality go down hill so much this load.... it's disappointing. And I don't know if I want to look at it everyday, it kinda lost it's uniqueness. But either way I need to get some decisions made, because I'm planing on laying down some color in a few weeks and putting it all back in order. -Chris

I couldn't come up cool project name. :hmm: Well here is my rebuild of a 1989 2.5 2wd SB Comanche that I got back last week after a few years of being apart. Its going to get the 4.0, AW4 and a 4WD conversion. The motor gave out a day after I drove it home, so it went in the garage and I picked it apart. My plan is to strip it down to the bare chassis to give it a proper repaint then start on the rebuild. Here are some pics of the teardown if anyone is interested. When I got her home. And some breakdown pics. And before the removal of the HVAC box and the rest of the interior. So if anyone needs any 2.5 parts let me know because it's getting tossed in a few weeks. Everything still on it except the alt. -Chris :ack:

It's all good, it was going to get the 'swap' and repaint anyway.... it's just going to happen quicker than I had planned. Now I just gotta figure out what color before I stab the 4.0 in. And if anyone was curious to what I found last night..... it seems to of popped its headgasket sometime in the past and once it gets hot the coolant starts coming out the exhaust, that seems to be the reason why the cat was cut off. The timing chain is worn and pretty loose, the oil pressure after warm up is less than 5psi and it has a pretty audible knock at idle. Funny thing is I have a '01 XJ next to the garage with the same condition. I'll snap some pictures of the 'progress' as soon as I start breaking her down. -Chris -I don't have a problem with the 4cyl and if I had one sitting in the garage I might toss it back in but in the 25 or so XJ's I've rebuilt and or owned in the past 15 years...... well you just gotta go with what you know. :thumbsup:

Well there is no need to try and figure it out...... She passed away in the garage last night :shake: RIP. It was it's way of saying that it wants the 4.0 and the 4x4 stuff. I'll start breaking it down tonight..... because that's what it would of wanted. ;)

Good, and you should like this update: (you do know I have a build thread on naxja too right?) Worked on fitting the 2500 fenders and headlights: Yep, I saw it over there. I've been spending more time over here lately.. kinda burned out on XJ's due to all the 2500 stuff and figured I'd work on the MJ for a stint... you know because it's so different! ;) I even saw your thread on an Aussie site I was getting some 2.5TD parts from. Never got why they didn't get MJ's down there.